Altstadt

Hamburg's Altstadt, the old town, is not a picture-book medieval core. The Great Fire of 1842 and the 1943 bombing raids of Operation Gomorrah saw to that. What survived is something more interesting: a dense, working downtown with thick layers of Hanseatic history pressed into it. The Rathaus, finished in 1897, is the showpiece, a neo-Renaissance seat of government with 647 rooms, a tower rising about 367 feet and free guided tours in English. A few minutes east lies the Kontorhausviertel with the Chilehaus, the 1920s brick office block whose sharp ship's-prow corner is one of the defining images of German expressionist architecture and, together with the Speicherstadt, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Mahnmal St. Nikolai is the burned-out tower of a church destroyed in 1943, kept as an anti-war memorial, with a glass elevator to a viewing platform and a crypt museum below. The Mönckebergstraße runs dead straight from the main station to the city hall square and is the city's traditional shopping street. Where to stay: the Altstadt is the most efficient base in Hamburg for a short trip, because almost everything on a first-timer's list sits within a 15-minute walk and every transit line converges here. Expect business hotels rather than neighborhood character. Getting there: U3 Rathaus puts you at the front door, U1 Meßberg or Steinstraße serves the Kontorhausviertel, U3 Rödingsmarkt the canal end, and every S-Bahn and U-Bahn line meets at Hauptbahnhof, minutes away on foot.