I did not sleep very well last night it was very hot, plus as is common in Europe we have a big square pillow and a duvet with no sheets. This was worse than normal as the pillow and duvet were nylon and had a serrated pattern on them. Hot and sticky.
The hotel has two breakfast restaurants, of course with no directions we first of all went to the wrong one. Somehow we were meant to know. The restaurants were both done up like a wedding venue with white table clothes and covers over the chairs. I thought maybe the chairs were a bit old and worn, but they were actually pretty nice.
The lift is a bit weird, it has mirrors that multiply you in all directions, it made me feel a bit dizzy. Nothing of course to do with the birthday celebrations last night.
After breakfast as always the washing. We found a laundry about a 5 minute walk from the hotel but we didn’t have any change so we went to an ATM and then to the bank to get change. Just along the road were 3 homeless guys sleeping and their dog keeping watch. I forgot to mention we did find a homeless couple and dog not far from the restaurant last night and they were happy to take the food.
Back to the laundry, all instructions in German, but we managed to get the washing machines going. There were photos of Jimmy Hendrix there. 
Gordon and Karen turned up and they can both speak German, it turns out the laundry’s claim to fame is that in 1966 Jimmy Hendrix washed his jacket there.
Gordon and Karen – Dr’s from Canada. This is their first TDA tour. Karen has signed up for the African tour next year
Gregg and Sue at the laundry. They are tandem riders from USA, this is their first TDA tour
Also an interesting sign advising us to pickle our laundry. I spent the time at the laundry chatting plus a small amount on the blog. The dryer we put our clothes in wasn’t working so we wasted about 30 minutes and it was late morning by the time we got back to our hotel.
After putting the clothes away we went round the corner to lunch at the Maredo restaurant. It was quite warm so we sat outside. I had a burger which was quite nice and a Brett had a chicken salad in a delicious looking bread roll. I had food envy until he told me it was dry.
Then a couple of hours catching up on emails and the blog until it was time to meet Michele and Tony to go to the Miniature Wonderland railway. 
It was fantastic, there are 930 trains; 21,500 figures; 8,850 cars and trucks; 13,000 meters of track; 3,660 buildings. The whole display over two floors is computer generated. All the cars and trucks and trains have brake lights and tail and head lights at night. There were mock ups of Venice, Las Vegas and numerous other places.
The level of detail was truly amazing. In the houses would be people cooking, eating, watching TV. 
Every 30 minutes it would go dark for 5 minutes and the car, train, house lights etc would all come on.
There was an airport with planes landing and taking off, taxiing to and from the hangers, getting fueled etc. There were fire engines going to fires and flames coming out of windows, and bike crashes with ambulances, but the best bit that I thought was really fantastic was the bikes would crash and then the ambulance would come and move them away. Same with the fire, it would be put out.
You truly did not know where to look, there were cruise ships, ski lifts, mountains etc. The trains pass each other and give way etc plus there are movie theatres with an up to date movie and theatre, and a concert. It was great, I would like to take my grandchildren there.
In town we saw an amazing church and glass building. The church was St Nicholas which is the 9th tallest church in the world.
The glass building is the Elbphilharmonie concert hall. This is one of the largest in the world and the most acoustically advanced. It’s popular nickname is The Elphi. Construction was due to be finished by 2010 at a cost of €241 million. It was finally finished October 2016! At a cost of €749 million. Just a bit of an over run.
Tony has not been to a beer hall in Germany, so we went to one called Brauhaus Joh. Albrecht and had a beer and dinner there. I didn’t enjoy it that much. I don’t really like German food, not keen on schnitzel or pork – I like the big bratwurst sausages but they weren’t on the menu. I ended up with sauerkraut, mashed potato, ham steak and a white sausage – not keen. I ate a bit of the potato and sauerkraut. Brett ate the ham steak and white sausage.
Then it was back to the hotel, another day riding tomorrow.
More pictures of the Miniature Wonderland:
- The control room
https://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/exchange/about/image-film-wonderland/
Kaye's Awesome Adventures 