Blankenese - Location

Blankenese lies in the west of Hamburg's suburbs on the north bank of the river Elbe.

By road from Hamburg, it is easily reached either via the Elbchausee beside the Elbe or slightly inland via the B431 Osdorfer Landstrasse and then turning left at the Sülldorfer Kirchenweg. Today the centre of the village is bounded to the north by the S-Bahn (Stadt or Urban Railway) railway station, from which the Bahnhofstrasse leads south through the shops, past the church, the market place and onwards towards the Treppenviertel and the Elbe.

Blankenese has a useful selection of cafes, restaurants, shops and a regular "weekly" market for fresh fruit, vegetables and other produce from local growers and suppliers. Market days are Tuesday, Wednesday (bio-market), Friday and Saturdays.

Blankenese even has its own cinema, with two auditoriums and is generally right up to date with the latest films.

The main problem with Blankenese tends to be cars and car parking: it is best to park a few blocks away and walk the last few hundred metres (or yards!) This is also good advice for those wishing to avoid the shops and just see the Elbe.

The often narrow lanes make ideal one-way streets and so make it even more difficult for the users of cars, especially for those who do not know their way around.

For large scale events, such as the Easter Bonfires, most people arrive by rail (Bahn) and then foot. But then, there is little choice, as the police block off the access roads to the village, so that the emergency services can get through in the event of something going wrong and to stop the throngs of often quite merry revellers being mown down!

For such a small area, Blankenese is very well served with extensive parks. Goßlers (Gosslers) park, von-Schinkel park (generally referred to as Schinkel's Wiese = meadow) leading across to the wooded area around the Bismarckstein overlooking the Elbe, the Hesse park in the middle of the village, the Baurs Park and then the Hirsch park (Deer park). All these provide attractive walks in all seasons. The real art of walking in Blankenese is to get from your starting point (say the S-Bahnhof) and then walk through as much park as possible, get in some Elbe views and above all avoid the traffic. All of the parks are populated with majestic trees (beech, oak and chestnut) and plenty of shrubs for colour in the spring time.

Compared to most of the North German plains, Blankenese is really very hilly with plenty of steep climbs and valleys giving the unequalled views that we find so attractive. One of the steepest hills is the "Waseberg," up which the regular international cycle race teams have to ride no less than three or even times in the same race! Well, we don't have too many such hills in the area and so they make the best of the one - it is up to a 16% climb! I managed it myself once on my bike, when I was younger, and then required several days to recover!

Regular walks here improve the physical condition! For those, who cannot manage all of the steps, there is a regular bus service from the Strandweg (beach road) up to the railway station and back. This small bus, ideally suited to the narrow and steep lanes is known locally as the "Bergziege" (Mountain Goat!)

With so many hills and such little room for roads (thank goodness!) there is only one answer: "steps" (Treppen), so in fact the whole area towards the south of Blankenese and facing the Elbe is known as the Treppenviertel - the Steps Quarter!

Even to this day, the closely built Treppenviertel retains much of the atmosphere from past times, with well preserved fishermen's cottages, perched precariously on the steep hill side overlooking the Elbe. Many houses can be reach only by climbing up or down some of the over 4800 steps to be found in the maze of small ways. The longest of these ways is the Strandtreppe (beach steps), which has over 160 steps! For an impression of this area check out our photo collection "Latest Tour".

Over-looking much of the Treppenvietel is the "Süllberg", a veritable mountain, topped in ancient times with castles and more recently with a restaurant and a tower. Its history is full of stories of pirate's treasure and witches - which are still burnt ceremoniously, each year, on the Easter Bonfires that are constructed on the beaches below the Süllberg, by competing teams of ardent amateur arsonists!

After a long planning battle with local residents, the Süllberg hill top has been re-developed and at least the famous tower has been retained! During the building we were able to observe the building of an impressive underground car-park under the hill-side - this went down at least 7 floors and was quite some hole!