View from the harbor, Hamburg, Germany

Germany-30, originally uploaded by Abhishek's Received Postcards.

Hamburg is the second-largest city in Germany. The city is home to approximately 1.8 million people, while the Hamburg metropolitan area has more than 4.3 million inhabitants. The port of Hamburg is the second-largest port in Europe, and the ninth-largest in the world.
Hamburg's official name is the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. It makes reference to Hamburg's history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League, as a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, and also to the fact that Hamburg is a city-state and one of the sixteen Federal States of Germany.