Altonaer Fischmarkt

What makes it special

The river stalls sell fresh fish, fruit and vegetables, and flowers. The market sits right beside the harbour, and it has been part of the city's Sunday for more than three hundred years.

The market criers sell by calling their offers into the crowd, loudly and often with humour, and their patter comes free with whatever you buy.

The Fischauktionshalle, beside the river stalls, has red brick walls carrying a vaulted roof of iron and glass, and was inaugurated in 1896. There is no auction in it now. Long communal tables of beer drinkers fill the floor, and a band plays from a stage at one end, with dancing by six.

Visiting

Start among the stalls along the river while they are still trading, and buy anything you want to take home as you walk, because they pack up long before the hall closes.

Eat a fish roll early in the walk, while the rolls on the counters are still fresh: they turn soggy by about nine. Choose one from a stall outside, filled with shrimp, matjes herring or eel.

Finish in the Fischauktionshalle. Find a place at one of the long tables, get a drink, and stay on in the hall after the stalls outside have closed.

Tips

Bring cash, because not every stall takes cards, and the line for a fish roll moves faster when you pay that way. Bring a reusable bag too.

Dress warmer than the city suggests: down by the Elbe it feels colder and windier than elsewhere in Hamburg.