Hamburg is Germany’s ‘Gateway to the World’. Europe’s second-largest port is a cosmopolitan hub of raucous British bars, Portuguese fish restaurants and authentic Japanese gardens. Where Tall Ships and fishing barques once sailed out, culture has cruised in. The Beatles blitzed The Reeperbahn at venues like Star-Club, where artists including Ray Charles and Jimi Hendrix first brought soul and blues to the continent. The city’s rock star liberalism is not for the fainthearted. As John Lennon once said: “I might have been born in Liverpool – but I grew up in Hamburg”.