Day 53: Sat 9 Aug - Hamburg

13-26 deg C, an absolutely beautiful day

Ride G: 8km; total: 1,797km

Walk G: 10km; total: 406km

Walk W: 9km; total: 364km

A day when we did not have to pack up and go riding, yay! We were still up early though and downstairs to one of the nicest breakfasts we’ve had so far. After a bit more laundry work we hit the streets of Hamburg. Today we completed one of the self-guided walking tours, mainly around the canals, lakes and harbour.  

This city was a huge construction site when Greg was last here in 2006, and it’s still going on, but on a limited basis. There’s nowhere near the disruption it caused then. It looks like an amazing city to live in if you like restaurants, bars, music venues, cycling and eating outside. 

Certainly the highlight of the day would have to be the Miniature Wonderland. Think of all the miniature railway setups you’ve ever seen, multiply them by 100 and you still wouldn’t come close to the size of this setup. It was spread over three floors. Just about everything moves, flashes or makes a noise.  Even the planes take off and land! We suspect even Rob/Dad would have had enough by the time he got to the end; and that’s saying something!  Some of the stats are below. It cost the equivalent AUD$71,310,880 (with the exchange rate of today) to build. It was truly mind blowing. 

We confirmed that Hamburg is nowhere near as busy as the other touristy cities we’ve been to. Even the traffic around the city is relatively light.

There’s certainly lots of water though,  not only around the harbour and lakes areas but there’s plenty of canals within the city itself. It creates a sort of calming effect on the city environment. The two main lakes were created in medieval times when a dam was built to power mills operating on the banks of the Alster River.  

Greg went for a late afternoon ride while Wendy researched and booked a hotel for Bremen. Dinner (that was procured on the way back to the hotel this afternoon) was had then another wander for Greg while Wendy blogged. 

All this needs is customers

Memorial to the Fallen of WWI and WWII 

 

Alster Fountain, photobombed by a seagull

Hamburg

Hamburg City Hall

Same space, different perspectives 

Hygieia Fountain inside City Hall

Former main church of St Nikolai

Imagine what we would have if the bombing in WWII hadn’t occurred. 

Good set of bells!

The ‘inside’ of the church 

The ice cream Wendy would like to have one day

Miniature Wonderland

A stadium somewhere with some well known artist, each spectator is a separate figure 

Monaco

Grand Prix race car

Near Monaco

Looks like Stuttgart main station, but not sure where it is

There’s been an accident!

Cops and robbers?

Not at the correct angle, but this is olive picking mechanical style

Chair lift in the Alps

Miniature Wonderland International Airport

Coming into the air bridge to offload passengers

Takeoff

Touch and Go

This one had a malfunction and closed the airport for hours!

Planes waiting to takeoff

Airport parking lot

Wind turbines

Fair ground 

Miniature fire trucks and other fire related vehicles

Night time at Miniature Wonderland - they turned day into night at various intervals while we were there 

Old river warehouses repurposed 

Lunch location 

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

A concert hall

Weird looking balconies when viewed from this angle

Wendy liked the look of this building

Speicherstadt town hall

A sculpture near Chilehaus

And 

Random canal pic 

View from our window this afternoon

A shopping passage/mall

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