The 3 millionth visitor to Miniatur Wunderland was Gerhard B.
At exactly 10.52 a.m., Gerhard B. from Berlin was struck by shock. Completely unexpectedly, he was the centre of media attention when he went to buy his ticket at the Miniatur Wunderland ticket office. Gerhard B. was the three millionth guest at Wunderland, the world’s largest model railway in Hamburg’s Speicherstadt warehouse district. He is now the proud owner of a 300 square centimetre plot of land with a beautiful holiday home in Norway. The winner’s holiday home will be handed over to Gerhard B ready for occupancy in the next few days. Needless to say, free entry is guaranteed for life.
With 862,000 visitors in 2005, Miniatur Wunderland is Hamburg’s most successful tourist attraction alongside Hagenbeck’s zoo, ranking even higher than the musical The Lion King. Over 200,000 overnight stays in hotels in Hamburg were directly attributable to Miniatur Wunderland. More than 20% of visitors travelled more than 250 km to visit the exhibition, which is known from over 150 TV reports. On many days, waiting times at the entrance must be expected, so it is advisable to take a look at the website when planning your visit, where the waiting times for the next few days are forecast.
Currently, work is underway on the fifth construction phase, Switzerland, and a large part of the Miniatur Wunderland team, which now comprises 120 employees, is working flat out. In about 1 year, Switzerland will be presented on an additional 250 square metres. This will increase the total area of the world’s largest model railway to over 1,150 square metres. In order to build mountains up to 6 metres high, an extra 100 square metres of the ceiling have been removed for this huge construction phase. Famous Swiss highlights such as the Matterhorn and the Glacier Express create a fantastic atmosphere. Mountain lakes, snow and lots of cute little scenes will create the right holiday atmosphere.
