Tourist

On a beautiful sunny morning, after I'd checked out of my hotel and stowed my luggage in a locker at the main railway station, I made my way towards the docks. One of the few city centre Turf zones that I'd not taken was at Nikolai Kirche. I'd expected to find some evidence of the massive bombing that Hamburg must have received in WW2, and here it was. Little more than the spire remains, thanks to a raid in July 1943, but what a spire. Once the tallest building in the world, it's still the fifth highest sacred building. Before going up to the 75m viewing platform, I visited the museum. It was very good, acknowledging the wrongs that brought on the raid and, remarkably, considering the psychological effect of the raid on its aircrew.

By then, I was sufficiently sure of victory in my Turf battle with Spikbebis75 that I decided to visit Miniatur Wunderland - on the recommendation of Magi. I had to book a timed ticket, giving myself a couple of hours to enjoy the city - taking the last few city centre zones still "unique" to me - and having a bratwurst and chips lunch in the café of more attractive gardens. My route took me past another wartime relic, the Flakturm that looks too hard to demolish so it's been turned into accommodation (see extra).

Miniatur Wunderland was good, and I particularly liked the Provence diorama (see extra). Others were bigger and more impressive, but harder to parse. The biggest, though, was (unsurprisingly) of Hamburg features, and it was nice to recognise places I'd seen. 

Afterwards, I made my way back to the main railway station, collected my bags, and took a train to the airport. I'll arrive too late to collect Django from a friend - A left yesterday for two weeks in France - but life will soon return to normal after a great week.