Well, thats what it was – wasn’t it?
Sort of…I didn’t have to sit in front of the computer all week – there was no time and the hotel wanted 9 Euros a day for the privilege of wifi. But I did have to be my equivalent of suited and booted, ready to answer questions in more than one language and on your feet all day long on one croissant and lots of coffee. Not easy when sleep deprived courtesy of a cough/chest infection which kept us both awake at night until we discovered the medicinal properties of the brandy nightcap.
We were in Hamburg, and for once we had some time off to see something. Our friends were off to Miniatur Wunderland, but we thought no, its just a big trainset, sounds boring. Then our Hamburg friends say yes, go, its really worth it – so off we went.
After an hour in which I repeatedly uttered the words “amazing”, “stunning”, “incredible” and “did you spot…..” I decided to stop talking. It truly is a wonderland. A train set where the setting got out of hand – I should say settings as there are rooms and rooms of them, one encompassing 3 storeys so you can view it from different levels. And the attention to detail – a castle painted internally with murals and people at a party, concerts with performances going on, a complete airport with aircraft landing and taking off and much, much more.
There are buttons to press which make things light up or move – sometimes its a bit like Where’s Wally trying to spot what the button has affected – other times its obvious such as a big house fire done with lights and wool to simulate the water streams from the fire hoses. Then, every 10 minutes or so it goes dark so that you can view each panorama in night mode; the lights of Vegas strip and South Beach, the ski resort and the airport, still with aircraft taking off and landing.
Every so often you spot something which shows that the anoraks who created the place have a great sense of humour. A naked couple in a car, another in a field of sunflowers, a bunny train and a huge bee taking off from the airport complete with passengers and flapping wings!
We spent nearly 5 hours there, being amazed like children, but with a lower boredom threshold. And it is located in a lovely traditional redbrick warehouse building in part of the harbour, so we vowed to take more time next year to see this part of the city.
Back in Blighty we have found that after a week adjusting to the 2 hour time change, the 1 hour back again seems a step too far. Great in the morning, we are up and awake (amazing for us at the moment), but crash and burn rather early in the evening! Still it helps as I am back to the early morning power walks in an attempt to compensate for all those croissants and bratwursts…..