There is nowhere in Europe quite like the Speicherstadt, a whole district of warehouses built of dark red brick, rising straight out of the canals as if the water were a street. The buildings date from the 1880s, when Hamburg joined the German customs union and needed a place to store goods outside the customs zone, and they stand on thousands of oak piles driven into the soft mud. Their neo-Gothic gables, turrets and copper roofs make them look like a row of castles, and the streets between them are so narrow that you can touch both sides with outstretched hands. UNESCO recognised the district in 2015, together with the neighbouring Kontorhaus quarter.
The warehouses were built to hold coffee, tea, spices and carpets, and some of these goods are still stored here today, so the smell of roasting coffee sometimes drifts along the canals. At high tide the canals rise almost to the street, and in a storm surge the lower floors flood, which is why the ground levels are designed with removable barriers. Across the road, the Kontorhaus district is another style entirely: tall brick office buildings from the 1920s, of which the Chilehaus, built for a merchant who made his fortune in Chilean saltpetre, is the best known, shaped like the prow of a ship with sharp corners.
For a motorcyclist, this is a place for walking and looking rather than riding. The streets are cobbled and tight, and traffic is dense around the HafenCity and the Elbphilharmonie, the concert hall built on an old warehouse that opened in 2017 and has a public viewing terrace. Park at the edge, because access to some of the lanes is restricted, and wander through the quiet courtyards. A railway crosses the district on a viaduct, adding to the industrial feel. The model railway museum in the old warehouses is one of the busiest attractions in Germany.
The practical side is simple. This is the middle of a city of nearly two million, with fuel on the ring roads and cafes in every street. Early morning is the best time, when the light is soft and the tourist groups are still asleep, and the canals are quiet and reflect the brick. In autumn, when the mist rises from the water, the Speicherstadt looks like something out of a detective film.