A week in Hamburg
 

Not a fully-docketed trip report, since I did a home exchange, and tend to eat in any old neighbourhood or chain café, so have no great tips on accommodation or restaurants for the foodies.

However, this is something of what I did and saw (with photos):
http://autolycus-london.blogspot.co..../label/Hamburg

Getting around: many train stations are, or appear to be, unstaffed, even at the airport. On arrival, get a day-card (Tageskarte - cheaper after 9am), as this pays for itself after two rides. You can get weekly and longer cards but these can only be bought at the central station or Altona station, and need a photo ID (a pre-existing one will do, as long as it matches your photo to the name on the ticket - the clerk assured me my London travel pass card was fine). You can buy the cards in advance to start on a later date. the "Großbereich" area will cover pretty well anywhere a visitor is likely to want to go, and passes cover U-Bahn, S-Bahn, bus and ferries.
http://www.hvv.de/en/

One tip: you can get a cheap trip around the harbour (rather than taking a fixed tour with commentary) by catching the regular ferry 62 at Landungsbrücken, since this is covered by passes. You can just stay on the ferry and come back, or get off at Oevelgönne for a stroll on the beach and to visit the traditional boats in the museum dock there.

Going back to food: I'm no gourmet, don't mind chains, and one thing I like in Germany is the existence of the Nordsee and Gosch chains, which specialise in fish. I'm not normally a great fan of fish, but they make some very acceptable fast food versions of all varieties, prepared in a variety of ways (Gosch seems to specialise in railway station and airport concessions).

Nordsee is pretty dang good for what it is.

Thanks for sharing your tip about trip to Harbour. It is a nice place to visit.

And second prize was 2 weeks in Hamburg? ;^)

Ah well, if I'd had two weeks, I'd have explored more outside Hamburg as well, like Lüneburg or some of the places I saw mentioned on local TV.