Michael Novins         on Hamburg
 

February 2005 and August 2006 -- On my fist visit I stayed at Hotel Monopol (http://www.monopol-hamburg.de/monopol.htm), and on my second I stayed at Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten, founded in 1897 and well located on the western side of the Inner Alster Lake shore (http://www.fairmont.com/hamburg). On both trips I visited several of the Beatles-related sites in Hamburg, including Kaiserkeller (where the Beatles played in 1960) and Gretel & Alfons, one of the few Beatles-visited pubs still in operation (http://www.gretelundalfons.de/). On my first trip, I also visited the Tierpark Hagenbeck, known for being the first zoo to use open enclosures surrounded by moats, rather than barred cages (http://www.hagenbeck-tierpark.de/start.html). On my first visit I had dinner at Fischereihafen Restaurant (http://www.fischereihafenrestaurant.de/).