Getting fishy in Hamburg

Tip from Aoife: "Don't miss the fish market in Hamburg - it's a favourite with clubbers after rolling out of bars in the Reeperbahn district."

She is right about the clubbers, and one detail needs fixing before you set an alarm: the Altona Fischmarkt is Sunday only, not Saturdays and Sundays. It runs from 5am to 9:30am from April to October, and from 7am to 9:30am the rest of the year. It has been going since 1703, and the 9:30 finish is not a suggestion; the church service starts and the market stops.

The clubber thing is what makes it. It is genuinely two crowds in one hall: people buying eels and flowers and enormous cheap fruit baskets, and people who have not been to bed yet, eating a fish sandwich and listening to a live band in the Fischauktionshalle next door. Both crowds are entirely at ease with each other at six in the morning, which is not something most cities manage.

Go for the shouting. The Marktschreier are the point of the place, working the crowd and building those absurd overloaded baskets to get a laugh and a sale. Bring cash and low expectations about how much fruit you need.

Details and the current hours are on the city's own page.

Posted 22 April 2003 by Ant in Germany, Eurail Blog Archives, BootsnAll Travel Community · updated by Chris