Hamburg

Contrast-filled Hamburg melds the old, the new, and the green.

Hamburg has many faces. A walk down the neon-lit Reeperbahn at night revives old memories of "Sin-City Europe." A ride around Alster Lake in the city center will reveal the elegance of its finest parks and buildings. And a stroll along one of Hamburg's many canals explains why this city has been called the Venice of the north. Contrasts are evident wherever you look: Amid the modern city’s steel-and-glass structures is the old baroque Hauptkirche St. Michaelis. A Sunday-morning visit to the Altona fish market gives travelers a good look at early shoppers mingling with late-night partiers.

Hamburg, Germany's second-most populated city (after Berlin), has had to be flexible to recover from the many disasters of its 1,200-year history. This North Sea port was almost totally destroyed during World War II. But out of the rubble, the industrious Hamburgers rebuilt a larger, more beautiful city with huge parks, impressive buildings, and important cultural institutions. Today, Hamburg is Europe’s greenest city, with nearly 50% of its surface area graced with water, woodlands, farmland, and some 1,400 parks and gardens. Green is, in fact, the city's official color.

© 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.