Coming from the Baltic coast you can avoid it, but otherwise for those headed north, all roads lead to Hamburg. Nestled at the narrow base of the Jutland Peninsula – the top of which is Denmark – Hamburg is the first place you can cross the River Elbe, about 65 miles upstream from where it empties into the North Sea. The A1 autobahn from the west, the A7 from the south and the A24 from the east all run through Germany’s second city, the first two within a few hundreds yards of the centre. What all this means is that Hamburg is a bottleneck. It’s been fearsomely busy all summer. There’s not much you can do about it apart from avoid the rush hours, mid morning, afternoon and lunchtime.