The Hamburg Fish Market. I had heard so much about this fabled marketplace in Hamburg though after numerous visits to the city, I had still never seen it. Hamburg is known amongst young people for its nightlife. Numerous clubs and bars line whole streets in the downtown area and parties often spill over into the daylight hours. This leaves a large group of tired and hungry people that may or may not be ready to go home, these are some of the fish market’s unlikely early customers. As the sun comes up over the city’s mighty harbour, it casts its first rays onto the waterside open market where local merchants sell fish, but also all manners of fresh produce. At one end of the market there stands a large three story warehouse which is home to a restaurant, a stage and a lot of small food stands. Here the party continues for some, and just gets started for others with a live band and breakfast.
I fell into this second category. I came with Michelle early on a Saturday morning to see the fish mongers and check out what all the fuss was about. The market is actually pretty interesting. We saw a local legend, a young man with a booming voice a crew cut and an apron. The 20 mark man. A small crowd is usually gathered around his stall, some for the spectacle, some for fish. He tears off a big strip of wax paper and starts slapping fish one at a time into a bundle, all the time shouting ‘Twenty marks!’ and ‘What do I have to do?’ amongst other things. He keeps adding fish until somebody buys the bundle, always for twenty marks. If he has no takers and the bundle starts to build up too much weight. He drops it all and starts over again with a different mix of fish. He doesn’t appear to have much trouble consistently cleaning out his store, unlike some of the other merchants who were practically giving away their stock by the end of the morning.
After taking in the market sights, we headed into the warehouse section of the market to take in a few numbers from the cover band, the Needles. All the band members were sporting big wigs with pompadours and doing covers of Rolling Stones numbers. We listened for a while eating a freshly made waffle, but then darted back outside to buy some fresh fruit for dinner.
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