Hamburg is Germany's second largest metropolis with a population of 1.7 million people. It has history including being a member of the Hanseatic League of the Holy Roman Empire. Hamburg is on the southern point of the Jutland Peninsula with the River Elbe separating Scandinavia and Continental Europe. The city is covered with streams, rivers and canals. With around 2,500 bridges, it has more than London, Amsterdam and Venice combined. Hamburg has had a rough go throughout history. It has been completely destroyed several times beginning with the Vikings and the most recent being WWII. The Black Death killed 60% of its population and twice the city has experienced fires that toasted the entire city. The fire in 1842 took 40 years to complete reconstruction. In 2009, 30% of the population belonged to the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church. The next largest population is Roman Catholic. Hamburg has five main Lutheran churches. The first church we visited was St. Peter's Church with a Gothic style building. It was built first in 1195. We were able also to visit St. Michael's with beautiful baroque architecture including a 132 meter high spire covered with copper. We were in this spire at noon and were able to hear all the churches throughout the city ringing their bells. The last church we visited was the St. Nicholas' Church which is in ruins. The church spire was the highest standing structure after the WWII bombings. It was left in a ruin state as a memorial to the people who died as a result of the bombings. I enjoyed seeing the Speicherstadt old warehouse district. It is the largest warehouse district in the world with the buildings being on timber-pile foundations. The Speicherstadt was declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO on 5 July 2015 - Owen's first birthday! At the St. Pauli Piers, the 1,300 foot long Old Elbe Tunnel was built in 1911 under the river so that the workers could get to the other side without needing constant ferries to cross the water. The tunnel is still in regular use for pedestrians and bicycles and for motorized vehicles at specific times of the day.
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