Hamburg in a day: what to see

The Speicherstadt sets the itinerary: the world's largest brick warehouse complex, built in the late 19th century on stilts and crossed by navigable canals, is a UNESCO site and still hosts carpets and coffee deposits alongside museums and offices.

Beside it rises the Elbphilharmonie, the concert hall whose curved glass façade, raised atop an old harbour warehouse, has become the city's new architectural symbol: the viewing platform at its base is freely accessible.

Heading toward the harbour, the Landungsbrücken docks offer embarkation for ferries that cross the port basin, still among Europe's busiest for container traffic.

For lunch, the quays along the harbour offer the fischbrötchen, the fish sandwich typical of Hamburg's maritime tradition.

In the afternoon, the Rathaus is the neo-Renaissance town hall with over six hundred rooms, larger than Buckingham Palace, facing the market square.

The St. Pauli neighbourhood, with its famous Reeperbahn, the nightlife street, can be walked during daylight to see the theatres and historic venues that made it renowned.

As evening approaches, returning to the harbour, restaurants around Landungsbrücken remain the most direct destination for dinner, with a view of ships entering and leaving the basin.

Speicherstadt, the Elbphilharmonie, and the port already compose Hamburg's port soul, while the afternoon choice between the Rathaus and St. Pauli brings with it the institutional or nocturnal side.

The alternative neighborhood of Sternschanze and a trip to the Alster lake, in the heart of the city, remain chapters for a second visit. Seeing the rippled facade of the Elbphilharmonie reflected in the Elbe best sums up Hamburg better than anything else.