Treppenviertel Blankenese

This guide to the Treppenviertel in Blankenese, Hamburg, opens with a puzzle: how a public bus manages fifty-eight staircases and nearly five thousand steps to reach the top of this hillside. It follows the electric minibus locals call the Bergziege, the mountain goat, back to a pink express service that first ran the route in 1973, and traces the quarter's roots as a fishing and piloting village built for climbing long before cars. Listen for the Strandtreppe's own steps spilling onto the sand by the striped lighthouse.