22 May: Miniatur Wunderland

We set off later that night to visit Miniatur Wunderland. 23 years ago, brothers Frederik and Gerrit Braun decided to turn their passion for model-making into a business. They started building intricate model scenes at a scale of 1:187 in one of the historic harbour warehouses at Speicherstadt.

Since then they have created 13 themed sites with over a million tiny figures, the world’s biggest model railway : over 16,000 metres of track, 1,231 engines, 12,000 wagons , 1403 signals, 541,000 LEDs, controlled by 59 computers. Cost: 45 million Euros!

It has expanded across four floors and is one of the most visited sites in Germany.

Displays are site-specific in tiny detail (with human interest and comic details if you look closely).

I’ve listed the two real-life scenes of Hamburg harbour at the start:
Elbphilharmonie Concert Hall, and harbour; Speicherstadt historic warehouses (Hamburg has more canals than Venice).

Then the Wunderland: Monte Carlo Rally (cars actually racing); Rio de Janeiro favelas (slums) and Presidential Palace.

Disneyland by night; Hamburg city (this display runs into the next room); Speicherdstadt warehouses; Ocean Liner leaving port.

Absolutely fantastic - a must-see if you ever get to Germany.Read more