Miniatur Wunderland | Adam Bobbs

A Miniatur Wunderland landscape including a farm in a mountain range.

After arriving in Hamburg following 26 hours of total travel time, red-eyed and zombie like, we unanimously elected to try to catch up on some of the rest we had missed. We all awoke from our afternoon naps just in time to go downstairs before departing for our first tour of E3, Miniatur Wunderland (Miniature Wonderland). A short train ride got us there for the four o’clock start time, largely thanks to the extremely swift pace at which Mrs. Davis walks.

Miniatur Wunderland itself was, well, wonderful. It’s basically an enormous collection and exhibition of model trains, cars, buildings, and figures – everything I dreamed of as little kid. The best thing about it was how incredibly realistic it was. Every figure was amazingly detailed and unique, and the scenes of the different cities and landscapes were captivating. On display, they had exhibits of Mount Rushmore, Italy, a carnival, a soccer stadium, an airport, and much more. The museum cycled through day and night, with the orange and blue lights dimming to create the effect of a sunset. At “night time” the lights in the rooms were on low, allowing the bright LED’s in the exhibits to be in full display. In fact, there are 385,000 lights in Miniatur Wunderland between the trains, cars, light posts, etc. It was truly a sight to see.

The appearance of the museum in itself was quite impressive, but it even had the facts to back it up. Miniatur Wunderland consists of 260,000 figures, 130,000 trees, 1,040 trains, 10,000 carriages, and 1,380 signals. The construction time was 760,000 hours, totaling 20 million Euro. Needless to say, it was a great way to begin our adventures in Hamburg!