Blankenese

Blankenese grew as a fishing and pilot village on the Süllberg, a glacial sand hill rising about seventy-five metres directly from the Elbe, and because the slope is steep the settlement developed as a network of narrow stepped lanes, the Treppenviertel, with several thousand steps and almost no roads; deliveries and refuse collection are done on foot or by small vehicle on the few passable lanes. From the nineteenth century Hamburg merchants built villas on the hill, and it became one of the city's most expensive districts. A beach runs along the Elbe below, with large container ships passing close to shore.

What you actually see

• The Treppenviertel - a quarter of stepped lanes with few roads.
• The Elbe beach - a sand shore with ships passing close inshore.
• The Süllberg - a glacial hill with a restaurant and viewpoint on top.
• The merchant villas - nineteenth-century houses among the old cottages.

When to go

April to October; the beach and river path are the main draw in warm weather. The stepped lanes are slippery in ice and hard going in any season.

Honest expectations

The steps are steep and numerous, with several hundred between the station and the river. Houses are private. Parking is effectively impossible.

Nearby

Central Hamburg lies east; the Altes Land is across the river.