Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg 2016 Part 1

Making the most out of the long tour into northern Germany, we combined a visit to the Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg to Stahl auf der Heide. It is the largest model railway attraction in the world, in the heart of the Speicherstadt.

Where to start? The red brick buildings of the Speicherstadt are unmistakably, and with large golden letters the Miniatur Wunderland (miniature wonderland) can be seen from afar.

The attraction is well attended, so book your tickets in advance to avoid queuing. The hosts only let a limited amount of people into the facility, so there are a lot of people but not to much.

After the entrance, behind the souvenir shop and restaurant,  the first installation is a city shown through the ages. They took the same part of the city, a town center with an adjacent river and showed it from an early settlement, through the dark ages and the different stages post 1600.

During our visit in early September the newest addition, Italy, was nearly finished and will be opened up later that month. It was behind windows and walls, but you could take a look at the already set up areas. Amazing first look.

So beside many sights from Rome and other italian cities, the even covered the land side, including a functional vulcano, the Vesuv.

The first large area you enter in the Miniatur Wunderland is the Swiss / Switzerland, and they don't mess around. To show the large swiss alps, that part of the area is spread across two stories. At each stop you could stay for a long time to spot all the small details, hidden stories and dioramas.

And this is not static, there are lot of mobil and moving components. The trains are moving, the traffic is moving, there are lights in the houses, signs etc. interacting. Impressive sight. In swiss you can even see a large outdoor festival in a valley.

Didn't even made it out of the swiss area, before the first day and night cycle started. It moves through the whole installation and is not only light on - light off, but a real change between day and night, including dawn and dusk, with warm reds and cold blues tones. And the cities don't sleep, the lights in the houses go on, the streets are illuminated, the vehicles turn on their headlights. Simply impressive.

On the stairs you can take a look down into the Alps. Look at the sheer size of this build.

From Swiss we move to Bavaria, still in the Alps and we see Schloss Neuschwanstein, as well as a small town in the mountains and a bit mixed in, the Schiffshebewerk (boat lift) Niederfinow

At this point, we are on the second story, take a break and continue in part II about this impressive build. In some of the pictures above, you can see the next large and very dynamic area, but more on that as already mentioned in the second part.

Link: Miniatur Wunderland
Link: Miniaturwunderland @ Facebook