Along the waterways of ancient Hamburg, you can take fascinating excursions.<\/em><\/p>
To smell the scent of antiquity and modernity and to freshen up at the waters of the mighty Elbe is very easy – just buy plane tickets. European ships and trading barges, cruise liners and motor vessels, and sometimes ancient sailing ships are standing on the roadstead in the harbor of Hamburg, one of the largest ports in Europe.<\/p>
Mönckebergstraße with its embankment on the Elbe, past restaurants and cafés, shopping complexes and branches of well-known firms, leads tourists straight to the city center. Take a look at the Gothic church of St. James and soak in the atmosphere of the first tentative steps of the renowned Johann Sebastian Bach.<\/p>
Of course, the hallmark of any German city has become the Town Hall. The building, built in the Neo-Renaissance style, invites you to walk through the intricate corridors of the main legislative institution of Hamburg, to marvel at bronze sculptures, memorial plaques, and openwork marble staircases. In the inner courtyard is located Hygeia, frozen in stone of a wonderful fountain, and nearby stands a monument to the father of German literature – Goethe.<\/p>
From the Town Hall side, there is a wonderful view of the huge Alster Lake, and nearby there is another symbol of the free Hanseatic city of Hamburg – the Church of St. Michael with its 132-meter spire, which houses the largest clock in Germany.<\/p>
At the river Little Alster, in the center of the old town, ducks and drakes stroll, and cutely along the canal, intertwined in a love dance, beautiful white swans swim, and you, if tired, can rest in a grove of parks and squares of Hamburg.<\/p>
To learn the history of the city, its legends and significant dates, it is enough to approach the memorial stone in the center of the Old Town, where the entire history of the ancient city of Hamburg is written. Visit the Kunsthalle and touch the beautiful paintings of German artists, and also see the masterpieces of Rubens and Monet. The exhibition at the museum presents more than 500 different sculptures and several coin collections.<\/p>
Take a look at Reeperbahn Street, crowned with red lanterns, it never sleeps, and is a symbol of the active nightlife of Hamburg, a meeting place for breakers of bans, street musicians and regulars of beer bars. Its cobblestones remember the sold-out signs at the first performances of The Beatles.<\/p>