Monday Sept 3, 2018 – Hamburg
Can you imagine visiting the Swiss Alps and the Grand Canyon on the same day while landing at a German airport in an Emirates plane ? You can’t, right ? We also couldn’t imagine that it was possible, but we did it yesterday in Hamburg!!
We had booked our tickets online for the Miniatur Wunderland and walked there early in the day as we had a slot of 8.30 to 9.30 am for entry. We thought we would see many miniature trains going across on some tracks and were actually skeptical about even going there. On retrospect, we are so glad we did go there because the place is just mind boggling. So the Miniatur Wunderland has important cities, trains, flights, landscapes, fair grounds, mines, shipping ports, and even a music concert in miniature. The detailing is so realistic that its truly unbelievable. Look at a few pictures from the inside and decide for yourself …
Doesn’t it feel real? The music concert with 20000 people shows 20000 miniature people figures and each of them is different !! We took a few videos and many many more pictures over the two hours that we spent there. The experience is truly worth every penny and every minute spent on it. They are adding more countries and more attractions over the next few months. There is an interesting dashboard that shows how many people from different countries have visited the Wunderland since the time it has been open.
We were in a bit of a hurry as we had to eat lunch and then vacate the Airbnb to take our bus to Berlin at 3 p.m, so we left in two hours. Truly magical and it is truly a “WonderLand”. Much recommended for anyone who is visiting Hamburg.
For lunch we went to the Indian restaurant called “Badshah” which is on Bremer Reihe and serves awesome punjabi food. We had eaten there on Sept 1st as well when we arrived in Hamburg. Their menu is limited but the food is authentic as anywhere in India.
After eating an early lunch we walked to the bus station just to get our bearings right and then took another road to return to the Airbnb. At the end of Bremer Reihe is this Indian store called “Dostana” and if you are missing Haldiram’s snacks or Meera shikakai powder, they have it all. The “Patak” pickles are also there in full force as are the “MDH” masalas. We just bought some roasted vermicelli and green chillies.
We left for the bus station from our Airbnb place around 1.45 and it was a quick 5 minute walk. The things we saw at the bus station made us both very sad … we knew that Germany has been very open about taking in refugees and has been very welcoming, but we saw the magnitude of the problem yesterday. There were three men who were constantly checking every single trashcan in sight, for leftover food and drinks. There was one girl who was trying to ask everyone for some money and I shudder to think of her as a homeless girl. We also saw several men just lying by the roadside with a bag or with a blanket around them. What sort of a world have we brought upon ourselves ? The arbitrary wars, the bombings on civilian areas, the displacement of people on a large scale … a huge crisis brought upon ourselves for some political gain or ideological victory. Just very very sad. Hoping that eventually all this gets sorted and all the refugees are either able to return to their native land or make a living in their new country, but while the crisis is unfolding, it just makes one sick to the core.
Our bus got canceled so we got onto another one at 3.15 instead of 3 pm. More on that in the next blog.