Downsizing in Hamburg

Nothing at all to do with Heidi Klum, but if modelling is at all your thing, then Hamburg possesses (at least) two attractions that will surely tickle your tiny fancy.

First up, open until very very late, is the Miniatur Wunderland, which, according to Guinness World Records, is the largest model train set (scale length) in the world.

And while this might seem like something that would appeal only to kids, gricers and anoraks, the scale (over 16 km of track at the standard 1:87 HO) is spectacular.

Interwoven across two levels of a warehouse in the Speicherstadt district of Hamburg, we visited, in the space of about two hours and about 1500 square metres of modelled area, destinations in Scandinavia, Bavaria, Switzerland, the Wild West, Venice and Rome, as well as the fabuluos Hamburg and (fictitious) Knuffingen layouts complete with functioning airport. It’s not only a trainset but an extraordinary exhibition of modelling in miniature with some occasional real-life drama thrown in: for example a couple can be observed engaged in a congress of some sort in among a sea of sunflowers; there’s a fight (albeit apparently a one-sided interaction) on one of the station platforms; there are at least three road traffic crashes including two single vehicle roadway departure events into respectively a tree and a streetlight pole; and more seriously perhaps a police investigation of a car into a bicycle at a signalised crossing. We left after midnight, and were far from the last to leave.

But apparently unfulfilled by this, we subsequently spent the following afternoon in the nearby Maritime Museum, which houses nine floors of exhibits including art, weaponry, uniforms and many many many models of boats, altogether fathoming the full depth and breadth of maritime endeavour. We began, as suggested by the museum’s security officer, up on the top floor where hundreds and thousands of ships from various navies around the world are modelled and on display at 1:1200 (one inch to 100 feet) or more latterly post-metrification 1:1250 in a spectrum of different media, including wood, metal, plastic and paper. The craftspersonship and patience and steadiness of hand required to create these models is incomprehensible.

Not all the vessels are so small though. As we descended through the building (which in itself is noteworthy - do your own research), we came across a 6.9 metre long lego Queen Mary II weighing in at 870 kg and comprising 780,000 lego parts.

But whereas Miniatur Wunderland had a focus on fun, the maritime museum and model shipbuilding is (lego aside) much more serious business. I joked earlier on in this series about the world championship of club sandwiches. But there is a world championship for model shipbuilding, which in 2023 was held in the Czech Republic. Who ever knew?