The last stop on our tour of the German Christmas markets was Hamburg. While probably not the first place most people would think about visiting in Germany, it was one of my favorites and by far the best for the girls. Honeybun was 2 ½ years old and Sugarplum was only 5 months during our German adventure and while we could take them most anywhere and they behaved well, we were all ready for a few more fun and lighthearted things after exploring the country’s dark history of recent times. After 10 days of driving from Munich to Hamburg via Nurnberg, Leipzig, Wittenberg and Berlin; visiting castles, historical sights and museums and behaving so well, the girls deserved to do a few things aimed at them and Hamburg did not disappoint!
We arrived in Hamburg from Berlin in the early afternoon and after checking into our hotel, we headed to the Minitur Wunderland, a huge, intricate, amazing, mesmerizing working model train museum. We spent two hours engrossed in the trains going round and round and the people and cars moving around the buildings lighting up as the museum turned from day to night every so often but we could have stayed for days. My grandfather had a large model train set up in his basement and my Daddy, who is a big model train fan, was like a small child and even little Sugarplum was engrossed in the action. The museum features many different areas including “America”, “Scandinavia”, and an airport with airplanes that take off and land (this part was in the final prep phases when we visited).
The next day we visited the Ballinstadt which I found extremely fascinating. Many American immigrants that came through Ellis Island, started their journey in Hamburg and the Ballinstadt chronicles that journey with a hands-on exhibit covering every aspect of the journey from start to finish and even a little bit on the living conditions the immigrants were met with once across the ocean. Honeybun stayed engrossed in the museum throughout our visit as there was so much to see and interact with.
That afternoon we went to the Prototyp Car Museum. It’s an indoor exhibit of lots of rare and expensive cars. You can even sit in some and there are also driving simulators. This museum wasn’t a hit with our whole group but I’m pleased with our experience and Honeybun loved prentending to drive.
After the Prototyp we headed towards the main Christmas market where we wandered the market and the local stores and did some of our Christmas shopping. We also happened to get to see a parade go through as we finished up our shopping!
The next morning we went to the Tierpakr Hagenback (Hamburg zoo). While it was too cold and snowy to do the outdoor zoo, they also have an extensive indoor aquarium that we all enjoyed. You cannot take your own buggy into the aquarium but they have something you can borrow (I can’t remember if it’s their buggy or a baby carrier) but I just carried Sugarplum in my ringsling. The visit starts with a lemur exhibit where the lemurs are free to roam about the enclosure with you and the girls thought it was fantastic when one climbed on Grandma’s back! The visit includes tons of different kinds of aquariums with various sea life as well as many exhibits with reptiles. It was a great, easygoing finish to our Germany adventure before heading off to the airport.
12 days, 6 cities, 5 hotels, 2 huge vans, 100+ mph speeds on the autobahn and snow every day resulted in some really amazing memories and a much deserved rest when we got back to Dublin!
