[ Hamburg port information   Baltic 2013 ]

Prinsendam, Baltic, Fri June 14 June 2013
Miniatur Wunderland

By passing it on the way back to the ship, we now know exactly where to find it, though I had already found it on Google maps.   We had a quick lunch in the Lido and then down to the Ocean Bar for a 15:30 rendez-vous for the Miniatur Wunderland (wikipedia).   The fit amongst us set off, but six of us decided that it was just a little too far to walk, so we waited for a taxi, but nothing arrived.   We had tried to get the desk to phone for a taxi but they said "just wait, they are arriving all the time".   Then a man drove up in a people carrier to let some people off from a private tour.   Phil spoke to him and amazingly he agreed to take the six of us non-walkers to MW.   He was very kind and only accepted 5 euros.

We had prebooked for MW, although we hadn't paid yet, but this system got us in with very little hassle, although to be honest there was not much of a queue when we reached the kiosks.   Miniatur Wunderland (web-site) is on the upper two floors with the kiosk on the first floor.   It is basically a great big train set, you know the sort that little boys of retirement age build in their lofts with realistic layouts, signal boxes, little people etc.   However this had been taken far beyond that and was really impressive.   There were lots of reconstructions (e.g. Switzerland), with trains, houses, roads and all the typical culture and scenery.   There were sections on America, Germany, Austria and Hamburg.   They are also planning sections on Ancient Rome, Egypt etc, some of which are already under construction.   They have an extenive on-going program.   Who knows when and if it will ever end, (wikipedia says 2020 but I wonder, they'll have more ideas by then).   It is an excellent learning resource for young children.   The best bit for us was the airport, which we loved.   This was quite a large room and it contained not just the airport with planes landing taking off and taxing between the runway and the terminal but all the ancilliary suport vehicles and equipment for the running of the airport and tranport for getting the passengers to and from the airport.   The whole working airport had been modeled.   This was the approach taken with every exhibit.   It was just amazing.   The sounds of the planes on the runways and the way they took off and flew into the "sky" (a curtain with an opening) was wonderful.   We could have stayed watching it for hours.

In one of the passages behind the exhibits where you can get between the rooms I found they had left an open panel, with glass in it, so you could see the control circuits they were using.   That in itself is pretty impresive, just imagine designing, building and testing out all that bespoke cicuitry.   Being a nerd I couldn't resist snapping it as I went past.   It wasn't until I got home and saw the full size image that I noticed what they had done.   Click on the thumbnail and look at the bottom of the image.   Amazing what is going on there, you just have to admire a mind that thinks like that.   A little further on and I came across the control room where they monitor what is going on and step in to fix problems when things don't quite go right.   Behind the control room was their work bench where they build the models.   The photo is not good as there is severe burnout from his working light and reflections of the control room behind me from off the windows of the work room, but it was a record shot of the event and is OK for that.

Around 17:40 we met up in the MW cafe, from where we were going to go to the restaurant near the Rathaus.   However, one by one, everybody said they were too tired and in the end, none of us went.

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