Hamburg winter Wunderland

Look I rented a mini and I'm driving through the "green" German countryside. If only. I did rent a car for tomorrow, but there is no green in sight. I'm feeling a little blue today: cold, sick, homesick, cold. It's strange how difficult it is to look at the pictures from yesterday, because there is some fun stuff here, but all I'm thinking is "man I felt horrible there", still do. Blah.

It started with the walking tour I was supposed to take at 11:00. I left with plenty of time. I got stuck in a vortex called the hamburg subway system. I thought I had it figured out. I ended up at this station 2 times, by mistake. Figured I should take a picture of the cool windows to document my conundrum. I'm going to blame it on being sick (I just hadn't admitted it to my self yet).

Finally emerging from the correct train station and seeing this induces an "everything will be alright in the world" sense of calm. Not just here but in Oslo, and Paris, and London too. I'm not an apple nerd, but I do have a suite of their products.I think seeing that logo reminds me that we are all the same, with our iPods and love of gadgets, plus if I'm in a bind certainly the apple geniuses will help me out.

So I missed the walking tour by 28 minutes. I was so frustrated and cold that I stopped here. You may be disappointed to hear it was Starbucks, but the hazelnut hot chocolate was really good and I needed to mentally prepare for those whiteout conditions on the other side of that door.

New plan of attack. Walk to Minaturwunderland. So it sounds like a mecca for all the train geeks, and I'm kinda expecting an oversized version of those train conventions that are in big warehouses and kinda smell funny. Old. But the reviews on trip advisor are promising and I'm intrigued. So I walk past places like this. Hamburg has a mix of old and new buildings, primarily new, because it was devastated during WWII.

At the Wunderland...First of all there are some really good looking geeks that work there. Starting with the one I buy my ticket from. I ask, "ein ticket bitte", to which he then rattles off a bunch of other stuff in German I don't understand. Dang it I hate that. I think I'm trying to be cool and speak the language and all I can do is stare and say "I'm sorry". Then the modelesque blonde flashes his pearly whites at me and says, "is it your first time here". I can see my high school German teacher shaking his head at me now, just like he did back then, when he told me to go outside and practice with a classmate before retaking the test.

Instead of going outside this time I go down the hall and am caught up in the "wunder" of this elaborate display that goes on room after room with a throng of other people. It does smell a little funny by the way.

Below at the palace someone starts a fire. You see the fire in the windows. The smoke comes out of the building and the fire engines wiz their way up from the village. Check out the monks checking out the woman in the foreground. There are little moments like this everywhere.

One of my favorites: a bank heist complete with underground tunnel. And the cops are waiting for them on the other side.

Here at the airport, way in the distance, you can actually see planes taking off and landing.

And look its the 15 freeway in the USA section.

The pictures don't do it justice, I really am sounding like a geek. But I think it was the best part of the day.

Then I walk back by way of St Nikolai church. The remains of a bombed out church. I thought elevator rides were available everyday, but I guess I was mistaken again. I just took pictures in the calf deep snow instead.

So tomorrow. I need everyone to cross their fingers because I'm supposed to pick up a BMW or equivalent rental car. I'm really really hoping it's a BMW so I can drive it on the autobahn!