Day 82 - Wednesday 24 July - Minatur Wunderland

Wednesday 24 July

Our prime reason for stopping in Hamburg was to go and see the biggest model train set in the world. We have seen it on TV, and on the internet, so here we are. We booked in last night, and the only timeslot available to arrive was 7:30-8:30am, and we were there (after 20mins walk) by 8:15.

It has 9 international areas covering 1500sqm of model area, 15.4km track, 1040 locomotives, 280 moving cars, 263,000 figurines, 389,000 lights. It has taken so far 795,000 man hours to make, and needs 50 computers to run it, and they are extending it further. We were there for 7hrs (incl lunch).

So many photos, I will add some in later.

After that, we went home via St Nikolai's church site.

It was not rebuilt after the bombing raid on Hamburg in July 1943, but the surviving steeple was kept as a peace memorial. I went up in the elevator, but D didn't.

 The wonderful new music hall

St Pietri and St Jakobi steeples
 

 The mosaic in what was the apse of the church

  Sculpture ' The Ordeal', to commemorate the deaths of the 50,000 from the local 'prisoner' camp  who died there.  The base is bricks from the camp.

 In the crypt is a sombre museum display about the bombing, which took place over 8 days, killing 35,000 and destroying most of the city. We thought it interesting that 'they' acknowledged that great damage had been done by Germany in Poland, London, Coventry etc prior to 1943, but there was no mention of the vast numbers of Jewish people who were no longer living in Hamburg.

 St Peter and St Paul from the old church.

This museum is a member of the international Community of the Cross of Nails, which was formed in Coventry, England and promotes world peace. We have also been to the Kaiser Wilhelm church in Berlin, which also has an old steeple, but a new church.