How to spend two days in Hamburg

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The Claire Byrne Show 9 min 3 speakers 8 chapters transcribed 16 days ago

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Who joins Claire on the Claire Byrne Show to discuss Hamburg?

Claire Byrne 0:01

The Claire Byrne Show on News Talk. With Aviva Insurance.

Clare Byrne 0:09

Ed Finn joins me now, our travel expert from Ed Finn Travels. And Ed, you want to take us to Hamburg today?

Ed Finn 0:18

Yes, Claire, absolutely. Um I think uh it's a place that I went to go for many years and I actually finally got there recently. Remember, we were chatting about Sechin, Czechin recently. I got the train there from from uh Poland. But it's a fabulous city because it has an amazing uh heritage going way back as opposed to the Hanseatic League. So it's a big maritime uh c city. But for me it was very different, Claire, to kind of Germany that you think of, you know. the the traditional Germany because it has the like for example, it has two and a half thousand bridges. um about sixty museums and it has like incredible architecture, green spaces, and lots of people in Germany move there because it's a city of water, really.

Ed Finn 1:00

Like they've more bridges than Venice, Amsterdam and London combined. So it's this it's just a r a real surprise when you go there, you know, compared to traditional city breaks.

Clare Byrne 1:10

So if you're into bridges, Hamburg is the place for you. Yes.

Ed Finn 1:15

Lincoln, absolutely. You can't miss them.

Why are Hamburg’s bridges considered a top attraction for visitors?

Ed Finn 1:18

Bridges everywhere. And I like I mean small ones, big ones. It's actually hilarious. But Claire, the me the me the biggest attraction in Germany is in Hamburg, right? And it's actually called Miniature Wonderland. And it is just something that I had I didn't even really know much about. And I went there. It's incredible. Um these two brothers. Frederick and Garrett Braun years ago were in Zurich and they saw this railway model railway shop. And they went back and they decided they were going to build the biggest one in the world. So they started building this miniature world, and now it has become this massive attraction. Like over 25 million people have gone to see it. And it's just something like so unique.

Ed Finn 2:02

It opened in 2001 and And it is massive. There's 1,694 meters of model landscape railway tracks. But they have all the cities there from America. They have a miniature airport there with planes taking off and landing.

What makes Miniature Wonderland a unique family‑friendly attraction in Hamburg?

Ed Finn 2:16

Like I know it's really something special. So like kids go crazy for it. So it's a great spot.

Clare Byrne 2:22

So it's all sorts of things, as you say, countries, cities, airports, not just the model railway.

Ed Finn 2:29

No, absolutely. And I mean, do you know the other of course it has a great connection with the Beatles because, of course, famously the Beatles learned their trade in Hamburg? John Lennon famously said, I was born in Liverpool and I but I grew up in Hamburg. They played over twelve hundred hours of music all around now. The Reaper Band, of course, which was traditionally because it was a maritime uh uh city, that the sailors huge red light district, celebrating four hundred years. This year, but it's now become a very wonderful kind of like place for restaurants and bars and night like but there's huge music there, there's fabulous philharmonic uh orchestra there as well and they have a huge um uh sorry symphony building which again won all these architecture awards and stuff.

Clare Byrne 3:10

And you can still you can still do the Beatles tour, can't you?

Ed Finn 3:14

You can. And the Beatles tour. Yeah, there's different ones you can do. Um the Hempel one is very, very good. And you get all the information about them, which is really a f cool. And they've a great like they've a great place there as well called Saint Pauli, which is like your temple bar, but it's much bigger and it's quite uh it's really nice and it's very interesting because they have loads of different vintage shops there as well. And another thing, Claire, as well, Christmas markets will be coming up. We'll be talking about them soon.

What unique Christmas markets can you explore in Hamburg?

Ed Finn 3:41

It has 20 Christmas markets and really cool, different types of ones that you wouldn't normally associate with Christmas markets. They have a Scandinavian one, Harbor, they've all different kinds of themes. And of course, the big, the big huge, the magnificent rat house, their uh town hall, their city hall. They've 80 stalls there, but it's a it's stunning.