Allow me to open up with Guten Tag für alles!

Danke Schöen for finally starting the Germany sub-thread.

To keep it on topic, I'll post a question to the board. For a summer trip to Germany, where would the brain trust recommend seeing, as I've never been to the cities I'm inquiring about...?

1) Hamburg
2) Rostock
3) Bremen

I've never been to Northern Germany (except Berlin and Magdeberg), and I would like to experience some Northern German culture. Usually I'm in and around Bayern and Hessen. Say about 3-4 days for planning purposes?

I would go for Hamburg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburg) and Rostock (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rostock). Hamburg because it is a world city with its big harbor and all its charm. Rostock is not small but also not huge at all. If you see Hamburg and Rostock, you experience both, the former east and west part of Germany. Of course, to follow the German ideology, we are reunified :p

Bremen is nice but maybe you stop there on another trip.

Hamburg, with side trips to the Autostadt in Wolfsburg and the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp Memorial.

I would go for Bremen. Much better atmosphere than in Hamburg and a lot of things to do.

Danke Schöen for finally starting the Germany sub-thread.

I hate to be a stickler, but as yours is the very first post I thought I might point up that if you use the umlaut over the "o" then the "e" following it is redundant. (I haven't quite figured out how to get my keyboard to do an umlaut)

Anyway, as far as cultural sites in Northern Germany, I'd recommend Luebeck, which isn't all that far from Hamburg. It has one of the largest collections of medieval buildings in the area to have survived WWII.

I hate to be a stickler, but as yours is the very first post I thought I might point up that if you use the umlaut over the "o" then the "e" following it is redundant. (I haven't quite figured out how to get my keyboard to do an umlaut)

Anyway, as far as cultural sites in Northern Germany, I'd recommend Luebeck, which isn't all that far from Hamburg. It has one of the largest collections of medieval buildings in the area to have survived WWII.

Well, you certainly are a stickler. My spelling is not what it used to be, and my mind is certainly a very redundant thing sometimes, so it all works out. To get the umlauts, you have to enable your keyboard in the control panel. Go to the regional and language settings, click on languages and then the details button. Everything else is pretty self explanatory.

I would go for Bremen. Much better atmosphere than in Hamburg and a lot of things to do.

Agree 100%, adding a day in Bremerhaven/Cuxhaven and a couple of days in Lubeck, next to Brugge, my favorite N. European city.

Moin! (As they say in the North of Germany)

Hamburg is definitely worth a trip. Plenty of things to do and to see. There is the harbour - you could join a guided boat trip through the harbour, or make a boat trip down the river Elbe and then across to the Alte Land in Lower Saxony - especially beautiful when all the fruit trees are in bloom, or take the boat to Wedel Schulau with the famous Welcome Point (Schiffsbegrüßungsanlage) - here all the big ships are greated with their national anthem and dipping the flag when they arrive at or depart the port of Hamburg. On the way you will pass Blankenese (an old fisher village, now part of Hamburg) definitely worth a visit. Or make a boat trip on the river Alster with its many canals floating past all the rich merchants villas. Go to Hagenbeck (famous zoo) and ride on an elephant or enjoy a leisurely stroll through Planten un Blomen - a Park near Dammtor railway station with different areas, one of them being a Japanese garden.

There are several museums and art galleries and of course St Pauli with the infamous Reeperbahn and its nightlife entertainment. Hamburg has got several theatres, opera, musicals and if you think your German is not up to it you could always go to the English Theatre. There are plenty of shops in Mönckebergstraße, Gänsemarkt, Jungfernstieg and surrounding streets and should you feel hungry there are plenty of German and international restaurants for all budgets.

Hamburg has got its own airport, which is about a half hour taxi ride from the city centre.

In the summer you could also make a daytrip by train to Sylt, an island in the North Sea near the Danish border. Trains depart either from Altona or Hauptbahnhof/Dammtor railway stations and go to Westerland (population of about 10,000) the main town on Sylt. From Westerland station you walk about 300 m to get wet feet in the North Sea, unless it is low tide and there might not be any water for miles. In this case you could join a guided walk along the bottom of the sea. Don't go on your own. It is dangerous; you could be cut off by the incoming tide. The Hindenburgdamm, a causeway with a railway line on it, connects Sylt to the mainland. There is no road connection, so if you wanted to take a car you would have to go on a special train, which is rather expensive. Sylt is very popular and not exactly inexpensive but definitely worth a visit.

