4. Hamburg: St. Pauli 2.5-Hour with the White Dandy
Götz Barner is a true local original. As flâneur, and stage actor, the White Dandy has lived on the Reeperbahn for 30 years and really knows everything and everyone. This entertainer was recently featured on the posters for the "St. Pauli pinkelt zurück" (St. Pauli pees back) initiative.
He will take you on an intimate, informative and extremely funny tour of Hamburg's Reeperbahn and its many side streets. The White Dandy loves to talk about the good old times back when the Star Club still existed, the tramps sparred with the cops, and when he acted onstage with the founder of the Schmit Theater, Corny Littmann.
Since he is a true local, he also knows the residential side of the red-light district. He'll be able to provide an authentic portrait of local life. Ask him all the questions you want—he knows, for instance, how the skull became the symbol of St. Pauli, what a "Riechbalken" is, and where 50 Shades of Grey-style S&M is really practiced.
The tour takes you across the legendary Spielbudenplaty, to the disputed Esso houses, through the back areas of the Reeperbahn deep in the red-light district and around the Große Freiheit. The White Dandy can also take you to places closed off to other tours.
The tour ends with a quiz on neighborhood slang - learn what it means to have "Matrosen am Mast!"