Easter Holidays Part 4: Miniatur Wunderland

Watching the beans go round

So, today was the day we had all been looking forward to, and the reason for our journey here.  Miniatur Wunderland.  We had pre-booked tickets, but they weren't valid until 1pm, so we had the morning to kill.  First job of the day was to find a bank - we came home from Malaysia with loads of Ringits which we hadn't changed, so though we would bring it with us - we saw it as free money as we had already paid for it last year.  Could we find a bank - no.  So, back to Hamburg Hbf we went with the last of our Euros (think we got down to about 2 Euros!) to search one out.  We found one in the station and successfully changed the Ringits, we didn't get a good exchange rate, but hey, we had no money so were in no position to argue and anyway, it was 'free' money.

Hamburg Rathaus

First job was to get breakfast.  We wondered into the food court and found a great looking bakery, so queued up.  The boys had an iced pain au raisin each and I had an apple puffy pastry thingy.  We were all happy with our lot.

It was good to have full bellies and money in our wallets again, so we decided we were up for checking out the main shopping street in Hamburg which took us more or less back to our apartment.  We came across a C&As and managed to get some good T-shirts for Tom - we always do when we come across a C&As, and also free toilets which are always good.  We then stopped to admire the Rathaus which was gilded and rather splendid looking and then went looking for mammoths in Mammut before heading home to dump our shopping and head out again towards Speichstadt (the warehouse district) where Miniatur Wunderland is located.  The plan was to have lunch at the cafe outside the museum, but we noticed a coffee roasters just next door and Matt being Matt couldn't resist a quick snoop.  Wow, it was amazing and massive and had a cafe serving good looking sandwiches and apple juice alongside the coffee.  We were having lunch here!

Italian Coast

The boys found themselves a table right next to the big coffee roaster, so they were up and down watching the beans turn from green to brown, them being sieved, sent up a duct and packed.  All very exciting stuff.  Tom managed to find himself a smoked salmon bagel for lunch as well so he was very pleased (the girl serving us was surprised - telling us: "it includes fish, is that ok?"

After a good look around the shop we headed to Miniatur Wunderland.  We bypassed all the queues as we had pre-paid tickets and went in.  The place was very full, but everyone was in a good mood, so we headed up to where the signs said start.  Wow!

WOW!

Switzerland

We were expecting good things, it being the biggest model railway in the world, but this was beyond all expectations.  So much so that I can't begin to describe it to you.  It was a full on hit on the senses.  There were trains of all shapes and sizes buzzing here and there, trucks, cars etc doing the same, moving along on roads and bridges, indicating as they turned, getting caught up in traffic jams but then sorting themselves out.  Lots of scenery to admire and to find things in.  My favourite thing to was to find the strange things:
+ A camel in a sorting office in Norway
+ Penguins on a beach in Germany
+ A world domination area under a mountain in Switzerland where they were faking the moon landings, all the terrorist organisations were together plotting, and a whole load of other things going on that we can't remember now.  There were a number of naked lovers enjoying themselves in various places
+ A crab who had caught a diver and wouldn't let him go
AND a whole lot more.  It was a sensory overload, and might take a while for us to compute them all.

Hamburg

Anyway you walk in and are confronted with the Wild West, American trains heading round mining towns and old frontier towns.  You have Mt Rushmore looking down on you, then this gradually gets more and more built on until you come to Las Vegas.

Every 15 minutes day turns to night via a sunset and then back to daylight via a sunrise.  During the night time, the Las Vegas area lights up just as it would in the real town.  There are hundreds of buttons strategically dotted around the barriers for everyone to press - to get a ropeway working, a hot air ballon to take off, someone to bungee jump, a bank raid, an attempted prison escape, you name it you could do it.  Oh and there was a wooden ledge all the way round so children could step on it and see properly.  They positively encourage you to take photos and video too.

The best thing about the place was that it was open - there was no screen anywhere, meaning you could lean over and touch it if you wanted to.  You could trash it also if you wanted to, pick up the trains etc, but NO ONE did, maybe everyone was well behaved because of the numbers of people around, but I think I only saw one (adult) touching the display for the whole 5.5 hours we were there.

Once we were done with America we headed over to Scandinavia.  We started in the Artic Circle in Sweden, with a mineral mine - one of the buttons set off a big explosion, there were icebergs (with a pirate ship sailing between them!) an ice hotel, I found a snow sculpture of an elephant here.  We were then taken into Norway and Denmark into the mountains and the ports where there was a huge cruise liner and a big container ship that was navigating its way through fjords into the port.  Some of the places were real, some of them fictional.  It didn't matter, it was amazing regardless.

