Switzerland, Germany, and Miniatur Wunderland

Dear Family and Friends,

Tuesday the 20 of May, was my last day of school at Agora Sant Cugat. At the end of the day I shared the cookies my mother and I made and all the kids signed a t-shirt that I brought. On the previous Friday I had a party with kids in Advanced English. One thing I will remember from the school is that we played soccer every day at both recesses unless it was raining. Another thing I will remember is that you had to wear a smock everyday so you didn’t get stuff on your shirt.

Going away party in Travis' Advanced English class

Catalonia vs. California volleyball tournament our last weekend in Barcelona with our wonderful host Josep Maria Espelta and his son Marti.

On Wednesday, 21 May we flew from Barcelona to Geneva and then my dad and I took 3 trains from Geneva to Lauterbrunnen, while my mom went to a meeting somewhere else (Note from Karen - I met with people at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature about their forest landscape restoration program). From Lauterbrunnen we could see the mountains Monch ("Monk"), Eiger ("Ogre"), and Jungfrau ("Young Girl"). In Lauterbrunnen we could see a waterfall that changed with the wind. The valley in which Lauterbrunnen sits was formed by a glacier so it was a U shape, unlike a river valley which is a V shape.  After arriving in Lauterbrunnen my dad and I went up a mountain train to a town higher up (Wengen). The next day we went on a long hike and we had amazing views of the mountains Monch, Jungfrau, and the Eiger. After the hike we took two trains from Lauterbrunnen to Zürich. We then had dinner with a friend of my parents and took an overnight train from Zürich to Berlin.

Panorama of our hike in the Alps

The next day we took a walking tour of Berlin, saw many historic buildings and remnants of the Berlin Wall, and learned a lot of German history.  One place I found interesting was Gendarme Platz.  Frederick the Great ruled Prussia during the 30 year war. Prussia was the German empire in the 1700s and 1800s. After the 30 year war Frederick the Great realized that he had lost over half his population, so he recruited the French Protestants (Huguenots) that were pushed out of France because of their religion. He invited 5,000 of them to Berlin and built a cathedral for the French, but at the same time they were building a cathedral for the Germans. In the usual one-up fashion the German’s cathedral was 1 foot taller that the French’s. Later in the day we went to a memorial that was a bunch of stone pillars to commemorate the Jews that died in the Holocaust. The next day we went and saw some of the Berlin Wall that still remains and has interesting murals. After that we took a boat up the Spree River to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Checkpoint Charlie was a checkpoint between East and West Berlin. At the museum we learned about the different stories of people who tried to escape from East to West Berlin. 

We also learned that Russia wanted all of Berlin to itself so it blocked transport of goods on all the roads, water ways, and railroad tracks. That left only the air. So for 10 months (in 1948 and 1949) around the clock a U.S. or Great Britain plane was landing every 3 minutes to supply all the resources that West Berlin needed. When the Soviets finally ended the blockade the words painted on busses were “Hooray! We survived!”

A few reflections from Karen – I spent winter quarter of my junior year in college, which was the year before the Wall went down, in Berlin. So, Berlin was at the top of my list of places to visit while we were in Europe and the visit left a strong impression on me.  In 1988, West Berlin was much like any major European city except that it was surrounded by a wall, East German guards, and the death strip (area behind the wall where nobody was allowed to be).  When we crossed into the former East Berlin (where most of the historic buildings are) the police closely checked our visa, the building architecture changed to the typical Soviet cement-block buildings, and we knew that we were being closely watched.  Today there is little evidence of the wall except a few memorial sections and a line on the ground where the Wall used to be.  I struggled to remember and explain to Travis and Michael what it was like 26 years ago, as the traffic whizzed by and people sat outside in cafes where the Wall used to be.  We visited the East Side Gallery where there is a 1.3 km section left with numerous murals and the Berlin Wall Memorial where they have diagrams and an excellent outdoors display of what the wall, guard towers and death strip looked like.  They also had an interesting exhibit in the subway station about the “ghost stations” that were abandoned subway stations at the border of the city, which provided a possibility for underground escape. I was struck by all the rebuilding throughout Berlin and Leipzig (where I spent 3 days at a scientific working group), as a result of damage that hadn’t been repaired from the bombing during WWII and to modernize things since the East German era. As I tell my students, to me my experience in Berlin then and now will always be the most graphic illustration to me that major change can happen.

