We finished May with a visit to Hamburg. It’s a beautiful city, because it was almost completely rebuilt after World War II bombing. The city surrounds a lake about the size of central park which makes it particularly scenic on a summer day.

We enjoyed a day of golf at a challenging course. Debra’s been playing a lot more as she enjoys seeing the differences among various countries. I thought it was funny they had life ring next to the water, but I suppose it makes sense.

 

But I had an amazing subject for my blog video. “Miniatur Wunderland” is the world’s largest model train museum. In 2000, a couple of guys rented some warehouse space and began building an HO scale version of Hamburg. 15 years later, they’re still building and now have a team of artists, technicians, and builders who have expanded the exhibit to 68,000 square feet (the area of a football field). It does have trains for sure – almost 10 miles of track, 930 engines, and 14,000 rail cars. But more spectacular are the scenes and detail. 215,000 little people, doing everyday things. Cars, trucks and even airplanes that taxi and taking off. About every 10 minutes, day turns into night and 335,000 lights illuminate. They’re still building and have plans that go out to 2020.

We only had time to stay for one hour and it was not nearly enough. I was so fascinated by trying to take it all in that I’m disappointed with the pictures and video I took. But if you like the video orientation, I encourage you to look at “Miniatur Wonderland” on line, especially the professional videos done by the museum. If you get to Hamburg, plan on 4 hours and try to go in the middle of the week. If they tell you there’s a wait, don’t worry about it – they have a nice diner-like café with toys for kids, books and beer for adults. A very professional operation.

Sorry, but the video is 8 minutes – skip forward if you must, but look at the variety to appreciate how clever they are.