Hamburg - Miniatur Wunderland

Miniatur Wunderland (it's German spelling) is where we chose to spend our Christmas day in Hamburg. When researching our trip, and knowing Germany shuts down for Christmas, it was a relief to see this is open. We booked tickets in advance.

Miniatur Wunderland is full of large scale models containing miniature trains, cars, people, animals, buildings, landscapes and more. All hand built. All with amazing detail. Moving objects, sound effects, lights, smoke and more. Every 15 minutes or so, it cycles between daytime and nighttime so every model is worth seeing twice at least.

It covers two floors across two seperate buildings, linked by a bridge over a canal.

Some vital statistics from Wikipedia:

• 1,120 digitally controlled trains with more than 10,000 wagons.
• 4,300 houses and bridges,
• More than 10,000 vehicles – of which around 350 drive independently on the installation
• 52 airplanes
• Around 290,000 figures.
• Almost 500,000 built-in LED lights.
• Of the 7,000 m2 of floorspace, the models occupies 1,545 m2

We spent about 5 hours in here and could easily have spent longer except it was getting way too crowded mid afternoon and our feet were getting tired.

Apart from the realistic aspects of the models, all amazing, those who design the models have a great sense of humour and there are funny little stories being told all over the place.

Here's just a small selection of my photos, of the incredible and the humorous...

Mission control where staff keep an eye on everything for problems. They have cameras and sensors everywhere!

A fire.

Peak hour traffic at night.

Crossing between the buildings.

Horse poo.

Errr.... yeah....

Tour de France including an accident.

General view, gives you an idea of the scale.

Santa and his sleigh have become separated, each on different roofs across the road from each other.

The bears are not happy about this shop.

A Coca-Cola truck like you would see on Christmas ads. I had to wait ages for this. I saw the truck drive past and had to wait for it to drive all around the model and back to me. When it came back, it was sitting at traffic lights, with its indicator blinking. I had to wait for the lights to go green for it to turn the corner. The realism is incredible and thoughtful.

The airport. Here, planes actually take off and land. There was a Millennium Falcon parked on the runway too.

Venice including the Rialto Bridge and something strange happening in the crowds at Piazza San Marco.

Monte Carlo with the Grand Prix in progress.

This is all just amazing. You could visit here a hundred times and still notice something new. It's very clever and hats off to everyone involved in the creation of this marvel. Thank you Miniatur Wunderland for being open on Christmas Day.

Berlin to Hamburg

Today we drove from Berlin to Hamburg.

We picked up the rental car near our hotel about 9am. After familiarising ourselves with the vehicle, and packing our bags in, we left. The roads in Berlin were very quiet, which made navigating the roads easy.

It's Christmas Eve and we expected it would either be crazy busy like New Zealand would be, or extra quiet. Turns out all shops close at midday here so it's quiet. We stopped at a big hardware store for a nosey, it was dead inside and we didn't see much of interest.

We also stopped at a small town just outside Berlin to buy food and drink supplies to keep us going for the next 48 hours. Mostly breads, snacks and drinks.

Then we were on the Autobahn for 2 hours, where there is mostly no speed limit. Check out our speedo in the photo below, not breaking the law!

Once we arrived in Hamburg, we checked into our hotel, then just went for a drive around for an hour or two. just seeing what's around and in particular scanning for any shops open. Everything was closed or just about to. Finding any place selling cooked food was proving impossible. We were looking likely to rely on our supermarket foods.

Helen decided to lookup food on Uber as an indication of what's open. She sound a place called Burger Heroes so we drove there. It was opposite the train station which was a very busy place with people travelling for Christmas. The burger shop was open, we grabbed some food, and they were indeed heroes and the food was amazing. 

With Germany officially closed for Christmas, we parked the car and by 5pm were in our hotel room watching Netflix.

Berlin Day Three

Today we started by catching the underground about 40 minutes out of the Berlin city centre, to the BMW Motorrad factory. BMW manufacture all their motorcycles in Berlin for the worldwide market, and I really wanted to do a factory tour. When planning our trip, we could not book tickets, and it appeared the factory was closed for a Christmas break. We just hadn't been able to plan this so it would be possible. That aside, I figured we could go see the factory with our own eyes.

It turns out BMW have a showroom there with most of their motorcycles on display, so you can sit on them, plus many accessories, and a store of riding gear and merchandise. We visited the showroom and sat on a few bikes.

I did ask about factory tours, as it can't hurt to ask, and they confirmed the factory is closed for the holidays.

Helen especially likes the new range of electric scooters.

We found this as a part of their display, somewhat random, and with no items nearby to set further context.

