We have been in Hamburg for about 3 days now. We have a lovely room with Younis and Marie close to the main part of the city. They have been so kind and welcoming and we had dinner with them last night. Younis has his own youtube channel; he just immigrated to Germany 9 months ago and his perspective on everything is so interesting.

The first day we arrive anywhere we usually go on a long walk to get a feel for a city. Here are a couple view of the harbor in the early evening.

This time as we walked, we were comparing Hamburg with Reykjavík and Oslo; it seemed to us that Hamburg is a bit grittier, more bustling, and maybe more lived-in than the other places we’ve gone. Oslo in particular was freakishly clean; there was no litter anywhere, hardly any graffiti, and the water in the harbor didn’t even have any of the oil sheen so often see in ports. Even so, Hamburg seems more our speed. Perfection can sometimes be a bit boring.

On our trip we stumbled upon the botanical gardens – Planten un Blomen – a beautiful park in the middle of the city.  They were restful and quiet and so well-groomed. Look at all those adirondack chairs just waiting for people to come and enjoy them. It’s been especially hot, so the park was a nice respite.

We also visited the Rathaus or City Hall. It’s an imposing building with a lovely fountain in an inner courtyard. Since I’ve been Latin deprived up here in the north, I will give you the Latin inscription over the door which is also the motto of Hamburg. It reads:

Libertatem quam peperere maiores digne studeat servare posteritas. 

“May those who come after be worthily eager to preserve the freedom which our forefathers gave.”

It’s not exactly catchy or easy to remember, but it’s a good sentiment. The goddess in the middle of the fountain is Hygeia, the goddess of health.

We also spent some time in the Miniatur Wunderland, an amazing museum filled with tiny replicas of both imaginary and actual places. We were skeptical when we read that it was the number one Hamburg museum on Trip Advisor; it sounds like a place just for kids, right?

Here are some statistics: it is 1500 m2 –that’s 16 football fields for those of you who can only measure size in sports arenas–with 260000 figures. I could have spent days there. Here are a few of the pictures.

There are so many emergency and construction vehicles in Minatur Wunderland that it would have kept an 8-year-old Kyle Ryan mesmerized for at least a few hours. And often the emergency vehicles are animated–i.e. actually moving and going to save a burning forest as below.

A fender bender:

Murder:

A car that careened into a river.

Construction at a miniature version of Miniatur Wunderland.

There were also whimsical details.

For some reason the three Wisemen have gotten lost in this parking lot.

This guy’s waiting for aliens.

A school of forest animals:

A man in a wild, wild west town riding a triceratops while being filmed.

A horse driving a car:

And there were also replicas of famous places.

Pompeii. There was an active volcano that went off every once in a while behind it:

The Vatican and Spanish Steps:

The skyline of Las Vegas:

Miami Beach:

I’ll just dump the rest on here for you to look at if you want. I loved this place, so I took way too many pictures.