Saw some cheap-ish flights a few weeks ago, so decided to have a long weekend in Hamburg and at Heide and Hansa. Here's a brief summary.
Day 1 - Hamburg
Started with a disgustingly early morning in Bristol (2am), and headed to Heathrow for my flight. All quite painless and uninteresting to be honest.
I got into the centre of Hamburg by about 10:30am, but I couldn't get into my hostel room until later in the day so I dropped my bags off and went for a walk. The weather was cold, damp and foggy, but that didn't bother me too much. Hamburg itself is quite nice, lots of churches and nice little streets and all that sort of stuff.
The rather elaborate Rathaus:
Around 2pm I figured I'd tag onto one of those "Free Walking Tours", which mean I ended up retracing my steps a little, but it was good to hear a bit more about the history and stuff. The guy was enthusiastic and interesting, so couldn't complain!
The picturesque warehouse district:
Bonus selfie:
By the time it got to the evening, I figured I'd been awake for far too long on far too little sleep and so I had a nice big steak, a few beers, watched a bit of the rugby and then crashed out in the hostel.
Day 2 - Hamburg
Today was time for Miniatur Wunderland! I've been wanting to visit this for years, and it didn't disappoint. I'd arranged an English speaking behind the scenes tour, but I was able to go into the exhibition space an hour or so before that to have a little explore.
The Alps:
Roadworks:
"America":
I met the tour guide and the three other visitors for the tour. It was fantastic! The guide took us behind all of the various areas and explained the history of the centre, how the controls worked for all of the autonomous vehicles, and pointed out loads of interesting little features. I really would recommend doing a tour if you can.
By far the most popular area was the Knuffingen Airport - which was, to be far, amazing!
An A380 and Concorde:
747 take-off:
Airport overview:
I really urge you, if you're in Hamburg, to visit Miniatur Wonderland. It's so unique and creative!
By the time I'd finished there, I felt like I'd walked around all of Hamburg again, so I called it a day. Plus, I had an early start in the morning, so I figured I'd try to get some rest!
Day 3 - Heide Park
I picked up a hire car early in the morning and drove down to Heide Park. The park was basically dead, which I was a little surprised about actually, but I wasn't complaining! I went in to the park and planned to ride all the coasters and then come back for some pictures and re-rides and stuff afterwards. I barely queued for more than ten minutes for anything! Some ride opinions:
Krake - Really liked this! The drop was nice, and I liked the floater on the Immelmann and the airtime hill. Overall, really great coaster! I was also a big fan of the destroyed ship/Krake theming.
Flug de Damonen - Another excellent coaster. I've ridden Swarm, X-Flight and Flug now, and I think this was probably the best Wing Coaster I've done. X-Flight is really good, but I think I prefer the slightly more wacky layout of Flug. I rode front and back, and left and right and all seats were good, although I think I liked front right the best.
Colossus - I think El Toro is better, but this was ace! Great airtime and a fun layout.
Everything else was pretty much as I expected to be honest!
I popped out to the car and got my camera, thankfully by this point the clouds had cleared a little so I managed to get some nice pictures (I think).
Krake:
Flug:
Colossus:
The coasters looked really good in the sunset too. I do like it when coasters frame each other well.
I then had a drive up to Lubeck, where I'd be staying for the next two nights. It was close to Hansa Park, and looked like it'd be a nice place to be.
Day 4 - Hansa Park
Had a leisurely start to the day, and got to the park a little after it opened. It didn't seem too busy, so I just rode the coasters in order as I got to them. There weren't many queues, so it was relatively painless to be honest. Some more reviews.
Karnan - One of the main motivators for visiting Hansa, and boy did this coaster deliver! The lift is cool, and the first drop is excellent - great airtime and really quite big. The forces on the pull out were quite strong too! The rest of the layout is fast, snappy and forceful and a lot of fun! The lap-bars are also really nice - so glad it doesn't have the OTSRs that Smiler has! It wasn't too rough either, only a few hints of the Gerstlauer shaping.
I really can't wait to see what they do with the theming for next season - it was the only let down of this coaster at the moment.
Fluch von Novgorod - I was really quite impressed by this too. The crappy shaping was more noticeable on this, but it was quite enjoyable. I didn't know anything about the layout, so that was a nice surprise for me - it's rare that that happens these days.
Everything else was quite good - had a really nice day in the park. Except for the very windy Star Flyer - that was horrifying! :lol:
I did a similar thing to what I'd done at Heide, and popped out around lunchtime to pick up my camera. So here's some pictures I snapped in the afternoon.
Karnan:
Fluch von Novgorod:
After leaving Hansa, I headed back to Lubeck for a bit more culture before dinner and bed.
And that was just about that. My flight was in the morning the day after, so there isn't anything else much to report!
It was a good trip, I'd recommend both the parks if you haven't been (definitely Karnan) and Hamburg was a nice place to start.
