How do I get to the Dom? If you visit Hamburg and you ask this question, you should be sure what time of the years it is. Normally you will get a directions to the St. Mary's Cathedral (cathedral in German = Dom). I think Hamburg is not very well known for its cathedral like the cities of Cologne, Aachen or Speyer, but it has such one. When you are visiting Hamburg in Winter, Summer or Spring, probably you will get the directions to something very different: the directions to the ‘Hamburger Dom’ and this means one of Germany’s biggest traveling funfair! ‘Hamburger Dom’ is celebrate three times a year and it takes four weeks each time. It has in total some ten Million visitors per year and you will find over 250 rides, roller-coasters, fun-shooting-ranges, lottery stalls, snack stands and whatever else you like there. Each individual one of this three fairs has its own atmosphere and its own compilation of attractions, so they offer you every time a new event. If you are in Hamburg while the ‘Hamburger Dom’ is there too, you should visit it, it’s great! Let me explain why Hamburg’s funfair called like the German word for cathedral: Dom… Hamburg is an ancient trading city and like other trading cities in the Middle Age and later they had in regular intervals big markets to sell and buy whatever they need, instead of permanent traders or stores such we have them nowadays. It was usually common that this markets looked for shelter in the cathedrals if the weather was too bad to have them in the outside – the cathedrals were the biggest covered buildings at that time. And beside the traders and craftsmen there were also clowns, artists and quacks to bring the folks pleasure and diversions from their hard lives. The markets disappeared over the time or rather the became less relevant for the trading, but what has remained till now was the phrase ‘cathedral’ as the name for the place where you can find the kind of clowns, artists and quacks at our time. Of course there is no regular cathedral or any other church on this funfair, but the place where the “Hamburger Dom” resided now is called ‘Heiligengeistfeld’, in English: ‘Field of the Holy Spirit’. Whether or not you can find the Holy Spirit during your visit of the Hamburger Dom is another story…