HafenCity travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises, spa and resorts

HafenCity is a new district at the site of Hamburg’s central harbor on the Elbe River, which is one of the most ambitious urban construction sites in Europe. HafenCity is filled on the weekends with tourists and residents eating at its waterside cafes, enjoying its vast open space and seeking a glimpse of its “starchitect”-designed buildings, 30 of which have been completed.

HafenCity itself won’t be finished for another 10 to 15 years. But since 2000, when Hamburg came up with the now nine-billion-euro master plan to transform 388 acres of its vast central harbor into a brand new district, increasing the size of the city center by 40 percent, things have been moving at a steady clip.

The best reason to walk across the length of HafenCity toward the train station is to have an excellent meal at the quirky and crooked Oberhafen Kantine, a relic of the harbor’s working past, in the middle of what feels like an industrial no man’s land. The culinary gem is in the center of what is designated to be HafenCity’s creative center. Unlike the area’s other neighborhoods, where most real estate was sold for high profit margins to major corporations or developers, some of the old warehouses and industrial spaces there in the Oberhafen will be kept and leased to art-related associations and projects.

The only attraction in the HafenCity if you live there, is the tourists coming on buses to see where you live and to say, ‘That guy must have a lot of money if he can afford to live here.’ ”There are free tours in English every Saturday leaving from the HafenCity info center at the Kesselhaus. There are also guided tours in English on demand for groups, which must be booked in advance.