Forgot Hamburgers… In Hamburg

We took a bus from the Amsterdam airport to Hamburg, Germany. Upon arrival, we checked into our Hotel, had dinner and went to bed. The next morning we got tickets to go to Miniture Wunderland. The ticket time was not until 1:30 so we decided to walk around downtown until then. We started by walking to see the Hamburg opera house also known as the Elbphilharmonie.  It looks a lot like the ocean as the roof is very wavey. It is the first (partially) residential building in Hamburg that is over 100 meters tall. It is a very cool building that I really liked seeing.

As we were walking to Miniture Wunderland we saw a really cool boat. There was a small dome tent thing next to it so we went in and found that the boat was the Energy Observer. It is a boat that is traveling the world and fueling up on only sustainable energy. It does this by using hydrogen and solar power that it collects from the sea and the solar panels on the deck. It is a converted racing catamaran which allows it to be very fast when it needs to be. We got to go look up close at it ad I really thought the sails were cool. They are like wings sideways so they make the ship more efficient.

We also went on the elevated walkways in Hamburg. They often don’t have sidewalks to save space so they have a series of elevated walkways to walk along. We used these to get to Miniture Wunderland. Our ticket being at 1:30 we had some lunch before we went in. Once inside we spent almost 5 hours exploring. Miniture Wunderland is a huge model train and building set that covers 1 1/2 floors of a warehouse. They have sections for the US, Northern Europe, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. There are boats the really move on the water, Cars that drive, and even some people that walk. The U.S. was really cool. They had Vegas. Mount Rushmore and the grand canyon with a plane battle going on. It was amazing and I highly recommend going there if you ever get the chance. There was so much that it is hard to describe. There was even an airport with planes the moved and took off. (I really liked the Melinium Falcon that came in) It was so cool and I loved everything about it.

The next day we took a train to see the town hall and the park around it. I loved seeing the park because it is a huge green area in the middle of the city. We had sandwiches and moved on to the town hall. It looks about the same as most over here but I really liked the model boats on the tall pillars. They were just a really cool addon to the area. Then we took a boat trip around the city. We saw a few new cruise ships in construction and also all the amazing architecture. After we took the boat trip we got off and went in the tunnel under the river. It was built for the dock workers so that they could walk under the river and not have to take boats across. It is still used today by the dock workers and tourists to get to and from work. At each end, there is an elevator to get down to the tunnel and then you walk through it (which is LONG) and then at the other end, you take the other elevator.

We went to a really cool fish, produce and other goods market and we also watched the Hamburg Marathon. It was a rainy and cold morning so I got the largest hot chocolate and whipped cream ever seen!

As we were leaving Hamburg we saw a small film crew and two guys with shark puppets. While we do not know what they were filming they were rolling around on furniture dollies on the public street with their sharks. One fell off the sidewalk on his little cart (see the video).

And by the way yes. We forgot to have any hamburgers.