We’d saved a couple of things for a rainy day – but we haven’t had one so far.  The first destination was the Emigration Museum (Ballinstadt), followed by a mandatory visit to Hamburg’s no 1 tourist attraction and Hobbsy recommendation, Miniatur Wunderland.  Both could potentially occupy many hours.

We coped with a replacement bus service for the train that we needed to catch to the Emigration Museum (although it took us far too long to locate a ticket machine at the station – we will never win Amazing Race unless we sharpen our transport skills!).

Despite being a Saturday, there were few other visitors, which suited us nicely.  Millions of hopeful emigrants departed from Hamburg to start new lives all over the world, especially during the late 1800s and early 1900s.  HAPAG was a passenger shipping line which based its commercial success on providing a more comfortable journey than its competitors.  Part of that involved building the emigration halls, which became almost a separate town.  It took a long time to obtain the necessary papers and complete all the checks required for emigration; here, people could wait for their passage in safety and relative comfort.  Socially, it was way ahead of its time, and it served its main purpose of minimising health issues.  Passengers who arrived in the US with any sign of infectious disease such as cholera, were sent back immediately at the shipping company’s expense.

We were hoping it might shed some light on why my family decided to leave Hamburg and set sail for Australia, but there was no specific event around that time that might have pushed them into that decision.  The most likely explanation is that they had friends who had done the same thing, or there was an offer of work. There is no indication that they were fleeing from religious persecution, war, or poverty.  My great great grandfather Gottlieb sailed first, in 1880.  Two years later his wife Elizabeth followed, with her young children aged 4 and 2.  They settled in Victoria.

The displays were interesting and well put together, although in German only.   However the halls were not built until 1901, so my forebears would not have stayed there – and as Hamburg residents, I assume they would simply have waited at home for their passage.  However the Museum provides free access to Ancestry, including the German databases that Ian has not otherwise been able to look at.  We settled in to do some research.

After several hours, we were no more informed than we had been before – in fact, the whole story of the photography studios has been thrown into doubt, as there is conflicting information that we weren’t able to resolve.  There is no doubt that my family lived in Hamburg for many decades, and that they were christened, married, and probably buried in St Michaelis church.  But any more than that, we haven’t been able to prove.  We did confirm that I have a several times great grandfather who was born in Stralsund, where we are heading tomorrow.

Abandoning German genealogy, we headed to Miniatur Wunderland, and bought an entry ticket for 7pm.  We strolled through the historic Speicherstadt (warehouse) district – like an industrialised mini Venice, with bridges and canals.  I am fascinated by the elaborate red brick architecture (maybe it’s the latent Hamburger in me).

We had our first dinner out, at Rudolphs Restaurant, which offered glutenfrei pizza in a canalside setting with a cool breeze.  Ian could choose any of the pizza or pasta dishes, and was given GF bread as well.  The pizza was traditional Italian style and the servings were generous (I couldn’t finish mine). The main entertainment was the boat “captain” who failed to realise he wasn’t going to clear a low bridge, causing a loud bang and some damage to his awning (and his ego).

So – on to Miniatur Wunderland (or MW).  We were warned that we may never want to leave, and we had 5 hours before eviction at midnight.  It’s kind of hard to explain, but “model railway” is doing it a great disservice.  This might just be the coolest place I’ve ever been – or right up in the top three. I would pay someone to work there.

The exhibition covers two storeys and many rooms, with more being built.  It begins with a set of displays depicting life through the ages, from Neolithic times to the present.  Next you move into the main display hall, where you see country themed displays – Switzerland, Germany, Scandinavia and USA so far, with Italy under construction and France and the UK planned.  A towering Matterhorn dominates Switzerland, and there are trains, tunnels, bridges and cable cars galore.  It is way too complex to follow the trains as they wind their way up and down and around, overhead and under foot.

But what puts a smile on everyone’s faces, are the figurines.  There are thousands and thousands of tiny little people and animals, getting up to all sorts of things indoors and outdoors.  You have to look very closely but if you do, you will see forest sex, a lot of accidents (which gives an excuse to bring in the fire engines), and many completely left of field things like scuba diving cows, and mountain climbing penguins.  The attention to detail is just staggering, and the sense of humour is wonderful.

There is a fully functioning airport, complete with terminals and runways, and the planes even take off and land!  They taxi back to the terminals while the fuel trucks, baggage carts and passenger buses buzz backwards and forwards.  There are huge bridges and locks, and even a beach where the tide ebbs and flows.  There are deserts and snow fields and castles and cities.  There’s a rock concert with 20,000 little figurines in the audience.  There’s a bike race, skating rink, fun fair – almost anything you can think of. Although we saw plenty of hikers and picnickers in forests, we couldn’t spot any orienteers – though there was a row of portaloos.

After getting in touch with our inner children, we decided to pay a quick visit to the Reeperbahn (it was on the way home).  Being Saturday night it was packed with tourists, hens parties, backpackers and generally people looking for “a good time”.  It was very noisy and colourful and overcrowded, too many people smoking, broken glass and syringes everywhere.  We stayed only long enough to walk to the next subway entrance.  Our neighbourhood of Altona is also crowded and noisy around the station, but it is quite a different vibe, and I’m glad we chose it to stay in.

It’s lunchtime on Sunday, another hot sunny day, and we haven’t quite gotten around to deciding what to do today (besides deal with the mountain of washing). Tomorrow we leave Hamburg and travel by train to Stralsund.  It’s been a busy, tiring but very enjoyable time in a city that has a great lifestyle and a lot to offer, and deserves more time than most people give it. Kind of like Melbourne.