Hamburg and Belgium day three and four Hamburg

Last night I bought two bus tickets on line for a number 6 bus to take us to Miniatur Wunderland as we had tickets for an eight to eight thirty entry. This was our main reason for visiting Hamburg ,it was something we have wanted to do for some time and as we were crossing the Channel, seemed a good opportunity to do it . As my grandson would say, its awesome. I highly recommend it. It was only a 10 minute bus ride.

Once inside the displays are out of this world, I just wish I had both the skill and dedication do do something similar on a miniature scale.

	About every 20 minutes day becomes night as all the room lights are dimmed out before dawn breaks again.
	There is everything there from funfairs to a working airport where the planes taxi to the runway and take off or land. They even return to their stands with a tow
Well we had to find the boat lift didn’t we. We will be on a real one later this trip		Even Venice gets a look in with animated models. The lad to the left is on a behind the scenes tour and is seeing how they access the layout.

Not only are there trains, cars and other land based displays there is also a dock  side one with water and even the tide rises and falls. It doesn't always go to plan as the ship runs aground at the end of the video.

The impression of Drakes Passage in a storm was another one to catch the eye, overhead projection onto a moving surface.

There was also this very nice display of JCB diggers doing a Mexican Wave

Unlike British attractions the food and drink at Miniature Wonderland are reasonably priced and we stopped for lunch and gave our feet a rest for a bit before completing the tour. In the end we spent all day there .

Hamburg is miles ahead of Gt Britain as far as giving facilities to cyclists goes, They have brick cycle tracks running down the pavements, so its not bikes and cars that have to watchout for each other but pedestrians and cyclists. You have to cross the cycle lane to get on a bus, so you really have to keep your wits about you. It’s very easy to wander onto their lane, they even have a lane at light controlled crossings and when the lights change for pedestrians and bikes to cross, they hurtle across and then taking the cycle path.

 

One of the bridges has the pavement dressed to look exactly like a carpet, it really looks like its been woven, even down to the tassels at the end

 

 

Another section of paving is all bricked, but every brick contains a name, these are known as Stolpersteine of stumbling Stolpersteine. The  stumbling blocks are to commemorate those killed during the German Nazi regime. They are laid in the shape of a cross.

 

 

The next day we walked to the Church of St. Peter, On our way there we passed this rather nice old building with statues out front. The pavilion was elbphilharmonie kulturcafé a centre of culture but now houses Starbucks. Just in front is Mönckebergbrunnen fountain.

At St Petri where we climbed the 127.5Mt spire, all 535+ stairs and steps to the top. The top part of the spire is clad in copper on a steel frame  above the brickwork.

We started with the circular stone stair way up to the first floor,all 110 of them. This took us to the square section of the tower with a straight wooden stair case running up the wall. Then came the big surprise, for some reason there was a Smart car up there .

On the upper wooden square floor is an old office with signalling equipment and a manikin in the uniform of a “Watchman”.  He would watch over the city and alert people to fires or other dangers

The internal part the tow above brick height is all steel lattice which also supports the bells and clock floor, There is still a clock with 4 faces but it is now driven by an electric motor. You can see the staircases running up through the lattice work.

    There are ships portholes for windows on several floors looking out through each face including the very top which is probably less than 2Mt across and the portholes

almost touch. As you can imagine the views are quite spectacular across the city.

 

Leaving St Peters after a cup of coffee and cake, (we needed it after that climb), there were several others in the spire but none went right to the top like us.
We wandered around the town and headed back towards the dock area passing some quite pretty buildings on the way. When we arrived it must have been low tide as we found the water levels quite low as can be seen by the mud and the markings on the walls of the buildings.

We crossed the river via Kornhaus Bridge, This has a large gate to close off the road and another for the path at one end with what looks like a check point.Also a large covered area in front of the gate. I cant find any information on it so suspect it was just to control traffic into and out of the warehouse area of the city.

Lots of the old warehouses are still in use as warehouses with things like rugs and antique furniture still using hoists and the original access doors. There are several trip boats that go around the waterways and at this point they come down from the junction on the left, pirouette. They are only just short enough to get round and leave under the bridge we were standing on.

    Hamburg has some fine gardens and water features, this one is suppose to have a waterfall at the far end but it doesn't look as if the pumps have run for years and the outlets to the pond above are quite dry. There was however a nice view of the Tallin Tower      

We also walked round the large lake with the fountain that can be seen in the view from the church before returning to our hotel for a shower and going out to dinner and the same restaurant we ate the first night having a typical German dish of  Schnitzel complete with egg on the top.