Help me out people please! In order to sneak another home game in during April, it has become necessary to turn the trip into a 'Weekend City Break' with the good lady wife. How many days do I need to do the sights? The missus is a bit concerned that there's not that much to do, but we'd like to do Hamburg justice. The trip for the Bremen game barely lasted 12 hours between flights and this time I want to check out a bit more than the match and a couple of bars. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated...

You should go to the model-railway-exposition in the "Speicherstadt".
I never was there by myself, but everyone I know, who visited ist was delighted.
The house next to the model-railway-exposition is the "Hamburg Dungeon", I think it´s boring, but if you have little children it could be worth to be visited.
It´s a creepy show of Hamburgs history. But a little bit expensive and without kids definitely not worth spending so much money.

If you understand German you can go to Schmidts Tivoli, it´s the theatre of St. Pauli president Corny Littmann.

Reasonable gallery down from the station towards the lake, saw a good warhol exhibition there on my first visit to Hamburg a few years ago. A stroll by the lake may be nice too if it's a pleasant spring afternoon.

If you're going to do the touristy bit for a couple of days, you should really consider getting a 3-day, multi-person "Hamburg Card". It gets you free public transport and discounts on stuff like the trip round the harbour (Hafenrundfahrt). So it more or less pays for itself. One of the Hafenrundfährte also includes an English commentary, so ask for that at Landungsbrücken.

You can also do some boat trips on and around the Alster, starting at Jungfernstieg. When my Dad and brother-in-law were over, we did the one around the connected canals. "And here is another fucking millionaire's house". Vewwy pwetty, but no English commentary. You can, however, get a beer on board.

There is a lot to do in Hamburg. We don´t have so many old buildings but the most bridges (more than Venezia) and water inside a city and it is very picturesque.

It depends what you are interested in. Theatres, museums, boat trips or something eles.

One day you should head to the harbour, the Landungsbrücken, Old Elbe tunnel, Museum Ships, Speicherstadt, the new Hafencity with its model train museum (mentioned before by someone - very worth a visit) or view from the Michel church (good view over the city)

One day you can head to the big lake "Alster", stroll through the big and small shopping streets in the City, visit the museum of hamburg history or an arts museum, visit the Town Hall or the stock exchange.

If you have more days you can head to the district "Blankenese", directly at the river Elbe with old boat houses, a lot stairs and a nice view. If you like animals you can go to the private owned zoo "Tierpark Hagenbeck", unfortunately there are no more humans to have a look at.... In the beginning of 20th century there was Hagenbeck on the Reeperbahn showing indigenous people......

For your night programme there are a lot cabarets and musicals you will understand without speaking german.

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If your over for a few days it might be worth taking a day out to visit Bremen.

The Schnoor distric is very old and picturesque. There's also the Dom and the sqaure around it.

The Ratskeller is a good place to eat (that's also the case in Hamburg and Lubeck) but the one in Bremen only sells wine no beer!!!!!

If the weather's good there's also some nice parks. I'd certainly recomend a trip to Bremen, you can even gloat over our QF victory

Many thanks for your suggestions - too many to reply to individually but all much appreciated. At least it sounds like there's plenty to check out. Unfortunately the wife gets sea-sick real easy - so might have to check the habour 'cruise' on my own. After trainsets and U-Boats she then gets to visit the Millerntor for the Chemnitzer game - which despite her suspicions wasn't the real reason for the trip Besides, she may well leave a covert and hopefully her presence should mean that I make the Treff in a more sober state than last time. Thanks to Kowalski for helping with some of the translations - almost ended up booking tickets for the Lion King!

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You should go to the model-railway-exposition in the "Speicherstadt". I never was there by myself, but everyone I know, who visited ist was delighted.

The Miniatur Wunderland model railway is a must see even if you don't normally like this sort of thing. I think it is the biggest in the world and is a wonder to behold. Look out for some of the subtleties. There are a few copulating couples scattered around but my favourite was the crew of St Pauli punks getting a police escort to the AOL Arena. Every now and then they turn the lights down turning the whole scene into a night time, then dawn experience. Do not miss this. I would go as far as saying it is the the best visitor type attraction I have seen.

A lot of the smaller independent shops scattered around the Sternschanze district are also good for the couply St Pauli trip.

The Jagerschnitzel and bratkartoffel at Nagel's - an old style dark wood bar and restuarant just across the road from the Hbf - should help soak up any excess alcohol.

And the artificial beach may be worth a visit too, given that we apparently have one planned for London...