Then there is Lübeck - once capital of the Hanseatic League - to the East of Hamburg with a medieval town centre and the old Holstentor (town gate from 1478) which was shown on the back of the old 50 DM banknotes. Lübeck is also famous for its marzipan (Niederegger). From Hamburg Hauptbahnhof a train should take about half an hour to Lübeck.

Or make a trip into Lower Saxony to Lüneburg another town with a beautiful medieval town centre. Especially the town hall is worth a visit with its parts built in several centuries. Go there on a Wednesday or Saturday and experience a traditional German market in the market square in front of the town hall. Have a look at the old wooden crane in the medieval harbour and visit the salt museum to learn how Lüneburg became rich from the salt trade in the Middle Ages and have a walk around the old town to see how this has caused subsidence. There are also plenty of places to shop and to eat out. A train from Hamburg should take about half an hour.

Rostock - also a former member of the Hanse League - is definitely worth a visit, and not only for the fact that it is a city in the former East Germany.

Then there is also Schwerin, which is worth to be considered. Schwerin is the capital city of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (like Hamburg one of Germany's 16 states) and the Schwerin Castle now houses the state's parliament (Landtag). Schwerin was the first East German town I visited after the wall came down and it has changed quite a lot since then.

I have never been to Bremen (another former member of the Hanse League like Hamburg and also a German state), but I think for a first visit to the North of Germany Hamburg would always be my first choice. I only think 4 days is not enough because there is so much to do and see in and outside of Hamburg.

TomUK

There's something quite bleak about Rostock.. I lived there for 6 months last year.

I can't say I would recommend it as a holiday destination, although when the weather's good the place transforms, as does nearby Warnemunde which is pretty, but pretty boring. The people are great though, if you ever get to meet any.

Hamburg gets my vote ^

Hamburg, as this is from my point of view the city with the most options.

Sylt may be nice but not for such a short trip. you can do a lot of stuff in Hamburg itself, additionally you might fancy visiting Lübeck and Lübeck Travemünde.

Lübeck is a 45 min. trainride (best option from my point of view) and then onward from there a 30 min trainride to the beach in Lübeck Travemünde.

If you buy a ticket ham - travemünde you have two days to manage the travel in one direction - so if you would be to say start in ham day one, stay in lübeck for day one and start to travemünde for the beach on day two and get back to lübeck at the end of day two and then to hamburg you should be fine.

(store your luggage in lübeck rather than travemünde, you will have to change trains anyhow)

Otherwise, if you fancy copenhagen - there is a 5 hour traindrive from hamburg up to copenhagen.

information about german bahn: www.bahn.de

Rostock should be like Lübeck, just further away and without the Marzipan. ;)

There are certainly some really cool hotels in Hamburg if that is your thing, as it is mine. The East, Gastwerk and the Side all look so interesting. We almost went to Hamburg during our vacation last summer just to stay at one of them.

Rostock should be like Lübeck, just further away and without the Marzipan. ;)

:eek:

Couldn't be further from the truth, nixande! Luebeck is stunning and virtually untouched from the war, Rostock was blown apart and feels like they've done very little to restore it, apart from the main Kroepeliner Strasse and the transport networks.;)

Lübeck is nice to look it if you get goose bumps from old history building.

If you live here you curse those 13th hundreds firewalls which do prevent wifi signal from going from room to room. ;))

i never been to rostock but life in lübeck and i do base my notion on that both are baltic sea towns, old hanse which in itself has some tradition.

I would call lübeck nice and the marzipan nicer - but that is just me. ;)
Lübeck is nice as a side step from Hamburg including a trip to the beach of the baltic sea (which, please note, is not the sea but a sea) and easier reachable than Rostock of you go from there. ;))

What IS stunning about Lübeck is the fact that it was burned in WWII - but due to the good structure of the city was kept intact a great lot. There is one church in which you have burst bells of bronze on the ground - that really is stunning.


A bit about the history of Lübeck
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%BCbeck

The german wikipedia of the Marienkirche has the picture in the middle of that
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marienkirche_%28L%C3%BCbeck%29

What IS stunning about Lübeck is the fact that it was burned in WWII - but due to the good structure of the city was kept intact a great lot. There is one church in which you have burst bells of bronze on the ground - that really is stunning.

