Life in Hamburg + Miniatur Wunderland

To start, here's a nice picture of the stuff near Hamburg, from the air:

part of Hamburg from the air

From Germany 2012-2013

Here's someone else's pic, including a nice view of the Elbe. It really does sprawl all over the southern end of town.

I moved out of my old apartment and into a new one. The new one is pretty sweet. I'm on the water and in a cute and trendy part of town that still happens to be a comfortable biking distance from the university. Sadly, only good for a year because it's a sabbatical rental, but still. Pretty awesome.

The view

From Germany 2012-2013

It does come with its fair share of beggars. By which I mean these guys:

From Germany 2012-2013

And I live next to a ''farmer's market'' of sorts that runs the distance between two train stops. I was recently talked into buying a kilo (~ 2lbs) of strawberries (2euro for 2 500g things and 1,5 euro for 1 500 g thing). I also found the weirdest tomatoes, which look like a lot of little cherry tomatoes had all fused together (damage due to my mishandling en route home):

From Germany 2012-2013

A few weeks ago, I was met with noise and bustle and what looked like someone assembling cabinets in the entryway to my apartment building. Later on, this replaced it. I guess someone got a new kitchen delivered (if you buy it complete as a set, it tends to include installation):

It had a sign stating it would only stay there 'til Thursday, then be removed

From Germany 2012-2013

Now on to the exciting part. Several friends of mine visited Minitaur Wunderland last August while we were all in Hamburg for a conference and couldn't believe that I, living in Hamburg, had not yet been. So, I talked a few friends into going with me.

It's located in the warehouse district of Hamburg (die Speicherstadt), which looked quite lovely:

From Germany 2012-2013

It's a two-story and several-room series of exhibits of miniatures, including a large one representing the alps, one which is an airport (including a plane that lands periodically), one of Hamburg itself, and various American landmarks.


Each room would cycle through day-dusk-''night''-dawn-day periodically, so you could take pictures at various light levels, which was nice for, say, the miniature of Vegas. 

Here's some believable tunnel traffic at ''night'':

From Germany 2012-2013

I liked these caverns, which were just hanging out behind glass in one of the walls, at about torso-level, because I think my pictures from the trip to Carlsbad Caverns look roughly like this, and those were actual caverns: 

From Germany 2012-2013

From Germany 2012-2013

The level of detail was amazing.  There was a Milka (brand of chocolate) cow mixed amidst the ''normal'' ones:

From Germany 2012-2013

This is some kind of rural fair 

From Germany 2012-2013

and an antique or fleamarket thing:

From Germany 2012-2013

Passed by a mini U-Bahn (train) station, similarly underground/easy to miss like the cavern: 

From Germany 2012-2013

Here is a video I took of their ''hot air balloons'' during the nighttime cycle.

This palace reminded me of Sans Souci (in Potsdam):

From Germany 2012-2013

Here's the actual Sans Souci:

with people, not miniatures

From Germany 2012-2013

The miniatures were a weird mix of old and new. Mini ads from the 30s. Futuristic ice cream stands. Velociraptors chasing a guy up to a haunted house. This castle thing, with a minivan on the bridge leading out.

From Germany 2012-2013

There were buttons everywhere (at about throat-level for the swarms of children milling about, who would eagerly press them as soon as they turned green (green meant they were ready to go, otherwise the button would be lit green & red). They made people move, or cars/rides/whatnot move.  The UFO would only move at nighttime. Here's a video, in case the image below doesn't link you to the video:

From Germany 2012-2013

The night cycle was also nice for this little amusement park (again a video, so here's a link in case the image doesn't link you there). :

From Germany 2012-2013

Towards the end came miniature Hamburg.
Our best guess was that this was supposed to be the Elbphilharmonie (which has been under construction for ages, is projected to be under construction for ages, and is waaaaaay over budget):

From Germany 2012-2013

Here's my own picture of it from later that evening; we went to dinner on a restaurant-ship nearby:

From Germany 2012-2013

Here's a miniature of the Hauptbahnhof, with the roof removed so that one can look inside: 

From Germany 2012-2013

which I liked much better at night:

From Germany 2012-2013

And a miniature Landungsbrücken (old? dock area):

From Germany 2012-2013

I think the mini Las Vegas was very photogenic, so here are my attempts to capture that:

From Germany 2012-2013

From Germany 2012-2013

From Germany 2012-2013

Nearby was the Grand Canyon etc.

From Germany 2012-2013

The Native American village has a totem pole (note: not something that people of that region made, totem poles are Pacific Northwest), which is hard to see in this pic:

From Germany 2012-2013

and a blurry (my fault, not theirs) Rushmore:

From Germany 2012-2013

Following the Hamburg and USA displays were some on Scandinavia. I have no idea what this has to do with Scandinavia:

From Germany 2012-2013

Or the following (but it has a bunch of different flags out front, so I'm guessing it's a notable building?):

From Germany 2012-2013

The resolution is terrible, but apparently in Scandinavia, there are scuba diving cows:

From Germany 2012-2013

More Scandinavia. I was impressed by how water-like it was, until I realized that in this exhibit they had actually used water (unlike previous ones, which were all resin): 

From Germany 2012-2013

And here is an obligatory video of a miniature train going through ''Sweden''. 

Hope you all enjoyed.