Miniature Wonderland

Getting to be a kid again for a few hours walking through this miniature wonderland. It's a fascinating exhibit of imagination and engineering detail.  We've all seen model railroads, but they've done one extra by having a model airport where planes take off and land through curtains on either end of the runway. Probably the most popular exhibit in the entire place. 

Runway

The Vatican

Woodstock

Bryce Canyon

Las Vegas at night

Command and Control Center

 

Humble Hamburg

Actually there's nothing humble about the place. Once again full of tourists from all over. However, unlike Berlin, they dont cater to non-German tourists.   So I get to practice my German, which I appreciate having studied for six years.  I had a few lovely conversations with locals on the ferry, which is part of the metro system.  Although Hamburg is 100km inland, the River Elbe makes it one of the largest ports in all of Europe. They have the largest container ship here as well as one of the largest cruise ships I've ever seen.   Not much was left of Old Hamburg after WWII, so it's filled with new modern high rises.   I am impressed with their new concert hall, yet to be unveiled.  It's built on top of an existing warehouse and cost millions over budget. The architect didn't factor in the weight of the new top section on the existing foundation, built on landfill.  It'll be an impressive when completed in 2020. 

Concert Hall nicknamed the "elephant in the room"

HUGE container ship

Too big to get in one shot 

Marco Polo building 

View of River Elbe

Odense - Birthplace of H.C. Andersen

Timing was everything as I found myself spending a few days in Odense during a H.C. Andersen festival.  A few hours west of Copenhagen, Odense certainly capitalizes on its notoriety as the birthplace of one of the worlds literary greats.  

H.C.  Andersen in front of Radisson Blu 

HCA behind Osense Carhedral 

HCA's borrhplace

Denmark's Happiness Quotient

Danes are ranked up there on the happiness quotient, so I'm told.  Reasons  given are:

1. Hygga - the coziness factor. During the long winter months, families gather around fires or candles and get cozy, sharing stories and just enjoying each others company.   Time for family bonding and putting away the cell phones. 

2. Jante Law - it's an unwritten tradition that no person is better than another and to stand out from others is frowned upon.  Humility is encouraged and ambition at the expense of others is not. 

3. Sport is considered healthy for the body and the society.  Bicycling would fall into this category.  Cars are discouraged and considered a cost to society in terms of fossil fuel consumption and air pollution. The water in the harbor is considered safe to swim in and water quality is checked daily. 

4. Welfare state - I actually don't like the use of that term because it has such a negative connotation in the US. However, much of Scandinavia provides its citizens with free health care and free education.  Denmark also provides free education up to the masters level. 

Yes, taxes are higher here; however, wages are higher, too. The minimum wage is around $20.00 per hour. 

All in all, everyone I met is pretty happy with quality of life in Denmark. 

The Copenhagen carrot and the stick

The first thing one notices in Copenhagen are the bicycles. They outnumber cars and as a pedestrian, it took some getting used to. Bicycle lanes are everywhere and look like sidewalks, so great caution must be used, because the cyclists don't yield to the pedestrians. 

Because the city encourages bicycling, over half its citizens bicycle to work each day. Most others use the metro system. Cars are conspicuously absent from city streets.  There is a 180% tax on cars!!!!' No, that's not a typo.  So if a family owns a car, they sometimes share with extended family or friends.

Bicycle racks two high at train station

Lots of canals and river traffic 

Old hangar turned into apartments 

Cozy and Crazy Copenhagen

My timing on arriving in Copenhagen coincided with two events, Gay Pride week, which culminated in a day long celebration Saturday and the ironman triathlon on Sunday.   So the city that is known for its "hygge" was pretty crazy.  Partying all night long led to sleep deprivation, so I didn't have the energy I usually have when visiting a new city.  

Copenhagen is an architect's dream. Lots of fabulous displays of modernity side by side with the traditional. Since old Copenhagen was destroyed by fire several times over, there's not much in the way of old historical buildings remaining. Exceptions are some of the stone and brick churches and palaces.  

Bella Sky Hotel

Royal Arena

Rotenburg Palace

Marble Cathedral 

Opera House

Iconic Little Mermaid 

Museum Island

It started as a rainy morning , so I decided to head to Museum Island, a short walk from where I'm staying. It's surrounded by water--the Spree Rivwr and the canal and five museums occupy the space.  The museums are the repository of exhibits unlike any I've seen since the Louvre.  We all know the story of Nazi Germany absconding with the art and archeology of nations they conquered.   Art of this kind changes hands over the centuries, illegally in most cases.   In any case, it's well taken care of here in Berlin and will probably remain that way indefinitely.   I queued up for 1.5 hours for the Pergamon Museum, which exhibits the Ishtar Gate and Pergamon Temples,  artifacts brought from Babylon, dated BC. I was particularly impressed with the Bode Musrum collection of Vorgin Mary iconography. Many statues and bas reliefs, probably stolen from churches all over Europe.  I'm not singling out the Germans, the British played their part in "acquiring" art and archeological artifacts. 

