Germany: Miniatur Wunderland

There was a lot of preparation that went in to Brent and I going to Germany.  In fact, there were several times that I questioned if it was worth it.  We purchased a Lemken tillage tool, qualifying Brent for a discounted trip.  When Brent first mentioned the opportunity, I blew it off since I had already been to Germany.  It wasn't until Pioneer Equipment would pay for the remainder of his trip in trade for some flying Brent did with his drone that I took it seriously.  I mean, it's not very often that you get a free trip.   If we wouldn't have felt so committed, I'm sure we would have backed out when the corn still was not combined.

We said our goodbyes to the kids and sent them off to school.  We scrambled to leave before they arrived home on the bus.  There always seems to be so many last minute things.  I had Jenny Robinson staying with them during the week and Grandma and Grandpa keeping them on the weekend.  We drove through a blizzard to Smithfield to drop off Delsie before heading to SLC so we would be ready for our early flight.  It was a long day of travel, but not near as bad as I had anticipated.  We got into Hamburg Wednesday morning.  After a brief rest, we were off on our first tour.

We walked along the port to Miniatur Wunderland.  It is a collection of model scenes.  The attention to details is amazing.  At face value it is interesting, but the closer you look, the more interesting it becomes.

One of our guides said the displays sum up German engineering quite well: lots of attention to detail and making it complicated just for fun.  Here is a display in it's beginning stages.

The Swiss alps

Richard's crazy corn at a fair scene

The lighting simulates day and night.  The scenes take on a new dimension at nightfall.

Neuschwanstein Castle

A mine

Sun flower harvest

A harbor

All the components broken down.  I couldn't believe all the electrical wires and circuit boards.

Behind the scenes- engineer and design.  I looked like a craft room on steroids.

We got a kick out of the sign, but the best part was when we had Kord (our German guide) read it and it sounded just like we had thought.  Oh, we had a good laugh over that at dinner when it took Kord a minute to catch on to why we thought it was so funny.

Hotel Hafen Hamburg- same place that I stayed during my Diamler-Benz trip

With Hamburg being a port city, we figured there would be some seafood.  We weren't quite prepared for the fishy stench when we walked in to the Fish Haus restaurant.  After a disgusting seafood soup, it made me leery of trying the fish dish but it was surprisingly good.