Bavaria

The next diorama was Hamburg (of course) Here we got to see all the interesting parts of the city (very useful for our day sightseeing tomorrow) including the new Elbphilharmonie building which is as stunning in model form as it is in real life.  In fact it was more stunning in model form because (of course) there was a button that opened it, it opened up and you could see the concert hall full, a orchestra playing (yes they were all moving) and audience enjoying it.  Then you could see inside all the side rooms as well, some were apartments, others store rooms, practise rooms etc, it was a real representation of how the building is.

That's what I really liked about the place - the attention to detail.  All the trains had people on board (don't think that happens in Japanese model railways) and all the buildings had people in them going about their business - so if you looked inside a catering building at the airport, you could see people stood at conveyors putting food into trays, a bank of ovens, with one on fire - there were a lot of catastrophes happening in Miniatur Wunderland with loads of emergency services out and about sorting them out.  It wasn't obvious it was there, but if you looked hard you found the attention to detail was phenomenal.

The Alps

Half way through Homburg we all started to wilt, so we headed down to the restaurant for a drink and snack.  Get this: the seating was sets of 4 x train seats around a table, with pretend train windows looking over a German scene or a scene from Miniatur Wunderland.  Once refreshed we headed back to Hamburg.  After Hamburg came Middle Germany - the pretty rural bit with castles, lots of sheep, cows, agriculture and trains (of course).  There were fairgrounds, picnics, forests, outdoor concerts, picturesque houses, cable cars, oh, so much that now (of course) I can't think of anything!

Next came a fictional place called Knuffingen, a city where the modellers were able to use their imagination for every building, doing what they wanted to do.  So, loads of cars, loads of trains, loads of buildings, all great stuff.  The next bit though was the most amazing thing: Knuffingen Airport - a proper airport with all the buildings, terminals and planes and vehicles.  All the vehicles moved, as did the planes which took off and landed.  YES TOOK OFF AND LANDED.  WITH THE APPROPRIATE SOUND EFFECTS!  WOW!  WOW!  We were all stunned and amazed and transfixed.  They had all kinds of planes: passenger planes, freight planes, Concorde (which had afterburners on when it took off and was very noisy), small planes, old planes, even the Millennium Flacon came in to land (a bit wobbly it was!) and once a bumble bee arrived.  There was even an elephant vehicle going round (not sure what that was for).  Once landed, the planes taxied to their gate, vehicles and steps arrived to meet them, fuel vehicles arrived to fill them up, passenger buses arrived to take the passengers to the terminal if they weren't at a terminal gate, oh, so so so much was going on.  We could happily have stayed there watching just this all day.

However, we had to get on...next stop was Switzerland, where there was a to scale Matterhorn, pretty awesome on its own but then of course there was loads more: cable cars, ski lifts, rotating restaurants, chalets, etc etc.  The best bit though was a chocolate factory.  You pressed a button and watched chocolate being made in a production line, and guess what: a mini chocolate arrived for you to eat at no extra cost, just the press of a button.  Wow!!!!!!!

Italy

Next stop was Italy - but we were flagging again - so back downstairs we went to the restuarant to have a ice-cream each.  Happily revived we headed back to enjoy Vesuvius erupting, a diorama of Venice (no trains or cars here), all the important buildings from Rome including the Sistine Chapel where a monk was messing about shooting up and down on a rope, of course there was the Colosseum, St Peters (where the Popemobil was getting sorted ready for an outing) and everything else.

Last but not least was Austria where there was a raging storm above the mountains, a rack railway, plenty of cable cars, ski lifts and the such.

Wow.

Sorry for the wows but don't know what else to say!

We were there for 5.5 hours and shattered at the end, but very very happy and even though we had high expectations entering it, we were blown away.  It was ridiculously cheap too.

To give you an idea of scale, here are some statistics:

Didn't see much of Tom just his back!

+ Over 15,000m of track
+ 1,040 trains
+ 10,000 carriages
+ Longest train 14.51m
+ Signals: 1,380
+ Points: 3,454
+ Lights: over 385,000
+ Figures: over 260,000
+ Trees: 130,000
+ Construction Time: 760,000 hours
+ Construction Costs: 20 million Euro

How it isn't better known is beyond me!

They haven't finished either, next is Monaco, then France and then England.  We need to come back after 2021 when they have finished them.

AND you can see into the workshops and watch people making the scenery, mending trains, a huge bank of screens with all the points on etc etc and you can arrange a behind the scenes tour as well if you have time.

Mission Control

Every now and again we saw someone pop up in the scenery sorting out a derailed train, problem car etc.  It all added to the fun.

We didn't leave until after 6pm, we were all exhausted, so we dragged ourselves back to our apartment, had a shower and then headed out for tea across the road at a Breton creperie where we each had a galette and a crepe washed down with French cidre (me and Matt) and Orangina (Tom) - we were all starving!

A brilliant brilliant day, well worth the trip here. 14 minutes of video highlights can be found here: https://youtu.be/cQ_-zyF7oj8