It’s a Small Small World…Literally (Hamburg 1 of 2)

The immigration officers in Germany jumped onto the ship (literally...they pulled along side and hopped on) while heading through the Kiel Canal the day before we made it to Hamburg. This meant on the first day, right at 900, everyone could get off the ship.

My group decided to wander around and, as a priority, find a place for lunch. We chose to find a place recommended by one of the German interport students (a student who comes on board and stays with the ship for 1-2 weeks, while doing discussions, lectures, etc. regarding their home country). Gröninger Braukeller was exactly what you’d expect from a meal at a German brewing cellar: meat, more meat, potatoes, sauerkraut, and beer from Hamburg. This is my kind of meal…don’t leave room for dessert…just eat the main course till you’re full. I also reminded everyone of the advice a German friend, Ronnie, gave to my cousin and I. Ronnie explained in Germany parents often tell their children something to the effect of, “you have to eat everything on your plate, or else it is going to rain.” This is extrinsic motivation for the kids to finish their vegetables (though I have to assume kids figure out quickly that clearing their plate has no correlation with what the weather will be like…I digress). Luckily everyone at our table finished their meal (with a little help from myself and another guy), so no need to worry about the weather (which was perfect until the day we were leaving)!

We spent the afternoon walking the city and sightseeing. We saw St. Peter’s Church, St. James’ Church, The Rathaus (City Hall), followed by St. Nicholas’ Church and Memorial. St. Nicholas’ Church was erected in 1195 (what? Yeah…it’s old), but was destroyed in the Great Fire of Hamburg in 1842. After rebuilding it, the 483-foot church steeple was the highest in the world. The church once again burned down, during WWII in the Allies bombing mission, Operation Gomorrah, and now it serves as a memorial. We went up the tower (via elevator) to a viewing platform, but it didn’t offer very good views/pictures, due to scaffolding and grates on the windows. We finished our afternoon with a stop at the #1 tourist attraction in Hamburg: Miniatur Wunderland!

Miniature Wunderland is a scale model of various cities, sights, and attractions from all over the world: Switzerland, Scandinavia, Italy, USA, France, etc. In addition, they have their own airport, Knuffingen, where planes are constantly landing, taxiing, boarding, and taking off! Here are some of the current details of the exhibit (though sections are constantly expanding):

Theme Worlds: 8

            Trains: 930 (world’s largest model railroad – goes through the entire exhibit)

            Track Length: 13,000 meters

            Signals: 1,270

            Switches: 3,050

            Lights: 335,000 (approximately)

            Figurines: 215,000

            Trees: 228,000

            Construction Time: 580,000 hours

It really is so much more fun than any description of it could be. I wasn’t sure what to expect or if I’d even like it, and I ended up spending 2.5 hours there (and could have stayed longer)! Each scene has so much going on and the details of it are incredible. There were also over 150 “Action Buttons” spread throughout the exhibit, which would start activating animated scenes and effects. Finally, throughout the entire exhibit, lights would be going on/off simulating daytime and night time, which would trigger different actions. Here’s just a few pictures:

 Concert with 20,000+ figurines/fans (Daytime/Night time)

Bavaria & the Neuschwanstein Castle

Hamburg's Imtech Arena: Soccer Stadium (2000 hours to construct)

Matterhorn with/chairlifts (gondola not shown), skiers, and slopes

Las Vegas, USA

 Knuffingen Airport (I don't have any pictures on the runway, 

but took some videos, which I can't upload here)

…and many more scenes!

I had to leave Miniatur Wunderland because I was leading the SAS Field Program: Hamburg by Night, which was a 3-hour bus tour seeing the city illuminated, with a stop at a park (where we’d get a free glass of champagne) to see a Water Fountain and Light show (think Disney World/Disney Land/Bellagio Fountains). 

Two major things from this excursion:

1) The tour was at night, so everything was dark…including the majority of what we were trying to see. The tour guide gave good information, but I lost count of the times he said, “well the lights aren’t on, but if they were, you’d see __(sight)__.”

2) We got off the bus at the park and speed walked to get the free glass of champagne and still make the 30-minute fountain show in time. In doing so, we lost one of our lifelong learners, who wandered off to find a bathroom, while we were picking up the champagne. After the 30-minute show, I was doing a head count to make sure everyone was there to head back to the bus, only to realize we were one short. I kept counting until the friend of the missing woman finally spoke up and explained Barbara never came back from the bathroom. Mind you…this woman had been holding two glasses of champagne the entire time (approximately 40 minutes), but didn’t feel it necessary to let someone know Barbara didn’t make it to the show. I spent the next 15 minutes wandering around the park like Hansel and Gretel calling “Bar-bar-a” every 20 seconds. Luckily, Barbara was paying attention before we got off the bus and met us at the bus meeting area, after watching the water/light show from a different location. Whew…losing a person during my first time as Trip Liaison would not have been good.

Besides the show, this tour was a total bust…so much so that almost everyone on it got off (when the bus made a wrong turn and took us near the MV Explorer) with 30 minutes left in the tour. Luckily the Field Program Coordinator was also on the bus, and thus saw how awful it was. This led to every participant getting a full refund from SAS (which will now probably just go to my shipboard bar tab)! 

"Drizzt had always suspected it, but now it was confirmed, that "welcome" was his favorite word in the common tongue, and a word, he understood with no equivalent in the language of the drow."