A month ago we went to the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg for the last time, although not necessarily the last time in the city – you never know!
I am no longer booking exhibition stands for my business due to the complications of French tax administration, and I am parting company (very amicably) with the company whose products we have exhibited at that show in recent years. So it was also the last stand with the Carter Green name on it, but no regrets as the rules and regulations of exhibiting get more onerous each year!
We arrived at Hamburg airport from Toulouse via Frankfurt, 3 years after the last show and already remembering why we don’t really enjoy flying anymore! We were lucky – our bags arrived, many of our colleagues were less fortunate – and we waited 45 minutes for a taxi, which again turned out to be better than others’ experiences.
Top tip – there are 500 less taxis in Hamburg than there were pre-Covid, and most are summoned via the FreeNow taxi app. Its similar to Uber and essential to move around there. It also includes the e-scooters and e-motor scooters which are parked all over the city these days – Cool!!
That evening we were straight out to sample the beer and food at Paulaners, a Bavarian restaurant we discovered some years ago, and B’s favourite eatery. He was in food heaven! In fact, we ate there every night bar one in the end, including twice with the same friends who also loved it. 😊
Drinking Weizen beer, B had a mixed Pfanne of Nurnberger sausages, leberkas (meat loaf) and a pork patty with potatoes fried with bacon. I had same sausages on sauerkraut with mash. Apart from sauerkraut and some tiny salads, vegetables do not feature heavily here!
Next day was another pilgrimage – this time to Miniatur Wunderland. This started out as a large trainset built in an old warehouse building on the harbour. It is now an enormous set with 17km of track around multiple backdrops including the Swiss Alps, Venice, Rio de Janeiro and Hamburg’s fairground amongst others. The lighting changes from day to night every 15 minutes and the detail is stunning, with tiny models of people everywhere, even populating pop concerts and festivals, and if you look hard enough you can find a few naughty situations too 😉
I didn’t take too many photos of this during this visit as I have a whole CD full of them from our last time there some years back, but here are a few to get the feeling for it.
Railway detail and St Marks Square in Venice. You can press buttons to make things happen – in Venice you got the washing being strung out over the canals!
The night shot is of Neuschwanstein castle.
Then it was time to prepare the stand, and a moment to revisit Planten & Blomen, the big flower and pond park which is right next to the Messe (the name for the exhibition building complex).
It was evident that they have lost some gardeners in some areas, but the rose garden was immaculate and the variety of roses superb – note B smelling them!
Show time followed and suddenly it was time to fly back – we arrived at Toulouse in temperatures of 39C, a bit of a shock after much more comfortable highs of just 22C that week – Phew!
Note the clever integration of the old building into one of the Messe halls.
Goodbye Hamburg – or is it? We love the place and that’s saying something as both of us much prefer small towns and villages to big cities…..