Note
Spent a lovely couple of hours on a flat-bottomed boat last evening, starting from the Jungfernstieg and touring the little Binnenalster lake then the larger Aussenalster then up a number of fairly shallow canals and around a couple of islands with large houses on them (the tour guide was keen to point out the price per square metre) and back across the Alster lakes. Lots of people out sunbathing or picnicking on the waterfront, paddleboarding (one lady had 2 small dogs with her, both wearing lifejackets) paddleboating. By the time we had walked back to the hotel - fairly basic, but clean, which is more than can be said for the street outside; we are in an area where the street is home for a few people - it was 11pm so we didn't hurry to get up Wed morning.
After generic hotel breakfast/coffee (if ever I look back through my diaries of childhood family holidays, it seems that I talked mainly about the food) we walked over to the Speicherstadt - warehouse district from the 17/1800s - and found the Minuatur-Wunderland, where we spent at least 3 hours marvelling at the miniature worlds on display. So much attention to detail, and a minor obsession with trains and fire engines, all of which travelled around the displays (powered/guided by electro-magnets?). The creators definitely have a sense of humour too, as evidenced by the parade of nuns which turns into a parade of penguins, halfway up an Austrian mountainside. Not sure whether I was more amused by this or the naked sunbathers (all of 1cm tall) hiding in a sunflower field!
But the highlight of the Miniatur-Wunderland has to be Knuffingen airport, where scale models of planes move around the airport and even take off & land (ok, so you can see the rods guiding them, but the sounds are realistic). Sorry Tyson, that we went here without you! Every 15 minutes the entire place cycles through a nighttime phase so you can admire the night time lighting, which is very cool, but it does mean missing out on some of the little details of the 'land' you're in. There's so much to see, that if we had taken mum with us, I think she would still be in the first room...as it was, I wished I'd taken my glasses with me.
Once back out in the sunlight we lunched at a café then walked along the waterfront, observing the floodgates which can be closed at extra-high tide to prevent the main city area from being inundated. We picked a port-cruise boat at random (they seem to be a dime a dozen) then were afforded some extra excitement by the captain's rescue from the Elbe of a woman who seemed to have intentionally gone swimming therein. The cruise itself takes you into the working port and up close & personal with the container ships, which both G & I felt were well worth seeing.
Afterwards we'd thought of catching the train back but there was a big statue up on the hill - of Otto Von Bismarck with a goat on his head, if I understand the signage correctly. But it may just be that the statue was consigned by him and/or the goat may have been a later addition? We then walked through various sections of Planten un Blomen, the botanic gardens and associated parks, before turning back for the hotel, via the causeway between the Alster lakes, and up past the massive Hauptbahnhof, sussing out some restaurants for dinner (settled on Italian, and then ate steak).