10 reasons to love Hamburg

Like the gigantic bow of a ship, the Elbe Philharmonic Hall sails into the skyline. Built on top of a former red brick warehouse for cocoa, the glass construction rises 110 meters (360 feet) into the sky. The concert house opened in January 2017.

In 1888, German Emperor Wilhelm II opened the "Speicherstadt" (the warehouse district). Hamburg had already established itself as a free port, where storage and transfer of goods was duty free. As a result, it became one of the biggest storage districts in the world. The Speicherstadt was granted World Heritage status by UNESCO in 2015.

In the Speicherstadt district, you can also find the Miniature Wonderland, the largest model railway system in the world. Here, visitors can travel from Hamburg to Patagonia in miniature form. 1,166 trains travel on 16,491 meters of tracks on an area of more than 1,600 square meters. There are even planes that start and land, and cruise ships travelling on water.

Hamburg is redefining itself with its HafenCity, Europe's biggest urban regeneration project. When finished in 2025, it is to be home to 10,000 people. From the ViewPoint in the Baakenhafen, the development can be observed in a 360-degree panorama. The design of the orange steel tower was inspired by the dock cranes and was conceived to offer the panoramic view of a nautical periscope.

The baroque St. Michael's Church, colloquially known as "Michel", offers another perfect view of the city. The church is a landmark building and can also be explored using an app. Prominent points like the tower or the crypt have been equipped with transmitters that react to the app and provides information.

The Old Elbe Tunnel was the first river tunnel in continental Europe. It reduced travel time from the city to the shipyards on the southern shores of the Elbe River. Since 1911, lifts have taken pedestrians, cars and cyclists down to the bottom, where two 426-meter-long (1,398-foot) tunnels run. For pedestrians and cyclists, it costs nothing to use — other than the price of overcoming their fear.

In Hamburg, the messengers of spring are the city's very own swans, hundreds of them. The city council boasts a "swan office" called the "Schwanenwesen" — the only global authority that employs a "swan father," it oversees the white birds' return after the winter. By taking ownership of swans, normally an exclusive privilege of royals, Hamburg proved its independence as a free Hanseatic city.

Boats sail night and day on the Elbe River to the harbor. Their fog horns and the sound of the seagulls create the soundtrack to any early morning run on the pale sand of the shore. The port of Hamburg is 70 nautical miles away from the open sea. This popular sandy beach along the Elbe river is located in Ovelgönne in the Othmarschen district (image).

These days, office blocks do the dancing on the Reeperbahn. The architect of these two office towers with a kink designed them as a couple dancing tango, a tribute to the red light district where they are located. There is a restaurant and a bar on the top floor and the roof terrace offers a fabulous view of the harbor, especially at night.

Sailors have spent entire wages in just one night in the Große Freiheit, a side street to the famous Reeperbahn. The St. Pauli district is filled with bars, clubs and a variety of fun and games. Artists and musicians discovered the charm of the seedy area in the 1960s. For the Beatles, playing at the legendary Star-Club became a warm-up exercise for their subsequent global success.