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Home  Casual Connect 2009
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Casual Connect 2009 in Hamburg |
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Wednesday, 17 September 2008 |
Permanent URL for this page: http://www.decane.net/casualconnect2009
This page gets updated frequently so please check back often if you plan to attend.
Welcome to my Casual Connect 2009 information page! My name is Martin Schultz and this page has been created as help for foreign visitor who attend to the Casual Connect 2009 in Hamburg (my hometown) and as I live here and am game developer and board member of the local IGDA chapter I thought it might be useful for others to get first hand information for your trip to Hamburg. If there is anything you miss on the page don't wait and send me a
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and I will immediately fetch and publish the desired information, even photos of hotels or locations if needed.
About Casual Connect Europe 2009
The Casual Connect Europe 2009 will take place in Hamburg, Germany during the 10 - 12 February 2009 in the so called Congress Centrum (or CCH for short - Congress Center Hamburg) which is a huge conference center right in the middle of Hamburg (Google Maps).
Official Hamburg tourist information
The official Hamburg tourist information can be found here. This site offers a bunch of information about sightseeing, general information, embassies and all that. Most of embassies btw. are located around the lake "Alster" in downtown.
Hotels
Hamburg has a huge amount of hotels and luckily some nice hotels right around the corner of the CCH. The nearest hotel is the Radisson SAS hotel which is right at the CCH itself and so you need only a 2 minutes walk down to the congress halls. Please see here a link to Google Maps which shows the CCH (with the big CCH letters on it) and a bit to the right down you see a skyscraper, the Radisson SAS hotel.
Public Transport
Hamburg has a very good public transport system and as in most larger cities (Hamburg > 1.7 million citizens) getting a parking slot in downtown is... difficult. :-) Hence it makes sense to use the very good and safe public transportation system driven by the so called HVV (Hamburg Transportation Company). There's a train station right next to the CCH called "Dammtor" and has connections for tube trains and long distance trains. Further more, a bunch of busses drives by the CCH. Here is an overview (also as PDF) available with the tube transportation system of the HVV.
Airport
The Hamburg airport is located within the city, rouhly 20 minutes by taxi away from the CCH convention center. Tube is also available, but not directly (not yet, new tube is beeing built). The international airport abbreviation is HAM and the aiport is named after it's district name it is in: Fühlsbüttel. So Hamburg aiport is often named Hamburg Fühlsbüttel. Reason for that is that there is a second airport for the Airbus construction plant.
Restaurants
- Blockhouse - fantastic steak franchise restaurants all around in the city (more than 30 restaurants). Not cheap, but excellent food (steaks start at 17 Euro up to 29 Euro). A few of them are in downtown and one is at the Gänsemarkt, only a few hundred meters away from the CCH - roughly here.
- Right at the harbour we have an own "portuguese" district with lots of - you guess it - portuguese restaurants. Also excellent food there, some of them also ok from the pricing (8-14 Euro per meal).
- Another franchise is Schweinske (everything from porks) a bunch of very good restaurants with cheap prices (meals start at 4-6 Euro) and especially large meals for the ones with big hunger. More of a student type of restaurant, but very nice atmosphere.
Supermarkets in downtown
Germany has a few major brands of supermarket named Aldi, Penny (Rewe), Lidl and Edeka (to name the big ones). Edeka is the one for higher quality food and can also be found in several locations in downtown.
Here is a little map of Edeka markets around downtown (only 2 listed, but there are more!) as these markets provide pre-cooked food as well as all other stuff that is usually needed when you're on travel.
Further, the central train station has a lot of restaurants and supermarkets that have late opening hours. Also on the Reeperbahn you'll find 2 supermarkets that are open even on sundays (usually all closed in germany on sundays).
Sightseeing
Hamburg has a bunch of places to visit and really great sightseeing stuff. Things to consider:
- Town hall (the "Rathaus" - Wikipedia. The german page has more photos) - seat of the government. Very beautiful, huge and old building right in downtown. There are guided (and only guided) tours for going inside.
- Main shopping street in downtown is the Mönckebergstraße (german Wikipedia link) right next to the town hall. Lots of shops, shopping centers, large shopping malls
- Harbour (Port of Hamburg, Wikipedia). Great for sightseeing. Boat trips can be ordered for around 10 Euro though the harbour with explanations. Lots of old museum ships around, old buildings. Right next to the portuguise district.
- . Personally never been there, but heard it's a great made kind of "horror" show with good effects. Next to harbour, in the Hafen City.
- Minatur-Wunderland (Miniature Wonderland). Those guys build cities and counties in miniature form with moving cars, trains, all animated. Super worth a visit if you like such stuff! Tipp: They have a webcam on their website to see how many people are waiting in the row in the entrance currently.
- Europa Passage. Large shopping mall in downtown, right next to the town hall and lake Alster. 15 minutes walk to the CCH from there.
- Lake Alster (Wikipedia). Our beautiful lake inside the city (to be precise it's a river, but eh.. you wouldn't think that if you see it).
- Our Zoo: Hagenbeck (Wikipedia). Fantastic and huuuuge zoo. Buy some animal food behind the entrace and feed all the animals in the zoo. Esp. feeding elephants is great!
- Hafencity (Wikipedia). Our new harbour district at and on the water. Established since 1997 and still building that district, like our new opera that is beeing built there on top of an old existing harbour building (worth a visit!).
- "Elbe" is our big river that goes straight into the north sea and connects Hamburgs harbour with the rest of the world. The river Elbe is the big water you see at the harbour. :-)
- St. Michaelis Church (Wikipedia). One of our main landmarks of the town. Fantastic overview over the city if you walk up the stairs.
- Landungsbrücken (Wikipedia at the harbour is a famous tourist place. Sightseeing, boat trips, water plane trips, fast food.
- More soon...
Nightlife
We have lots of that! :-) Of course the world famours Reeperbahn (Wikipedia) which is definately worth a visit. Go there in the evening or night time as by day there is usual "business" there.
More soon...
Safety
Hamburg is, like germany in general, a very safe place. Feel safe to walk around also in the evening or night time. To dial for the police, call "110", for injurance and firepolice call "112" (possibly from every phone without money). The german word for police is "Polizei" and the word for firepolice is "Feuerwehr". An ambulance is called "Krankenwagen" and the word for a doctor is "Arzt".
Computers / Spareparts
As this conference is about computers, one sometimes needs a spare part or even a new machine for the conference, but where to buy? Here's a small list of shops where to get computers, software and stuff:
- Apple Computers at Gravis stores, 2x in downtown. More "general" Apple without beeing too specific.
- Also Apple at Hamburg4 - specialists for Apple stuff, close to CCH. If you need the impossible, go there.
- PC's and spare parts and all this available at Comptronic at the harbour for example.
Weather
Oh well... yes. We have weather. But not always the best... :-) In february it might get lousy cold here. And I mean _lousy_. Although the weather has changed during global warming and we have seen very warm februarys, prepare for rain, snow, ice and 0-5°C.
Country, People
The currency in germany (Wikipdia) is Euro. We have a +1 hour time offset to Greenich mean time GMT. The international phone prefix is ++49. The one and only main language is german. Unfortunately not all of us here speak and understand english (which is a shame imho), but feel always free to ask people if you need to know the way. Other often teached languages here at school are french, spanish, latin (who speaks this? :-) , italian and russian. The latter one more in east germany.
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