Karoviertel Hamburg – All our local tips

This shop is first and foremost one thing: made out of colourful vintage terry towels! The designer Andreas Linzner uses the patterned 50s-80s fabric for one-of-a-kind cuddly pets. In the bright, fluffy shop you find yourself surrounded by donkeys, monkeys, giraffes, bunnys, pigs, cats, dogs, mice and not to forget the classical cuddle bears.

And if you want to see your favourite towel being reincarnated as your personal terry pet, just ask for this service. There is nothing Andreas Linzner can´t make out of a towel!

Children will love them. But if you get one for yourself to cuddle with, noone can laugh about it, because these toy animals most certainly are a piece of art!

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Andreas Linzner | Shopping | From € 40.00
Marktstr. 6 | Karoviertel | +4940433435
Mon – Fri 13:00 – 19:00, Sat 11:00 – 17:00

Do you wanna sip a nice cup of tea while watching the crowd on their weekend shopping tour through Markstrasse? Here we go! Cafe Mangold has a very good setting on a little square where kids are playing and dogs sniffing on the lawn.

If you are a little peckish you should try the delicious focaccia (kind of a pizza bread) or a wonderful Austrian dessert which gives you enough strength to jump into any kind of shopping tour through Karoviertel.

For evening time it’s a good spot if you like a more sophisticated and calm place for a chat and a good wine. On a sunny saturday afternoon you will need to fight for a place to sit as it’s one of the nicest and most relaxing spots to enjoy a coffee. You can just sit and sit and sit. And if it’s getting to cold, just grab your stuff and go inside. You can relax in a modern, airy but nevertheless cosy place with

huge windows and try out the few different cakes.

The service is friendly and quite often you find some good photos on the walls to show the work of local photographers.

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Cafe Mangold | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks | Focaccia € 3.30
Ölmühle 30 | Karoviertel | +4927860248
10:00 – 02:00 daily

If you think that „Hamburger Schule” is a school for naughty Northerners, if you think that Hamburg is a provincial place and can’t produce anything solid as it`s neither Berlin nor London, if you might believe it`s not possible to rap in German, let alone in Northern German, if you might even believe that Germans don’t have any kind of humour or taste, this is the place where you will have to face the truth that this is all wrong!!

In this record store you will ONLY find music from this town and you will love to discover little but superb bands like Veranda Music (singing in English and Portuguese), well-known old classical heroes like Blumfeld, Tocotronic or Kante but also our beloved crazy stuff from Goldenen Zitronen to Studio Braun (one good reason to learn German as quick as possible).

You can also find books here, and on some evenings you can enjoy a small concert in the store. For example the last concert was by Johannes Oerding. Check out the website what concerts are planned in future time.

You will find the newest (and oldest) CD’s and records in town – you can also get a decent Hamburg-style-shirt with those white and blue stripes. Or one of these yellow rain coats made of thick rubber. In case that you might end up with a bag full of Vinyl, heading back home on a rainy day in Hamburg…

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Hanseplatte | Music | Record from € 10.00
Neuer Kamp 32 | Karoviertel | +494028570193
Mon – Fri 11:00 – 19:00, Sat 10:00 – 18:00

The tiny and “rough-looking” gallery Hinterconti in Karoviertel started in the year 2000 and is run by a bunch of people. There is a nearly weekly change of exhibitions of international young artists.

Check out the website for current exhibitions as in these alternative gallery all goes along a lot slower. There is a new opening in mid of March with art of a female drawer. But if you have a drink at neighbouring pub Yoko Mono you will see anyway if art is on display. All folks are welcome. You can be sure that any kind of vernissage will differ from what you might expect. No evening suits needed!

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Hinterconti gallery | Art & culture | Free
Marktstraße 40a | Karoviertel
No fixed opening times

If you wanna have an original souvenir from Hamburg, you need to visit Maegde und Knechte. Ina Kurz founded the shop on the idea to put poetry not into books but on textiles or other materials. On all kind of daily accessories she prints funny, witty German proverbs that give things a special meaning:

wash bags with “BLEIB SAUBER” (stay clean), pillowcases with “HIER IST MANCHMAL ZU HAUSE SEIN” (here there is home once in a while) or glasses with ICH WILL AB JETZT DIE GLÜCKLICHSTE ZEIT MEINES LEBENS HABEN (from now on I want to have the happiest time of my life)

Certainly you will get a kind of translation in the shop; although the double meaning is not easily transferred. But maybe as a non-native speaker, with these German pearls of wisdom it is like reading fortune cookies: not catching the exact meaning adds even to the charm.

And for sure you will have a unique memory of Germany and can show off with your language skills every time your friends ask for the translation.

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Maegde und Knechte | Shopping
Feldstrasse 44 | Karoviertel | +49404302114
Mon – Fri 12:00 – 18:00, Sat 12:00 – 15:00

Sneakers, runners, golden high heels, heavy boots, shoes for costume parties, shoes for weddings, shoes for premiere shows, shoes for etc etc.

In this souterrain shop on Marktstrasse, run by a sometimes grumpy man (don’t let that bother you) you can find all kind of second-hand shoes. This is not everyone’s favourite thing, but let me tell you that most of the stuff sold there is in very good condition. And it’s very special! You can find also belts and bags from 60`s, 70`s and 80’s to very reasonable prices.

And if you don’t pay by card you can even dare to bargain (easier said than done…). Knowing that buying shoes makes yourself very happy indeed!

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Schuhe U2 | Shopping | From € 30.00
Marktstr. 1 | Karoviertel | +4940438356
Mon – Fri 11:00 – 19:00, Sat 11:00 – 16:00

If you are looking for a place to play snooker apart from the regular big charmless stuff, cafe/bar Yoko mono could be the right thing for you. Nevertheless there you can also enjoy a coffee or cake after a Saturday morning stroll through the fleamarket, have a gin tonic on a late evening out or just listen if you like the Dj’s stuff.

Yoko Mono attracts a mixed crowd, depending on day and DJ (from 60’s to elektro) and what’s going on next door. It’s close to places for art and artists, like Hinterconti (check the Hinterconti article) and Vorwerkstift.

Though the chairs are not the most comfortable in town, the music varies from great to ohmygod and a very very few bar tenders are not the most friendly, you can still enjoy a very laid back atmosphere. Not stylish, not made-up but easy-going and very typical „Karoviertel” as it used to be.

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Yoko Mono | Bars, Relaxing | Beer € 2.50
Marktstraße 41 | Karoviertel | +494043182991
From 10:00 daily