Hamburg

We woke up Wednesday (August 14, 2019) and went to breakfast at our hotel around 7am. The hotel breakfast was surprisingly good. We ate lots then finished packing and headed to terminal 5 at the airport.

Waiting for the train to bring us to T5

One of the constant things announced is that. London and much of Europe try very hard to ensure safety on public transit.

Once we arrived at the terminal, we checked in with British Airways at their employee counter. It's really neat that BA has their own employee check in and it makes things move pretty quick. The check in agent assigned our seats, 22E and F, and gave us fast track passes to go through the quick security line which was awesome. We passed through security and headed to the lounge near our gate. It's a small crowded lounge but it's nice to get free drinks and a snack. About 45 minutes to boarding we went to our gate. We quickly boarded and took our seats, excited to head to another country. 

The flight was about an hour and a half and Hunter and I slept through most of it. When we landed we went through security and got another stamp! Our passports are filling up. We went to the welcome center next and purchased a transit pass. They have a neat pass that allows group transit for up to 5 so Hunter and I paid for one pass that lasted two days. It was a great deal at €33. We headed to the trains and made our way to our hotel. The best hotel deal was at a beautiful Radisson Blu. It was right next to transit and very nice. When we arrived, the hotels computers were broken, so we had to wait almost an hour before we could check in. At least the lobby was nice and they had water, we keep getting dehydrated on our trips so Hunter is always making sure to suggest we drink. In return, the receptionist put us in a nicer room on the 23rd floor. When we finally got up there, the view from our room was amazing! It was a nice sunny day too which made the view even better.

Somewhere on our way to Germany

Switching trains to get to our hotel

Our tall hotel, the room even came with a 3D puzzle of it!

View from the hotel across Hamburg

We dropped off our things and headed to get food. Being in Hamburg, we wanted to go to the best Hamburger place. Hunter found a place called Burgerlich where you order off iPads. It was quite awesome! The food was delicious and there was so much of it - onion rings, fries, homemade mint lime lemonade, and an espresso shake! There were a lot of cool and unique food options so we definitely want to go back if we are ever in Hamburg again. The restaurant even messed up and brought us an extra order of onion rings for free. We were full by the time we left!

Our delicious meal!

Walking to the museum

A nice park on our way to the museum

After eating we headed to Miniatur Wunderland, a massive model train and plane museum. It was about 5pm when we arrived and the museum was open till 12:30am, so we had plenty of time to visit, and we used it! The museum has two levels separated into different regions. There's an America region where you can visit Bryce Canyon and Las Vegas and then many more local regions such as Austria, Germany, and Italy. There's even an airport where planes actually take off! Hunter and I took so many photos and they show just how stunning the museum is. I'll also add the link to the YouTube video that has some information on the museum!

Walking to the museum in Hamburg's historic port district

A great photo of Hunter

A stadium at Miniatur Wunderland with many tiny people

Hunter found this exhibit interesting because while it portrayed nazis it is illegal in Germany even today to display swatstikas so they left all the banners blank.

Bryce Canyon

Union Pacific Big Boy, Hunter saw one of these in real life in Laramie WY once while he was in school there

The lights cycled between day and night, its hard to see but this is a sign for I15 the same interstate that runs through St George

Vegas at night

Miami Beach, FL

The Overseas Railway in the Florida Keys, something Hunter told me about from growing up there

The snow was made from glass crystals and there were warnings not to touch it

This model has real water in it and some of the boats really sail on it

floating boats

25,000 liters of water in this model

An iceberg

In one of the pictures when walking to the museum, you could see this opera house

The building opened up and you could see the people inside

The shark chased the swimmer around this pond

A fair

There were lots of actions you could trigger everywhere like this bungee jumper on a crane

The control center for all the tracks

A roadside anti-abortion ad, very realistic!

A spooky house with some dinosaurs. Can you see them?

Some nude swimmers

Can you see the dinosaur in this one? 

Night Sight on my new Pixel 3a phone

Car park at the airport

A Lufthansa A340-600, Hunter really wants to fly one of these before they all disappear

Airplanes really taxiied

An action shot showing how the planes actually took off and landed, almost looks real

The exact 747SP in the corner with the brown tail was actually in YLW for renovations for month

There were little details like these yodelers all over that made it cool to really explore the layouts, the more you looked the more you found

A hidden looping device used to move trains between levels of the displays

Rome's Termini Station which we visited in real life a few months ago

Another shot of Termini station, the train to the airport was always on the far platform

Not our best photo of St Peter's Basilica compared to the real thing, but it was really cool to see in miniature

Can you see me?

Someday we want to go to the real Almalfi Coast

Hunter and I

Hamburg City Hall

Our hotel at night

After visiting the museum, we headed back to our hotel and it wasn't long before we were asleep from our long day, we had flown every day for the last 3 and already had a plan in place for tomorrow! 

Date: August 14, 2019