Friday, June 6, 2025
We woke up a little earlier to drive to Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg. We were also going to stay at a new air bnb house that night, so we had to pack up all of our stuff. The Miniatur Wunderland was about a 45 minute drive. We were lucky and got a good parking spot right by the entrance. It wasn’t quite time for us to go in yet, so we walked around the Speicherstadt for a bit, which is one of the largest warehouse districts in the world. It was cold and windy. Erik had signed up for everyone (except Grandma and Grandpa) for the virtual reality game in order to avoid waiting in line. We were given a headset and controllers and then put in this room. We avoided running into people while playing the game because real life people were shown as faded red stick figures in the game. The game was pretty neat but a bit trippy! I wasn’t exactly sure exactly the plot of the game (if there even was one), but the graphics were pretty cool. My only complaint was that there were too many people playing at once! Luckily, I mostly ran into the kids, but poor Erik ran into some guy's protruding belly. The game was only 10-15 minutes. After the game we met up with grandma and grandpa and went to see the model train exhibit. I should a say exhibits, because there were so many of them! There were so many little cities and towns that it was a bit overwhelming to take it all in. Despite Ian and Elisa’s whining that they were done and wanted to leave, we walked through just about every city exhibit there was. By the end, it all looked the same and my legs were getting tired. We stopped for lunch at one of the cafes. We ordered fish n chips, Currywurst, and schnitzel. Elisa ordered a pretzel. The side was potato salad, but it was just diced potatoes with mayonnaise and vinegar. They were okay but not great. We couldn’t leave the building without being herded through a gift shop. The gift shop was quite large. I got a piano ornament; Elisa a mini clarinet figurine; Ian picked out a metal titanic puzzle; and Gabe got an N-scale train. Erik chose yet another magnet, and I also got a pretty angel crystal for Lisa.
Our next stop was another fun activity: a chocolate tour not too far from the Miniatur Wunderland called Chocoversum. It was similar to the other chocolate tour we went on while we were in Edinburgh, but we didn’t get to try nearly as many samples this time as we did then and no chocolate tea either. However, the chocolate bar making was fun. I chose dark chocolate with some random sprinkles and such on top. After the tour and a few tasters, we browsed the chocolate gift shop. I thought most of the chocolate was too expensive, but Grandpa got Elisa a Dubai chocolate bar. We also tried some drinks made from the cacao fruit; they tasted a bit like a lychee drink.
Then we drove to our next home not too far away in auf dem Gut. Erik booked it at the last minute since the host of our other airbnb bailed on us the day after we got to Germany. We had reserved two rooms/condos that used to be an old barn. Instead of going out to dinner, we went to the supermarket for some more water bottles and lots and lots of sugary stuff. We ate Berliners and streusel in the condo, and I cooked all of the eggs we had been toting around for days for anyone that wanted one. Gabe went with Grandma and Grandpa to sleep in their condo, and the rest of us stayed in another.
The train Miniature Wunderland went on forever and I thought the separate displays were almost alike although each was quite unique. We could always go to another chocolate factory because we love chocolate!
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