It's the day after we got off the wonderland dream boat, every one of us is resisting civil behaviour, it's just not fair. Decision seem to be the hardest thing for us to deal with - happily today is decision free. Jutta will be here in an hour to show us around her city for the day. 

The prettiest part of this city are the inner and outer Alster lakes running from the Elbe. Jutta points out they were a mistake with the daming being far too ineffective, flodding the former low farm lands and making the inner Alster. You wouldn't know it today, the richest houses in Hamburg, and the most expensive shopping precincts all front on to it. 

It's an odd mistake for a city that otherwise utilises water so well. There are canals everywhere, more bridges than Venice and Amsterdam combined, over 2500 of them. Another strong hold of the Hanseatic league, its a city built around maritime trade since the early 13th century. The former warehouse area is built 2.4m below the rest of the city. A Germanicly well organised grid of canals border a row of warehouses each with canal at the back and road at the front. These warehouses were built in just 5 years and still today are the home of some of the largest Carpet and Coffee storage warehouses on earth. 

They're also the home of Miniatur Wunderland, the kind of big kid self-indulgent project that makes you wonder what you're doing with your life. Started by some failed club owners, the duo (borhters I think) have build a sprawling miniature world that just can't be described in words. ALl of us were enthralled for hours, and could have spent twice as much time soaking it in. The whole wonderland is like a giant where's wally puzzle. Every scene you look at takes on ever more detail the longer to you soak it in. Scenes from Switzerland, Bavaria, Hamburg, the American desert, Sweden, Norway. It's simply astounding. The girls first fascination was the Lindt factory where you can keep an eye out for actual little Lindt chocolates popping out of the factory. The Bavarian scene has Neuschwanstein sitting high in the mountain above a sprawling Oktoberfest. The American desert supposedly has a model of Heisenberg's meth caravan - but I couldn't find it. The game is to find all the hidden jokes, but there aren't anywhere enough hours in the year for that.

Buzzing with energy, we cut our tour of the new docklands area short so the kids can burn some of it off before heading on. At the end of the street is the new Philharmonic hall. In a tail of poor scope control that would rival the Vasa, the hall was somehow estimated initially as a $79m project, naivly underestimated it is now pushing the high $800m and still not complete, they should take a leaf from the Minitaur world, they've already built their version of the new Philharmonic hall, lights and all!

We continue on to the docklands for some proud Hamburg fare. We're not in Belgium yet, but Fid's search for Flemish Chip Cones is given a boost by the Currywurst guy. Hamburg claims to have the best currywurst, no matter what all those jealous mouths in Berlin say. I can't judge but it was delicious! Mark gets the Herring in a Fischbrötchen, it looks too good so I copy him washing it down with some schnapps, I've learnt something from my Scandi time.

Up on dry land Jutta teaches us about the Elbe tunnel. Showing us photos of the river teaming with boats that previously ferried the dock workers and shipbuilders from the side of the river they lived on, over to the shipyards on the other side. The result looked something a bunch of enormous freighters trying to make their way through a Shanghai traffic jam. The answer was to build the tunnel under the river, an impressive feat for 1911, just a year before Leslie started LW Reid!

We finish at the dock and head to a brewery for lunch. It's only Mark and I that are drinking the beer, I honestly don't know how they all put up with this type of food without brewed assistance. 

My biggest reason to visit Hamburg is Ballinstadt. A museum to the millions of Germans that left their country during the turbulent 19th century as the old houses of europe battled to hold on to their claims against rising tide of unification into the new nations of europe. Albert Ballin is a character from the later half of this migration founding a shipping company, today know as Hapag-Lloyd, that played a massive role in the German migration of the later 19th century. I'd gone there hoping to learn something of our families migration to Australia in 1855, but it turns out this museum is based around the American migration that Albert Ballin played such a large part in during the later half of the 19th century - so nothing to learn here. The kids were astounded by the living conditions, we could only imagine how bad they were a few decades before the worst ones we saw.

The final part of the day was a boat ride around the Inner Alster. The dry cruise crisis was averted with Mark and I finding the necessary supplies just before we set off. Jutta was rightly proud of this part of the day, a very pretty lake is surrounded by idyllic foreshores. Sailing clubs, beach clubs, some absolutely beautiful houses and plenty of picnic areas make for a wonderful place to spend a few summer afternoons, and for us a very relaxing hour of imagining we could live here.

Back on shore we say goodbye and settle into the cafe for icecream and afternoon of sunshine  & beer - the best kind right?