The Miniatur Wunderland is truly a wonderful place. Who would have thought that a construction of miniatures can be so fascinating and enjoyable!
Getting to the exhibition took us to the Speicherstadt area, which is the historical warehouse district along the River Elbe in the heart of Hamburg. The red brick warehouses themselves are beautiful architecture and worth a visit.
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| Minitur Wunderland, Hamburg |
The Wunderland website has warned of long queues. To avoid the queues, I'd obtained a "fast track" voucher, which turned out not to be necessary on the day, since it was a weekday and not a weekend. The young girl at the ticket counter was extremely friendly, and we could tell that it is a different kind of enterprise to those that employ middle-aged women, often fierce-looking and stoical, to man the ticket sales.
There is so much to see! Everything: the design, layout, handicraft, electronics, is first class. Unexpectedly, there is a lot of humour too in the layout, which makes it extra enjoyable.
Here are just some of my favourites.
A building on fire. There is a button which when pressed, lights up the flames and sets the fire rescue in motion. The attention to detail is incredible.
Las Vegas at night.
A derailed train and a helicopter to the rescue.
There are a lot of accidents on the various layouts: car accidents, motor cycle accidents, derailments, which make them statistically significant.
A flower power festival. It amused me to see the caravan and the VW van covered in flowers, not forgetting the two VW beetles one of which is pink and painted with flowers. Whoever made this miniature set had a powerful imagination of what went on in the 1960s.
A bike race. Or maybe it was Tour de France? At the bend, there is an accident and you can almost hear the arguments going on.
I love these festival scenes although I have not been to one myself. It is utterly charming for the dancers to be dressed up as flowers and for a fast food stall to look like a toadstool. And hey, there is also a little dog in the middle of the ring!
And now, for a change, a snow scene. We learnt that the snow is made of very fine pieces of glasses, which makes the snow looks so life like. I particularly like the three figures who are pushing the truck up the hill.
More festival scenes. Life is a long series of festivals. Tents, people, action galore.
The Hamburg football station, during the day and at night. The story goes that the owners are supporters of the Hamburg football club so a model of the stadium has been made and the games played on the screen inside the stadium ensure that Hamburg wins every time.
We went behind the scenes and were treated to the secrets of the trade. Here, a bank of batteries await the vehicles for their regular recharge. Miniatur Wunderland has written their own software and most of the vehicles are run at random, which means that the spectators do not see the same thing over and over again.
Visiting the Minitur Wunderland is the highlight of the trip to Hamburg. I cannot think of anywhere else in the world that we have visited that offers so much fun.