I definitely agree with that, it looks amazing still buried in the floor of the church. And the astrological clock and the devil outside :)

There are certainly some really cool hotels in Hamburg if that is your thing, as it is mine. The East, Gastwerk and the Side all look so interesting. We almost went to Hamburg during our vacation last summer just to stay at one of them.I've stayed at SIDE - the rooms are actually comfortable (not always true in design hotels) and the bathrooms are great. Stunning Robert Wilson light installations in the public areas, and staff is nice, not arrogant. Best of all, it's only 1/2 block from the Staatsoper, close enough to head back to the room for an intermission pit stop :)

Wow, I'm jealous! The SIDE looked so cool and was the most expensive one of the three that we were considering and I saw that it was in the thick of the city. We are definitely going, we've crossed it off of two trips in a row, but the third may be the charm.

25hours is also a nice design hotel which I found refreshing and not that expensive. :)

You could do some of TomUK's recommendations. However, I would skip Sylt, it's nice, but takes 1 to two days.

In Hamburg I would add:

-Hafenrundfahrt (Harbor-Tour by boat)
-People like Fischmarkt (Fish market) early Sunday morning.
-Visit some of the Gallerias, like Hanse Viertel (gallery)
-Blankenese

Hamburg is very pretty, but not that old, a lot was destroyed during WWII. If you want to see nice old towns, go to Luebeck and/or Lueneburg. Or may be Bremen, but then, you should also visit Worpswede, an "artistic village"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worpswede

25hours is also a nice design hotel which I found refreshing and not that expensive. :)

I had bookmarked this hotel, looks nice and is not too expensive. The area (a little remote, somewhat commercial/industrial) wouldn't trouble me.

But this would be my dream hotel, also remote, but I always have a car:

Hotel Louis C. Jacob
Elbchaussee 401 D - 22609 Hamburg-Nienstedten
Telephone: (040) 82 25 50
Fax: (040) 82255444
E-mail: jacob@hotel-jacob.de
Website: http://www.hotel-jacob.de
Room prices:
85 rm 195€/245€ 245€/475€
8 suite(s)

This elegant hotel overlooking the Elbe River offers first-class service. Modern and classical elements are carefully combined in the guest rooms.

It has a Michelin* restaurant and a less formal restaurant "Weinwirtschaft Kleines Jacob", both are excellent.

The 25 Hours does look cool. It's a little strange to see such a concentration of designer "boutique" hotels in Hamburg, but it is a big draw to the city as far as I'm concerned.

I've stayed at SIDE - the rooms are actually comfortable (not always true in design hotels) and the bathrooms are great. Stunning Robert Wilson light installations in the public areas, and staff is nice, not arrogant. Best of all, it's only 1/2 block from the Staatsoper, close enough to head back to the room for an intermission pit stop :)

Here is a very good review of Side Hotel (in German):

http://www.tophotel.de/aktuelles_heft/issue.shtml?ID=00000000000BD033

87 out of 100 points seems low, but is a very good result! Other top hotels only got 60 to 70 points ...

Prices start at Euro 190, which is about $247. A little pricey, but the location is great!

I would also highly recommend the SIDE. It´s the best mixture of

- location (middle of the city center)
- comfort (5*)
- easy going (nice bar on the groundfloor, not so snobby like eg the Atlantic)

but there are many other option - depending on your budget. Maybe you´ll try this website: http://www.hrs.de (avaiblable in english as well) - one of the best reservation service for hotels in Europe.

As a resident I´m proud to see so many people interested in a visit to Hamburg - together with Berlin the most vibrant city in Germany and definitely worth a 1-5 day visit.

You may pm me anytime, when you know your intinerary to make your visit the first mini-DO in Hamburg ;)

I can't say enough about HAM; I've enjoyed all of my trips there.

But I know nothing about Rostock. Any suggestions for a nice Hotel Garni/B&B downtown?

I can't say enough about HAM; I've enjoyed all of my trips there.

But I know nothing about Rostock. Any suggestions for a nice Hotel Garni/B&B downtown?

I can recommend the "Altes Hafenhaus" in Rostock Downtown. It´s a very nice little hotel in an old townhouse (more than 200 years old), managed by a charming family. They have a website http://www.altes-hafenhaus.de/doc/index.html - but unfortunately only in German. Prices are ~60 Euro per Night including breakfast. You find some more pictures and informations on http://www.hrs.com.

We found rooms available at Die Kleine Sonne (http://www.die-kleine-sonne.de/) (The Small Sun") which is the bed and breakfast (hotel grani) affiliate of the Steigenberger Sonne Hotel.

Anyone know it?

Watch the Hamburg video on www.intercontinentalvideo.com

I just watched it yesterday, lots to do in HAM!