It was raining when we woke this
morning, but a bit of damp weather has never stopped us from going
our , so out we went. We've heard about a huge miniature display down
near the port so what better way to while away a few hours. Or so we
thought. By the time we got there at 1000 this morning all the
morning sessions had been sold out, so we bought tickets for entry at
1500 and decided to go to visit the Hamburg museum instead. It was a
nice walk in the park to get there. OK the wind was bit chilly, but
the sky was clearing all the time. There are many museums in Hamburg
and this one is about the history of the city itself.
Back in about 8,000 BC, and no There
aren't too many noughts, discoveries of tools and weapons place
nomadic hunters here. By the 4th century AD there was a
permanent settlement here. Hammaburg Castle was built at the
beginning of the 9th entry AD. Nothing remains of it
today, The settlement continued to grow, but the great fire of 1842
destroyed a large part of it including several important churches.
The city was again devastated by WWII bombing, so much of the centre
of it is quite modern, but often rebuilt in the old style.
In the entry of the museum are a couple
of cloth covered tables with hundreds of small padlocks on them. We
were told that they were originally on a bridge, but now that it has
been demolished they have been displayed on these tables. Each one
bears the name and sometimes a date of the lovers who locked them
onto the bridge. All have been cut off now, and the guide told us
that those who had placed them on the bridge in the first place were
welcome to take their own one back. She didn't say if any of them
had. I think if this had been the case in NZ, the padlocks would have
just been consigned to the bin.
On our way back to miniature wonderland we walked down a street in the rad light district and I just couldn't resist taking this picute
With our booked tickets in hand we
walked back to where the miniatures were being housed. Any
preconceived notion we had about small landscapes were blown out of
the water when we entered the worlds largest computer controlled
model railway. It covers an area in excess of 1150 square metres. We
learned that about 830 trains on more than 12 kilometres of track.
We kept hearing what sounded like
thunder, but realised that what it actually was was the sound effects
of a miniature airport, complete with both landing and taking off
planes. It was very very clever. The Man tells me that the idea is
simple, but putting it into practice is another matter altogether. We
watched as perfectly scaled planes of well known airlines left their
boarding gates and taxied to the runway, engines revving and then
took off. Followed shortly by the increasing noise of an approaching
plane. Out of sight, the planes that had 'taken off' appeared a
short time later making a 'landing', then taxi-ing to their gate and
waiting there until it was take off time again. The delight on the
faces of both little and big kids was evident as we watched the
comings and goings of the airport in miniature.
We'll need and early night tonight
because tomorrow will see us up at about 0400 to go to the famous
fish market.
Its our last day in this great city
tomorrow, and we have enjoyed every minute of it .
The Man has been flicking through the
TV channels as I type and came across my all time favourite NCIS. It
is really very strange to hear the characters speaking in German.
Very clever dubbing
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