The turn of the century hopes and dreams of progress were evident in every detail. Our next stop was coffee and pastries at a delightful neighborhood bakery - Konditorei Lindtner. 
The warm feeling from the polished wooden interior, the decadent sweets, and the great conversation wove together to give the whole visit a sense of timelessness. We then headed up for a tour of the neurology office. Sylvia demonstrated a couple of the instruments, checking the boys reflexes and measuring the speed of neural transmission in Nicky's arm with small electric shocks.
The main sightseeing event of the day was Miniatur Wunderland in the heart of the Speicherstadt district. The Speicherstadt is a remnant of Hamburg's glory days as the port of Europe. It was in these massive warehouses on the waterfront where spices, carpets, tea, coffee and other treasures from across the seas were temporarily stored until they could be shipped to their European destinations. 
With the advent of container ships and cranes that load those containers directly onto trucks and freight trains the need for these warehouses has dwindled. Clever entrepreneurs are repurposing these massive shells with all sorts of business attractions. Miniatur Wunderland is a great example. It is several floors of the largest model train exhibit we have ever seen. The miniature people have been captured going about their business in various German cities and Euopean countries. There is even a small room dedicated to the USA. The highlights included the airport, the Lindt factory in miniSwitzerland, and the snow drifts in Scandanavia. The airport had planes taking off and landing. Upon landing they taxied to their gates and little baggage cart and food service trucks drove over to assist them as the passenger walkway extended from the terminal. There was even a screen listing arrivals and departures and in true Swiss fashion all planes were on time. The other show stopper in miniSwitzerland was the mini chocolate bars being produced at the Lindt factory. They tumbled off the conveyor belt and out through a slot. (Here is a picture of Johnny and Nicky waiting for the next chocolate bar to come out. 
The snow drifts in Scandinavia shimmered and glistened like freshly fallen snow.The effect was achieved by using tiny pieces of glass. Throughout the display were elements of dark humor. As you peeked into the windows of apartment buildings to see people going about their lives in addition to the expected activities there was an adult film set. In one of the fields there was a full on CSI investigation, complete with corpse in the river, portable spotlights that actually worked and a crew of divers in the water. There was an alien landing in Germany and a fully developed Area 51 in the American Southwest. There was an underground lair with James Bond style villains plotting world domination and a little studio where they were filming the moon landing. We got a look at miniItaly under construction. My personal favorite was the special display room. There were eight 1 meter square parcels of miniland showing the Bernauerstraße section of Berlin at various times between the end of WWII and the fall of the Berlin Wall . There were six 1 meter square parcels that had been given to various German political parties to design an ideal Germany. Particularly striking was the Berlin bear attempting to haul away a wagonload of Bavarian gold. Fortunately for the Bavarians, a host of local farmers had stopped him in his tracks. Another party saw fit to divide their parcel into two possible futures, one lush ecoparadise and the other a police state with surveillance cameras observing every act and citizens being arrested and thrown into prison (where they worked producing video cameras). In addition to police, good people under arrest, the other people in the diorama were welfare recipients living decadent lives in cushy government supplied apartments. Each party offered a short video explaining their ideal Germany, lest their miniUtopia be misinterpreted.
With the advent of container ships and cranes that load those containers directly onto trucks and freight trains the need for these warehouses has dwindled. Clever entrepreneurs are repurposing these massive shells with all sorts of business attractions. Miniatur Wunderland is a great example. It is several floors of the largest model train exhibit we have ever seen. The miniature people have been captured going about their business in various German cities and Euopean countries. There is even a small room dedicated to the USA. The highlights included the airport, the Lindt factory in miniSwitzerland, and the snow drifts in Scandanavia. The airport had planes taking off and landing. Upon landing they taxied to their gates and little baggage cart and food service trucks drove over to assist them as the passenger walkway extended from the terminal. There was even a screen listing arrivals and departures and in true Swiss fashion all planes were on time. The other show stopper in miniSwitzerland was the mini chocolate bars being produced at the Lindt factory. They tumbled off the conveyor belt and out through a slot. (Here is a picture of Johnny and Nicky waiting for the next chocolate bar to come out. 
The snow drifts in Scandinavia shimmered and glistened like freshly fallen snow.The effect was achieved by using tiny pieces of glass. Throughout the display were elements of dark humor. As you peeked into the windows of apartment buildings to see people going about their lives in addition to the expected activities there was an adult film set. In one of the fields there was a full on CSI investigation, complete with corpse in the river, portable spotlights that actually worked and a crew of divers in the water. There was an alien landing in Germany and a fully developed Area 51 in the American Southwest. There was an underground lair with James Bond style villains plotting world domination and a little studio where they were filming the moon landing. We got a look at miniItaly under construction. My personal favorite was the special display room. There were eight 1 meter square parcels of miniland showing the Bernauerstraße section of Berlin at various times between the end of WWII and the fall of the Berlin Wall . There were six 1 meter square parcels that had been given to various German political parties to design an ideal Germany. Particularly striking was the Berlin bear attempting to haul away a wagonload of Bavarian gold. Fortunately for the Bavarians, a host of local farmers had stopped him in his tracks. Another party saw fit to divide their parcel into two possible futures, one lush ecoparadise and the other a police state with surveillance cameras observing every act and citizens being arrested and thrown into prison (where they worked producing video cameras). In addition to police, good people under arrest, the other people in the diorama were welfare recipients living decadent lives in cushy government supplied apartments. Each party offered a short video explaining their ideal Germany, lest their miniUtopia be misinterpreted.
Rudi picked us up at Miniatur Wunderland and took us on a tour of the port section of Hamburg along the Elbe River. Massive container ships were being loaded and unloaded. Our impression of Hamburg as a hardworking city was confirmed. There are many glass sided office buildings sprouting up along the water as well. Each packed with workers managing the goods and payments passing through. We toured an old icebreaker built in the 1930s. The machine room contained two massive steam powered turbines. It was easy to imagine the heat and the noise. Harder to imagine that people still work in that environment as the ship is still in service part of the year.
Our tour of down town concluded with a stroll past the Rathaus and along the main shopping district (think 5th Avenue). Hamburg is a destination for vacationing Germans seeking a big city experience, complete with shopping, great restaurants and theater. We had a round of tea and cakes at one of the restaurants before heading into the suburbs.
We picked up Rudi's son at field hockey practice. They play in an outdoor league but keep up their training throughout the winter at indoor facilities. The 11-12 year old group had some sharp skills. After Jakob gave us a tour of the club where he usually plays. They have both natural grass and artificial fields just for field hockey. It is a small wonder that Aglaia has such strong skills. We concluded our evening with a delicious dinner and terrific conversation at the home of Rudi and Sylvia. We were welcomed as part of the family and it felt great to be at home rather than on the road for a couple of hours. Based on their recommendation we decided to adjust our itinerary to include Aachen. Rudi and Sylvia even arranged for a personal tour for us from Aglaia's Oma! One of my favorite parts of traveling is the kindness of strangers who soon become family. The Töppers warm welcome was overwhelming.Thus ended a fabulous day.
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