Lucy Edwards spent an active weekend in Hamburg and explored the city by foot and by bike. This is a summary of her blog post on Paddle Pedal Pace.
Hamburg has a reputation for being an active city, with an emphasis on sport and fitness facilities being available to all. I recently visited the German city for a short break with the aim of fitting in as much activity as possible!
A bike tour is a perfect way to combine exercise with sightseeing. We joined Hamburg City Cycles for a relaxed ride in a small group visiting all the main districts and landmarks. The city is flat and the roads are quiet making it ideal for cycling. Our guide Garrit lead us on a loop which covered the harbour, the Speicherstadt, HafenCity, the Rathaus, and Alster Lakes and St Pauli.
Next, we joined Hamburg Running Tours for a 7.4km run around the Outer Alster Lake. The lake is lined with many beautiful parks and gardens, making it one of the most popular running spots in the city. The entire area was full of people walking, running, cycling, rowing or using the outdoor gym facilities. It really highlighted to me how Hamburg embraces fitness.
A game of mini-golf under UV light wrapped up our active day in Hamburg. Slightly less sporty than our other activities, but still lots of fun especially on a rainy day. The course is a psychedelic world with different themed zones full of neon obstacles and murals. It adds a different dimension to the game and some of the holes were quite challenging.
To rest our feet after all the running and cycling, we took a boat tour with Barkassen Meyer. Seeing the scale of the ships and docks up close is seriously impressive, we learned a lot about the history and workings of the port.
