I forgot to mention one rather important detail from yesterday: our hotel room has an enormously heavy sofa. For reasons known only to whoever designed the room, it had been positioned in such a way that if you sat on it, you could enjoy a lovely, relaxing view of… the wall.
Obviously, this could not continue. I managed to drag the whole ridiculous setup across the room until the sofa was facing the window instead. Saskia contributed by moving one corner, which apparently gave her enough ownership rights to immediately declare the sofa hers. And that was that. I redesigned the room; Saskia acquired property.
Today, however, was officially designated Shopping Day. Our first stop was TK Maxx, which we reached by S-Bahn. We had reasonably high hopes. However, Saskia's TK Maxx shopping haul consisted of exactly zero items. Igot one rain coat for Gerli.
Germany, meanwhile, is clearly fully prepared for Halloween. Pumpkins, skeletons, ghosts and all the usual cheerful signs of impending death are already everywhere. At this rate, I assume the Christmas decorations will be out in approximately two weeks.
After our spectacularly rather unsuccessful shopping expedition, we went for lunch at a Mexican restaurant and ordered tacos.
Then we waited.
And waited.
And waited some more.
Over half an hour for tacos.
At some point you start wondering whether they are growing the corn, harvesting it and making the tortillas entirely from scratch in a small field behind the restaurant. Eventually the tacos did appear, and afterwards we continued to a new shopping centre, where Saskia's shopping luck improved considerably. She managed to score some cosmetics and, equally importantly, a Starbucks drink.
This was also the moment I realised that the problem had never been Saskia's lack of enthusiasm for shopping. I had simply been taking her to the wrong shops. Apparently dragging her into cheap little DM stores was never going to work. She is a Sephora girl. My mistake. Now I know.
While we were wandering around the shopping centre, a girl suddenly rushed over to Saskia and asked where she'd bought her sweatshirt.
Saskia was wearing her red Pink Palm Puff hoodie. The only downside was that I wasn't wearing mine too. Had we both been standing there in matching Pink Palm Puff hoodies, our influencer era could officially have begun.
After shopping, we returned to the hotel, ordered sushi and had a short break before heading out again at around 8:30 pm.
Destination: Miniatur Wunderland.
And I have to say, I absolutely loved it.
Miniatur Wunderland is basically what happens when someone says, “What if we built a tiny railway?” and nobody has the sense to stop them for the next 25 years.
It is the world's largest model railway, but calling it a “model railway” really doesn't do it justice. The whole place is an enormous miniature universe covering around 1,490 square metres, populated by roughly 260,000 tiny people, more than 1,000 trains and over 9,000 vehicles.
You walk from miniature Hamburg to Switzerland, Scandinavia, Italy, Monaco, Las Vegas and all sorts of other places, with mountains, cities, harbours, beaches, concerts, emergency scenes and thousands of tiny details happening everywhere.
And then there is the airport.
An actual functioning miniature airport where planes taxi to the runway, take off, disappear through the wall and later come back to land again. Meanwhile tiny airport buses drive around, passengers wait at check-in and miniature airport life carries on as though this is all perfectly normal.
Every few minutes the entire place switches from day to night, thousands of tiny lights come on, and suddenly the cities glow, concerts light up and the whole miniature world looks completely different.
The best part is that there are ridiculous little scenes hidden everywhere. People getting married, people committing crimes, people having unfortunate accidents, people doing things that miniature plastic people probably shouldn't be doing…
Basically, you could stare at the same square metre for ten minutes and still keep finding new things.
I thought it was absolutely brilliant.
Saskia, meanwhile, politely accompanied me while occasionally yawning.
By the time we left, it was definitely time to call it a day. Back to the hotel, back to Saskia's legally acquired sofa territory, and straight to bed.
Obviously, this could not continue. I managed to drag the whole ridiculous setup across the room until the sofa was facing the window instead. Saskia contributed by moving one corner, which apparently gave her enough ownership rights to immediately declare the sofa hers. And that was that. I redesigned the room; Saskia acquired property.
Today, however, was officially designated Shopping Day. Our first stop was TK Maxx, which we reached by S-Bahn. We had reasonably high hopes. However, Saskia's TK Maxx shopping haul consisted of exactly zero items. Igot one rain coat for Gerli.
Germany, meanwhile, is clearly fully prepared for Halloween. Pumpkins, skeletons, ghosts and all the usual cheerful signs of impending death are already everywhere. At this rate, I assume the Christmas decorations will be out in approximately two weeks.
After our spectacularly rather unsuccessful shopping expedition, we went for lunch at a Mexican restaurant and ordered tacos.
Then we waited.
And waited.
And waited some more.
Over half an hour for tacos.
At some point you start wondering whether they are growing the corn, harvesting it and making the tortillas entirely from scratch in a small field behind the restaurant. Eventually the tacos did appear, and afterwards we continued to a new shopping centre, where Saskia's shopping luck improved considerably. She managed to score some cosmetics and, equally importantly, a Starbucks drink.
This was also the moment I realised that the problem had never been Saskia's lack of enthusiasm for shopping. I had simply been taking her to the wrong shops. Apparently dragging her into cheap little DM stores was never going to work. She is a Sephora girl. My mistake. Now I know.
While we were wandering around the shopping centre, a girl suddenly rushed over to Saskia and asked where she'd bought her sweatshirt.
Saskia was wearing her red Pink Palm Puff hoodie. The only downside was that I wasn't wearing mine too. Had we both been standing there in matching Pink Palm Puff hoodies, our influencer era could officially have begun.
After shopping, we returned to the hotel, ordered sushi and had a short break before heading out again at around 8:30 pm.
Destination: Miniatur Wunderland.
And I have to say, I absolutely loved it.
Miniatur Wunderland is basically what happens when someone says, “What if we built a tiny railway?” and nobody has the sense to stop them for the next 25 years.
It is the world's largest model railway, but calling it a “model railway” really doesn't do it justice. The whole place is an enormous miniature universe covering around 1,490 square metres, populated by roughly 260,000 tiny people, more than 1,000 trains and over 9,000 vehicles.
You walk from miniature Hamburg to Switzerland, Scandinavia, Italy, Monaco, Las Vegas and all sorts of other places, with mountains, cities, harbours, beaches, concerts, emergency scenes and thousands of tiny details happening everywhere.
And then there is the airport.
An actual functioning miniature airport where planes taxi to the runway, take off, disappear through the wall and later come back to land again. Meanwhile tiny airport buses drive around, passengers wait at check-in and miniature airport life carries on as though this is all perfectly normal.
Every few minutes the entire place switches from day to night, thousands of tiny lights come on, and suddenly the cities glow, concerts light up and the whole miniature world looks completely different.
The best part is that there are ridiculous little scenes hidden everywhere. People getting married, people committing crimes, people having unfortunate accidents, people doing things that miniature plastic people probably shouldn't be doing…
Basically, you could stare at the same square metre for ten minutes and still keep finding new things.
I thought it was absolutely brilliant.
Saskia, meanwhile, politely accompanied me while occasionally yawning.
By the time we left, it was definitely time to call it a day. Back to the hotel, back to Saskia's legally acquired sofa territory, and straight to bed.
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