They had a boxer engine (like one of my bikes has) with cutaway to see what's inside.

There are two underground stations, one at each end of the factory, which gives you an idea of how long its street frontage is. We walked from one end to the other. It's a nice brick building,

Apart from the BMW Welt showroom we had just visited, they also had a BMW dealer nearby the factory gates. We didn't go in, but got a photo of the BMW Bear outside. We see bears like this all over Berlin and it's about time we had a photo with one.

And finally here's the factory gate all locked up for Christmas.

Next we trained back into the city and headed towards some pen shops Helen wanted to visit. Between this and BMW, it meant a good part of the day was used either walking or sitting on public transport. By about 3pm we arrived at Alexanderplatz which is meant to be one of the "must see" plazas in Berlin. We didn't see the attraction, it just seemed to be surrounded by big malls. It was cold and wet.

Wondering where to eat, Helen noticed "Five Guys" burgers. I've never heard of them before. We went in, it was crowed as can be. I needed a toilet so while I went and queued and did my business, Helen grabbed us a table. Then I went and ordered. Their menu is very simple. Not many options. Basically do you want fries with your burger, and what drink. Although I was blindsided at the counter as they ask for every ingredient you want. Lettuce, tomato, cheese, sauces, fried onion, raw onion, pickles, etc. I went for the usual ingredients and paid my bill. It was 50 Euros, or $100 NZ money. Damn these better be good burgers!!!!! They were huge, double patties by default, and the regular fries are huge. Imagine 4x McDonalds fries. Freshly cut and cooked on site. All very filling, and tasted fresh, but not $100 worth.

Now full of food, and still wet outside, we decided to hop a bus back to the hotel. We actually needed two buses however had good seats on the first, so decided to ride it to the end of the line and back again. On the way there was something happening with lots of fire and police so the buses were stopped for a while and then taken on a small detour. At the end of the line we all had to get off and then cross the road to get on again. Unfortunately the next bus pulled up next to ours for the drivers to have a chat, and when the bus pulled away he misjudged and hit the other bus. So now both buses were out of commission. We're standing at the bus stop with. a growing crowd of wet and unhappy people. So we decided to take a risk and get on whatever bus comes first. That did work out OK as we stopped at an underground station. It still took us some time to get home though.

So that's our day, it took all day to do not much, I guess that what holidays are all about.

Berlin Day Two

Today was Sunday and in Germany that means all shops are closed, even supermarkets. Years ago we were caught out by this in Munich, the city was absolutely dead! So today we slept in and watched some TV and didn't head out until about 11am.

We started by walking to Checkpoint Charlie which is only about 12 minute walk from our hotel. We've seen Checkpoint Charlie before and it is just a tacky tourist trap surrounded by American fast food and souvenir shops. This was not our destination but two nearby stops were. We've probably posted a picture of this before, many years ago, but here's another.

The first was the Trabi Museum dedicated to the Trabant, a car built in GDR (East Germany) and built a cult following after the Berlin Well fell. It was actually quite small and we spent most of our time watching an interesting documentary about the cars they had a small movie theature.

Secondly we visited Due Mauer (The Wall) Panorama. It was an almost 360% panorama, photo realistic by hand painted, created by an artist that wanted to recreate a slice of life in Berlin around the wall in the '80s. It was incredibly well done but the experience didn't last too long as there was only one panorama to see.

After this we hopped an underground from Checkpoint Charlie and headed to a stop nearby Museum Island. This train was dirty and full of people we wanted to keep our distance from. The stop we got off at was full of drunks, druggies and homeless. It didn't feel safe at all and we got out as quickly as possible. 

We walked back along the river to the first set of Christmas Markets we had seen yesterday. Surprisingly they were open. Today I sampled a 1/2 metre hotdog. The sausage may be 1/2 meter long, but the bun isn't, so they cut part of the sausage and put it inside the bun. Tastes the same but loses the affect.

The weather continued to be cold and wet today. There was an underground nearby so we returned to the room to watch TV for the rest of the afternoon.

For dinner we ventured out into the suburbs via train for a Chinese Buffet restaurant. It was quiet outside but inside the restaurant was quite large, full of people, bustling busy. Thankfully they could seat us quickly without a reservation. Now for a another first, they had robots delivering food to tables! The food was nice and we left satisfied. By the time we returned to the room it was 9pm.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Berlin.

Berlin Day One

Today we started by hopping a train and then tram outside town to a motorcycle accessories shop that was about 30 minutes outside of the inner city. Outside the central city, it was mostly giant housing estates as far as the eye could see. Big, square buildings, all several stories high, full of flats. I found my shop easily, I wanted new motorcycle boots but they didn't have any stock for my big feet.