Thanks for reading!
Day 1 - Hamburg
Started with a disgustingly early morning in Bristol (2am), and headed to Heathrow for my flight. All quite painless and uninteresting to be honest.
I got into the centre of Hamburg by about 10:30am, but I couldn't get into my hostel room until later in the day so I dropped my bags off and went for a walk. The weather was cold, damp and foggy, but that didn't bother me too much. Hamburg itself is quite nice, lots of churches and nice little streets and all that sort of stuff.
The rather elaborate Rathaus:
Around 2pm I figured I'd tag onto one of those "Free Walking Tours", which mean I ended up retracing my steps a little, but it was good to hear a bit more about the history and stuff. The guy was enthusiastic and interesting, so couldn't complain!
The picturesque warehouse district:
Bonus selfie:
By the time it got to the evening, I figured I'd been awake for far too long on far too little sleep and so I had a nice big steak, a few beers, watched a bit of the rugby and then crashed out in the hostel.
Day 2 - Hamburg
Today was time for Miniatur Wunderland! I've been wanting to visit this for years, and it didn't disappoint. I'd arranged an English speaking behind the scenes tour, but I was able to go into the exhibition space an hour or so before that to have a little explore.
The Alps:
Roadworks:
"America":
I met the tour guide and the three other visitors for the tour. It was fantastic! The guide took us behind all of the various areas and explained the history of the centre, how the controls worked for all of the autonomous vehicles, and pointed out loads of interesting little features. I really would recommend doing a tour if you can.
By far the most popular area was the Knuffingen Airport - which was, to be far, amazing!
An A380 and Concorde:
747 take-off:
Airport overview:
I really urge you, if you're in Hamburg, to visit Miniatur Wonderland. It's so unique and creative!
By the time I'd finished there, I felt like I'd walked around all of Hamburg again, so I called it a day. Plus, I had an early start in the morning, so I figured I'd try to get some rest!
Day 3 - Heide Park
I picked up a hire car early in the morning and drove down to Heide Park. The park was basically dead, which I was a little surprised about actually, but I wasn't complaining! I went in to the park and planned to ride all the coasters and then come back for some pictures and re-rides and stuff afterwards. I barely queued for more than ten minutes for anything! Some ride opinions:
Krake - Really liked this! The drop was nice, and I liked the floater on the Immelmann and the airtime hill. Overall, really great coaster! I was also a big fan of the destroyed ship/Krake theming.
Flug de Damonen - Another excellent coaster. I've ridden Swarm, X-Flight and Flug now, and I think this was probably the best Wing Coaster I've done. X-Flight is really good, but I think I prefer the slightly more wacky layout of Flug. I rode front and back, and left and right and all seats were good, although I think I liked front right the best.
Colossus - I think El Toro is better, but this was ace! Great airtime and a fun layout.
Everything else was pretty much as I expected to be honest!
I popped out to the car and got my camera, thankfully by this point the clouds had cleared a little so I managed to get some nice pictures (I think).
Krake:
Flug:
Colossus:
The coasters looked really good in the sunset too. I do like it when coasters frame each other well.
I then had a drive up to Lubeck, where I'd be staying for the next two nights. It was close to Hansa Park, and looked like it'd be a nice place to be.
Day 4 - Hansa Park
Had a leisurely start to the day, and got to the park a little after it opened. It didn't seem too busy, so I just rode the coasters in order as I got to them. There weren't many queues, so it was relatively painless to be honest. Some more reviews.
Karnan - One of the main motivators for visiting Hansa, and boy did this coaster deliver! The lift is cool, and the first drop is excellent - great airtime and really quite big. The forces on the pull out were quite strong too! The rest of the layout is fast, snappy and forceful and a lot of fun! The lap-bars are also really nice - so glad it doesn't have the OTSRs that Smiler has! It wasn't too rough either, only a few hints of the Gerstlauer shaping.
I really can't wait to see what they do with the theming for next season - it was the only let down of this coaster at the moment.Fluch von Novgorod - I was really quite impressed by this too. The crappy shaping was more noticeable on this, but it was quite enjoyable. I didn't know anything about the layout, so that was a nice surprise for me - it's rare that that happens these days.
Everything else was quite good - had a really nice day in the park. Except for the very windy Star Flyer - that was horrifying! :lol:
I did a similar thing to what I'd done at Heide, and popped out around lunchtime to pick up my camera. So here's some pictures I snapped in the afternoon.
Karnan:
Fluch von Novgorod:
After leaving Hansa, I headed back to Lubeck for a bit more culture before dinner and bed.
And that was just about that. My flight was in the morning the day after, so there isn't anything else much to report!
It was a good trip, I'd recommend both the parks if you haven't been (definitely Karnan) and Hamburg was a nice place to start.
Thanks for reading!