Alhambra Dome in the Islamic Art museum

Donatello's Pazzi Madonna

Bode Museum

Berlin Rebuilds

About 75% of Berlin was destroyed during WWII. Much of the demolished buildings were just leveled, the rubble carted outside of the city and piled into hills, covered with dirt and left for future generations to wonder about.  Much like our landfills today. Fortunately, some buildings of historic significance were not totally demolished and have been slowly restored, like Berlin Cathedral.  It was bombed in 1944, the dome collapsed and the interior was left to the elements for almost 10 years before the government got aid from the West ro restore it.  It was reconsicrated in 1994.  So most of  Berlin is new since 1992, a wonder of architecture and ingenuity.  Major improvements are ongoing to the railway system, mostly the U-bahn, or underground.  The East side is now a highly desirable place to live and work and most of the shops and restaurants are populated with foreigners who have come to get work and have a good quality of life. I've met people from Australia, Mexico, Spain, India, Japan, and Middle East. 

Berlin Cathedral from Monbijou  Park

 View of TV tower from Cathedral dome

River view

Bravo Berln

I can't believe what a journey I've been on these past few months. I feel I've been following this historical timeline and now find myself in the heart of Betlin where much of the tragedy of the last 100 years originated.  It's hard to imagine  how this city has reinvented itself in the last 25 years. I visited many historic places from the cold war: Checkpoint Chsrlie and the Berlin Wall. All now tourist attractions, foregone but not forgotten.  I even have a chunk of the Berlin Wall that a friend, Stephanie, from Connecticut brought back when she was working on a project for Otis Elevatoe in Berlin back in 1989. She was in Berln the night the wall came down. She described it as the most exhilarating event when people from East Berln swarmed into West Berlin, hugging and celebrating this momentous occasion.  

There are stretches of the wall left in stages of demolition, forms of expression to memorialize the victims and to offer the public and view into that part of Berlin's history.

Sections of rebar left standing

A cross section showing rounded cap to prevent climbing the wall

East side of wall becomes a gallery for expression through art

Malbork Castle

MAn hour outside of Gdansk is one of the treasures of Polish history going back to the Middle Ages--Malbork Castle. First built by the Teutonic order to serve as a residence for the Crusaders imposing Christianity on this part of the world, it later became the residence of Polish monarchy.  Much of ot was destroyed during WWII and has been restored over the ensuing decades.  It's become a World Heritage site and justifiably so. 

Energetic Gdansk

This city becomes a wall to wall market every day. You can find everything from food, clothes, produce, flea market collectibles, crafts, and so on.  It's called the Lomg Market, but it's just as broad as it is long. It rained this morning, so the city was a bit subdued, but by midday was bustling again.  

I decided it was a good day to catch some museums.  The WWII museum just opened two weeks ago. It's really a high tech, interactive, multimedia state-of-the-art in museums. Recievets use GPS and based on where you are, provide audio descriptions of certain displays.  Aside from that, the content was superb.  As mentioned on a previous blog, Poland played a pivotal role in the start of WWII. 

The other equally superb museum was the Solidaroty Museum, which chronicles the events after WWII up to the fall of the Soviet bloc. Once again Poland played a pivotal role when shipyard workers, led by Lech Waleça created a Solidsrity Union and led strikes against harsh working conditions imposed by the Soviets.  Their resistance, along with other events finally led to the fall of the Soviet Union and the independence of Poland, the Baltics and eastern  Europe. 

WWII museum

Quite an architectural masterpiece 

Solidsrity Musrum--another great piece of architecture--represents ships, where the movement began

Monument to those who gave their lives for Solidaroty 

Gdansk - Westerplatte

My journey now proceeds westward. I have left the Baltic countries and now journey into Poland to the beautiful city of Gdansk, also on the Baltic coast.   I had no idea the significance Gdansk had in WWII. It all began here when Hitler  invaded Poland on September 1, 1939.  He attacked the area called Westerplatte, a small peninsula belonging to Gdansk.  The area had been turned into a Musrum, the focal point is this manument in memory of those Poles who gave their lives to defend their country.  

The remains of the barracks.  I thought the cross was very symbolic. 

The ruins reinforced to capture the spirit of the place.  Suspended in time. 

Horror turned into sculpture