Next we hopped the same tram back, but only one stop, to an Asian markets we had noticed on the way past. Here were eight giant "halls" full of little shops. All sorts including food, clothes, nails and markup, electronics. All very cramped but interesting to see.

Next we caught the same tram right back into Berlin, then transferred to a train across to the Brandenburg Gate. Here we had Currywurst for breakfast at a street vendor. It was cold and wet so we sat under shelter while we sample the local delicacy. Actually it was a bit average. 

We then walked over the through the famous Brandenburg Gate. 

From here I decided to walk aimlessly for a while, but we ended up in an open space by the river. All very modern, and clean, with huge buildings everywhere, which makes for long walking distances to get to anything interesting. 

We followed the river for a bit before deciding we need a plan. We agreed to go to Museum Island and used Google Maps to suggest a bus. We needed to walk to the bus and wait a while.

Actually we ended up stopping on the way because a few things caught our eye. Firstly was a shop selling souvenirs related to what we call "Mr Green Light Man" who is famous in Berlin. His actual name is "Ampelmännchen" which translates to "'little traffic light man". Helen bought a T-Shirt and stickers.

Next door, Volkswagon had an exhibit setup which showed their history and future. This included showing the original Volkswagon Beetle and Golf, various models across the years, but also other cars like Lamborghini Countach and Porsche Carrera GT supercars. They also had various electronics from over the years. This included my favourite, a Commodore 64. My misspent youth took place glued to one of these. Photos were forbidden in here but I had to sneak this! 

Next we got on the bus to Museum Island, where numerous giant museums are. There were Christmas Markets here, they had interesting signs that we've never seen before. It is sad they feel some of these are necessary especially guns.

It was lunch time, so we wandered through. These markets had a museum building as a backdrop and had a really nice intimate feeling about it. We opted for Indian food, kind of a taste of home. 

After this we carried on the same bus route to find a shop Helen wanted to see. Unfortunately it closed permanently. 

We caught a mixture of bus and underground back to the hotel to thaw out and have a rest.

About 6pm we ventured out again, intending to return to Museum Island to the same Christmas Markets. Unfortunately a bus mixup meant we drove on a different road, straight past the markets we wanted, and off Museum Island. We decided just to get off at the next stop and decide what to do. As luck would have it, there were more Christmas Markets right here. This was the Berliner Markets, the biggest in Berlin. We wandered in, found some food, and sat down to eat. This was one of the few markets we've found with seating. Helen had pommes with garlic and mayo, while I had a currywurst, and we shared a beer in a returnable glass. We sat and enjoyed the Christmas cheer alongside a skating rink. Helen then saved my seat while I went to find us some desserts.

The whole time, we were eyeing up a big ferris wheel that didn't seem to be moving much. We wondered if it was so pricy that nobody wanted to ride it. Next thing you know, Santa came flying in over the markets in his sleigh! It was a bit of fun and spectacle for all to see. Actually he was flying on wires, the guy acting as Santa was quite brave being up there.

Eventually it started to rain so we headed off to find the ferris wheel. Rides were quite cheap so we jumped on, and suddenly it started to become popular. From up high, we would see just how big the markets were. They spanned an entire park, and the skating rink was setup about the famous Neptune fountain. It was a lovely view from up top and thankfully the rain was driving from a direction that meant the windows we needed stayed dry.

Once down again, the rain set in so we headed off to find a bus. We got our bus, and at changeover walked to the correct bus stop for our next bus. Two buses came by and did not stop for us. It was then we translated to English a sign at the bus stop saying that the bus route has changed. Given we were in the middle of nowhere, and it was raining, this wasn't helpful! So the next bus that did stop, we got on no matter where it was heading. As luck would have it, it stopped nearby the Brandenburg Gate where our day started, so we hopped off. This was an opportunity for a night photo, by which time the rain eased, then down into the train station.

We caught the train to the stop nearest our hotel. But it didn't get there. The train stopped one station early, made an announcement, and everyone got off the train. Someone was kind enough to speak English and tell us that the train cannot continue due to unexpected problems. The train driver got off the train too and walked away so this wasn't going to resolve quickly! We headed up to road level to get our bearings. This was one big station we'd stopped at but it wasn't busy.

Here we found we were just opposite the Mall of Berlin, and a short bus ride away from the hotel. But firstly we saw a ride where people sit on giant rubber rings and zoom down to the bottom. It looked like fun for not for us.

Our bus arrived, and about 10pm we got back to our hotel.

It doesn't sound like we achieved much, but it kept us busy and we saw quite a lot.