some advice I was given about Hamburg

S-Bahn is short for Schnell-Bahn which are the suburban trains.
In German cities you have the following:
U-Bahn (big blue U signs) - Untererdisches Bahn so Underground,
normally a
small network in the city centre
S-Bahn (green S signs) - Schnellbahn so suburban trains, normally still
within the city limits, part tunnels part not, looks like a proper
train and
not like the DLR
Strassenbahn/Tram - is surprisingly enough a tram
Proper long distance trains go from Hamburg Altona and Hamburg
Hauptbahnhof
(Hbf for short)
you can buy day cards or a Streifenkarte where you just stamp off the
number
of stripes that you need. It is usually 2 for an average journey.
You can buy them all from vending machines in the stations or on the
bus/tram NOT in the trains though
Not having a ticket will cost you about 30 quid each - the inspectors
all
speak English and you can spot them by their belts (like a holster).

A final tip: avoid using the stairs in stations and always use the
escalators even if they are broken - this is because the satirwells (at
least in Frankfurt, since then I've not tried elsewhere) are often used
by
druggies/alkies, Hamburg has been cleaned up a lot though so don't let
this
put you off.

You'll get route maps off of the Hamburg tourist site but as you are so
central you might actually not need to use a bus while you are there
Of course if you get fed up with the whole thing you could get the
Eurocity
train to Copenhagen because that isn't that far!
You are flying to Hamburg itself right? Not with Ryanair? Because
Ryanair
flies to Lübeck and that is about an hour away from Hamburg...
and then you'd have to get the bus.

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