Altonaer Balkon

This guide to the Altonaer Balkon in Hamburg starts beneath the viewing terrace, in a small limestone grotto that's the last trace of an ornamental waterfall a landowner built into this hillside in the 1790s. From there it turns to the classical mansions along the Palmaille behind you and the merchant families who built them, following the money back to the Atlantic slave trade and figures like Heinrich Carl Schimmelmann. Along the way it names the local shipyards and the ledgers those merchant families kept appearing in. Stand at the rail and look toward the Köhlbrand Bridge while you listen.