Speicherstadt

Speicherstadt (Which means city of warehouses), located in the port of Hamburg Germany, is the largest timber-pile founded warehouse in the world. The district was built in the late 1800s to early 1900s as a free zone to transfer goods without paying customs.

As of now, Speicherstadt has become a tourist attraction but still handles various goods. Several years ago the companies in Speicherstadt handled one third of the world’s carpet production.

Before I went to Hamburg, I went to 500px for inspiration. It is the greatest social network if you’re wanting to discover amazing photography, so I figured I’d see what other people were creating in Hamburg as I’d never been there before. The photo below was one of the primary locations I saw, called the Wasserschloss.

I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been. Also, it was raining most of the time I was in Hamburg. So, on Friday I spent the entire day walking around the Speicherstadt area. That weekend they had the Hafengeburstag (harbor birthday) festival so there was plenty to see, but I could never find this exact spot, even after asking a few locals and showing them the picture from the postcard I had bought.

Finally at about 6pm I finally gave up. It was pouring rain, I was soaked, my camera was soaked, and I had no idea where else to go. So I headed to meet up with my cousin and her boyfriend to see where he works; we were walking to his building and I looked over and there it was! Of course it was raining so hard I could barely see it in the photos, and I didn’t have my tripod to compensate for the slow shutter speed I had to use so it didn’t seem to matter anyways, the shots were not worth showing.

Luckily, we went and grabbed some coffee and as we were starting to head out to see the St. Pauli district, the sun finally broke through so I was able to grab this shot.

Cheers,

Peter