Mural on one of the few remaining sections of the wall

Line of stones on the street show the former path of the wall.

Back to Travis writing - The next day we went to Potsdam and rented bikes and audio guides. Potsdam is about 45 minutes by train from downtown Berlin.  It was where the kings from Prussia had their palaces. There were 7 palaces. Most of them were built in the 17 and 18 hundreds. (Michael: One of the cool things we saw was the building where the Potsdam Conference was held after World War II.)  The weather was beautiful and the entire day was very relaxing. 

Biking around Potsdam

Monday, 26 May my mother went to a science meeting and my father and I went to Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg. Miniatur Wunderland is the world’s largest model railroad. It also has the world’s smallest airport. They have 8 sections and the first section we went to was Switzerland. In Switzerland they had the Matterhorn and it was 6 meters (not feet) tall. They also had a concert and you could press a button so that the band would start playing music. There was another button that would power a chocolate factory that would give you a piece of real chocolate. The next section was Knuffingen Airport. The airport is the Hamburg Airport but with a different name. Most of the planes take off and land at the airport.  Some of them are always at the airport and never take off and land. They use magnets to move the planes around the airport. When the plane is on the runway two rods attach themselves to the belly of the plane and lift up as the plane takes off. They also have all the different airport vehicles that move around the airport. At one point a fake fire started on a parked plane and the entire fire brigade raced to put it out. All the flights were delayed because the space shuttle landed. They also had a bee fly by with a bunch of people riding it.

The next section was the fake town of Knuffingen. The reason it’s called Knuffingen is because one of the workers didn’t see his wife a lot when they were making the first part. So to make it up to her he called the town Knuffingen, her nickname. In Knuffingen the trucks actually drive themselves. Every once in a while a fake fire starts and the fire brigade goes and puts it out. The section after Knuffingen was Austria. In Austria there was a ski resort that had actual working ski lifts. There were also about 200 naked people hiking up a glacier (If you don’t believe us we will send you the photo). There was also a funicular (if you don’t know what it is look it up in a dictionary) that you press a button and it goes up the mountain.

The next section was Middle Germany. In Middle Germany there was a big fair that had a bunch of rides that you could press a button and the rides would start up. At night time all the rides had really cool lights that lit up. There are approximately 30,000 lights on the fair alone. You could also watch the people in the control room. My dad made the comment “Here you have 7 Hyper-caffeinated guys.” because there were a ton of coffee cups, Redbulls, and coca cola bottles. The next section was Hamburg. In Hamburg there was a construction site that had actual moving cranes. There was a very big train station that had a lot of detail. They had an intercity train that stopped at each different station and waited for the next one to come. They also had a recreation of the Hamburg soccer stadium that has 12,500 figurines. At night you can see a bunch of camera lights flashing. They also have a recreation of the opera house. And when you press the button it opens up and you could see all the tiny orchestra members playing an instrument.

The next section was America. In America you could see redwoods, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Half Dome, Mount Rushmore, Cape Canaveral, Miami, and Key West. So you get the point....they tried to cram as much of the United States in one section as possible. In Cape Canaveral you could press a button and the Space Shuttle would go up a string and then come back down. The last section was Scandinavia. In Scandinavia they had boats that were actually moving; the tide also ebbs. There was also a pack of reindeer that was led by Rudolph, although his nose only lights up between December 1st and January 6th. And if you want to see a cool, 5 min. video about Miniature Wunderland click here.

The world-famous (if you're a model train geek) Knuffigen Airport, complete with Arrivals and Departure screen that shows which model plane will take off or land next, with the correct time!

Part of the city of Hamburg, in miniature.

The Swiss Alps at Miniatur Wunderland

And a final paragraph from Michael - After our adventures in Miniatur Wunderland, Travis and I took yet another train (this time a real one) to Bayreuth to visit colleagues Anke Jektsch and Carl Beierkuhnlein.  We spent two days there where I gave a talk, visited their facilities and field experiments, and met various postdocs and students.  We are now in southern Bavaria where we will see some of the sights of Munich and hike in the northern Alps. And, in less than a week we will be on our way back to Santa Cruz.

Travis, Michael, and Karen