At the “Miniatur Wunderland” in Hamburg, I feel like my childhood dreams are here, existing in reality that I can touch! Since I was a little boy I loved the toy train, cars and those small figurines and wished to create a whole town with…everything in it – from the small zigzag roads with trees to a beautiful silver river, under the sun, in the valley and the hill with the train out from the tunnel, to the traffic lights, the crossroad and many tiny houses with red roof along the street…Much later, being a young man, from time to time I still enjoy these stuffs in the big shopping malls during the holidays.
So I feel good at Wunderland! If in my first part Italy and Venice are my most favorite, then in my second post my love is with Middle Germany, with its small towns, open theatre, zoo, especially train system, tunnel…to a huge Knuffingen Airport. I could move from Hamburg to Austria to Switzerland, from Las Vegas to Grand Canyon…just in few steps, they are tiny but how amazing they are! I feel a life with lively daily activities. Sometime I tried to have a close-up look at the figurines, so surprised with small details, so lively, each figurine like a real living soul!
Hamburg is the hometown of Miniatur Wunderland and the largest, as well as the most densely populated, city of the entire Wunderland. The below display of Hamburg with the famous St Michael’s church that I still didn’t have a chance to see it yet in real life. I need to come back to Hamburg!
Speicherstadt – large storehouses, up to seven floors high, made from brown brick stone, built by the end of 19th century and situated between the canals “Fleet” and streets, it has been served as storage for valuable import merchandise at that time.
According to the guide, even the smallest alcoves and ledges at the facades of Speicherstadt buildings were painstakingly handcrafted to make them look as true to the original as possible.
Sometime I feel like I got lost among the crowd of visitors, especially when the daylight is fading away, the night is falling…in the room, I have no idea where to focus my camera, but suddenly I found a small place specially just for camera to shoot the Köhlbrand Bridge at night. Love this idea from the management team.
Knuffingen Airport, one of displays that you have to be a bit patient in order to get closer for the photo-shooting, because of the big crowd around it, surely one of the most fascinating sections of Wunderland, especially from a technical point of view. It take the technician team at Wunderland almost six years to complete this section and cost 4 millions Euros.
The most impressive is the run way, every 15 minutes some planes are landing or taking off, people standing around waiting for this moment, it’s clearly a highlight of Wunderland, with 45 different aircrafts, from A380 to Cessna. Upon arriving at the gates, they are steered back by push-back vehicles and taxi to the runway by themselves. There, they accelerate and take off. I was told each aircraft is equipped with original lights and the turbines creating a realistic sound during take-off.
Here you go ! Enjoy the world’s largest model airport at Miniatur Wunderland!
Turn right and make a few steps, I’m already in Las Vegas, America! To be honest Las Vegas is one of my most less favorite displays at Wunderland. It doesn’t look good but in reality Las Vegas never looks good at daytime, it’s a kind of sad, gray, unlovely town and only at night it turns into a colorful, lively city.
There are some other display like Switzerland in winter, I don’t like it either, to me probably because of the snow – it doesn’t look good! Or even back to America, next to Las Vegas – the famous Grand Canyon. It’s definitely a huge challenge for the model builders to complete the works, but thanks to small details like the plane, the cargo train, some other details make the whole picture natural more lively!
Miniature Wunderland is amazing. I can enjoy not only those incredible works on display but also the guided tour “behind the scene” – let me know how it operates and some stories related to the history, construction…and if go through the entire exhibition, there are different offices with control room, with working desk for the builder, some models under construction, the trains, cars…from time to time the technician suddenly appears to fix, mostly, problem with the train or cars…
In the near future the Wunderland will expand their space for new display, so let’s hope next time when.I come back to Hamburg, I will have more time to enjoy my childhood dreams!
Le petit renard 