Soviet spy submarine in Hamburg

If you’ve been to the Altona Fischmarkt, you’ve probably seen that there is a submarine docked at the Hamburg harbor. It’s the U-434 submarine, a former Soviet spy submarine. The submarine was built in the 1970’s and was active for 26 years, before being brought to Hamburg and turned into a museum in 2002.

Yesterday my husband and I went there to see it. It was the first time for me to go inside a submarine and it was a fascinating experience. To be honest I was a little bit hesitant, because I didn’t know how it would feel to be in such a confined space, but it was actually a lot of fun going through the small circular doorways and climbing up and down the narrow ladders to reach the different rooms.

You can choose if you want to just buy the entrance tickets for 9€ and walk through the submarine on your own or pay extra 4€ for an organized tour. We chose to take the tour and I was very happy that we did.

The tour guide was really nice and friendly. She explained each room in the submarine and told us interesting facts about the life on the submarine, like how long they were underwater, how often they had to go to the surface, what were the difficulties that they faced, how is this submarine different from the new submarines and so much more. I also liked that she was very patient and waited for each one of us (we were in a group of 10 people) to walk around, explore the rooms and take pictures, before moving to the next location. That is not always the case with organized tours and was especially important here, because you cannot go back to a certain room. You always have to move in one direction because the space is constrained in the submarine and there are constantly new people coming from the back.

Another advantage of taking the tour is that you get to see the command center. This part of the submarine is only available for the visitors who take the tour and for me was one of the most interesting parts. The standard tours are offered in German, every half hour and you don’t have to book them in advance. We went there yesterday around quarter to 11 and we were able to take the tour at 11 o’clock. They do offer also tours in English, but only for groups of 8 people or more and you need to book at least one week in advance, so that they can make sure that an English speaking tour guide is available at the agreed date and time.