Arctic Adventure Part 3 - It's a small small German world

Every so often, on a great trip, you will come across something that is so extraordinary that you can't stop looking at it and you know that later on words will fail you. For me, this place is located in Hamburg, Germany.

This is the world famous "Miniatur Wunderland" (Miniature Wonderland for those of you who are brain-dead). This is not Hans and Dieter display their model train set. Miniature Wonderland is the largest model railroad in the world. Having said that, it's like describing the Mona Lisa as a small painting. Yes, Miniature Wonderland has a crapload of train track - 51,000 feet of track. Yes, it has 930 train engines pulling 14,450 carriages. Yes, there are more than 335,000 lights, 228,000 trees, and 215,000 human figurines. But to describe it by raw figures is to miss the whole essence of the place.  Miniature Wonderland is all about brilliant, inspired engineering, mixed with lots and lots of humor (humor from the Germans? Whodathunkit?).

I paid extra to get in early.  The first place I went to was the replication of the Hamburg Airport (I know, I'm a propeller-head, but the airport is the most famous section of Miniature Wonderland). I stood there, transfixed, for more than 2 hours.  The more you pay attention, the more the details will reward you. Since I was there for so long,the airport cycled through several sped up day/night cycles. This is why the pictures will look somewhat incorrect light-wise.

First the terminal

Hard to believe this is just a model isn't it?

Note the chaos.  The electronic signs change in the same roll up manner the real ones do. Also see how some cars are dirty and some are clean.

Note the correct use of turn signals?  This is Germany after all.

Airport ground tracking radar with parking garage in background.  Radar rotated at correct speed -child's play for these guys.

Goodbye kiss in parking lot

Interior of the terminal as seen through the windows (I'm only showing one small section)

Remember, each of the figurines are only an inch tall! See the guy with the kid in his lap? How 'bout the sitting woman in orange whose lower back hurts? 

This screen updates correctly  (matches activity on the tarmac)

Overview of the airport - starting with passenger jets

Notice all the different types of planes - more about this later. The blue tanker truck on the left is busy driving around, carefully staying in the ground vehicle lane.

Air freight section of the airport

This overview requires a little bit of explanation to appreciate. Every single one of the passenger planes (and some of the freighters) you see will eventually cycle through - meaning head out to the runway and takeoff (and later return).  So how do they move about the airport?

This Lufthansa 747 is taxiing out from the gate. 

I have no idea.  I was dumbfounded. The doohickey sticking out in front of the nose gear is not in a track (like the old slot cars of our youth).  I think it's part of the mechanism for takeoff. Not only do the planes back out from the gate (first the Jetway retracts out of the way), they then taxi out to the runway.

The tug pushes the the plane out from the gate. The plane pauses while they start the engines (which you can hear if you listen closely).  Then the navigation lights come on. See the "cracks" in part of the tarmac (and the oil stains?) The gray van in the background drives around.

Taxiway to runway (we've cycled into night here)

Next comes the most famous part of the airport.  The planes "take-off". 

And disappear into the clouds

But of course, it's not quite that simple. 

UPS  MD-11

Airbus A-380

The take-off closely mimics the flight characteristics of each individual plane.  The A 380 above (and the Russian freighter in the foreground) move slowly at the beginning of the take-off roll, travel the entire length of the runway, and just barely get airborne at the very end of the runway. By contrast, a twin turboprop is airborne at mid-field.

The 4 afterburning jets on the Concorde make a lot of noise

At the approach end of the runway, planes return and land.

As you would expect, they then taxi back to the terminal where the Jet-way attaches so the passengers can disembark.

Sometimes the airport is used for emergency Space Shuttle landings.

It is immediately surrounded by multiple emergency vehicles

Not everything is safe at the airport.  In the cargo section of Hamburg Airport an old DC-8 collapses on it's nose gear.

And promptly catches fire (complete with smoke). Note #3 engine is also on fire

This provokes a response from the fire department (fire fighting is a repeat theme at Miniature Wonderland). First the lights come on.  Then the doors open. Then each fire engine and ambulance light up and drive out, one by one.

The fire department is located in General Aviation

They rush to the scene of the accident.

They surround the plane and the fire goes out. This whole sequence takes several minutes (with lots of smoke). I got so engrossed in it that I forgot to keep taking pictures. Sorry.

Planes require lots of maintenance. Fortunately Hamburg Airport has full jet maintenance hangers able to handle 747-800's

The doors close completely.  Note all the gear lining the walls on shelves.

Later, after repairs, the 747 returns to service.

So far this has been all serious stuff. What about humor?

Not everything that flies is a plane.  This bumble bee so surprised me I barely caught a picture. It comes out of the clouds and "buzzes" the field.

The airport is reputed to have cost $3,500,000 to build. It shows.  The whole thing is mind-blowing. I've only shown a fraction of it.

More Humor:

Video taping racy ad

Prison.  Look closely at the shanking at the basketball game

Are they ALL sheep?

Nope.  That's a westie being walked

Count the number of concert attendees.  Good luck!  My guess is 80,000 individual figurines 

Love the medical tent

Gold mine

Strikes it rich.  Look at the gold dust trail to the Rolls

Guess which one is the supervisor?

The sign says "do not park here"

They mean business!

I couldn't figger it out either.

Space aliens crash land

On the way into Hamburg I went by the Elbphilharmonie.  Elbphilharmonie is Hamburg's ultra concert hall.  It's supposed to be complete in January, 2017 at a cost of 
$885 M. 

   This is the real McCoy.  By Specialpaul - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41745093

 I didn't have time to take the tour of the Opera House.  Turns out, I didn't have to:

The model

Press this button (BTW there are no less than 253 of these buttons in the exhibit hall)

And the hall opens up

The hall has lots of rooms behind the main auditorium  

 There are  many other buildings that are open to view

Including a TV recording studio

Note the people on the roof gathered around the big screen

Care to take a mountain top sauna German style?

abandoned car

Wish this picture of all the corner bathrooms had turned out better

Another building cut-away.  Top floor - art gallery (look for the sales rep in red describing a piece). Next floor down - shooting a porno (note on the right the "on-deck" actors getting ready for the next scene. Next floor down - office (note the guy xeroxing his butt). Bottom floor - conference (look for the people bored out of their minds)

Bike race disaster

Guy about to get goosed

Frosty's summer place

Riot control

crash scene.  Weightlifter to the rescue?

Murder investigation

Tractor pull scene (push the button and it cycles)

you always have to look closely to find the humor

The port section uses lots water and is quite complex (the tide moves in and out).  By this time I confess I was getting burned out.  Here's a few shots anyway.

The cool thing about this ship in dry-dock is all the welding going on.  In this shot there's 2 places arcing.

not sure I totally get the guy and the swan on the bulbous bow

This is a good one, but you have to look very closely at the guy in the bushes with the camera

Naked group skiing

This may be one of the most definitive pictures.  Look for what's missing.

See any Plexiglas barriers?

This is not the US.  This is Germany.  Germans and their kids are expected to behave themselves.  They do.  Any of the stuff could be touched, but no one does. What a viewing difference that makes.

Curious to know what it takes to get everything to run? Hint - its not a simple on/off switch like on your Lionel train set you got for Christmas from grandpa.

So what about the future?

Lots and lots of construction underway

Construction plans extend out to 2020. You can see Italy under construction currently. France, England, and Africa are in the planning stages.  Stay tuned.  This place is worth multiple visits. I have shown only a tiny tiny fraction of all the stuff there. In fact, I'm rather disappointed that I didn't get a picture (or picture set) of all the cool things I saw.