Hamburg with the children

HAGENBECK ZOO
People have been flocking to Hagenbeck Zoo in Hamburg for over 100 years. The park is home to 1,860 animals from all corners of the globe, including the largest herd of elephants in Europe. The kids can join in with the feeding of the elephants and giraffes and learn lots of exciting things in the process.

Photo: Lutz Schnier

MINIATURE WUNDERLAND
There’s even more fun to be had at Miniature Wunderland – in the form of the world’s largest model railway, no less! You’ll appreciate its size when we say it took 230 people over 580,000 hours to get everything in place, and that doesn’t include the time it took to build every item in this land of make-believe. So, here goes: Miniature Wunderland consists of 930 trains, 14,450 carriages, 228,000 trees, 215,000 human figures, 8,850 cars, 13,000 metres of track and 3,660 buildings and bridges. It even has a small-scale model of Hagenbeck Zoo.

Photo: Jan Traupe

Several countries have their own exhibits. The United States, for example, has a mini Las Vegas lit by 33,000 lights, the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, the Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore. Switzerland has row upon row of majestic Alpine peaks, including a six-metre high version of the Matterhorn at the centre. They have even included a little chocolate factory making real Swiss chocolate. (By the way, Hamburg has its own chocolate museum: Chocoversum!)

FISH VS. HAMBURGER
Another activity the children will enjoy is a visit to the Fish Market in St. Pauli. Trading has taken place here every Sunday since 1703, and virtually anything can be acquired. But the market is best suited to early birds and night owls since it’s only open from 5.00 am (7.00 am November–March) to 9.30 am.

Feel tempted by a hamburger? This flat meatball between two pieces of bread was first described as a “hamburger steak” in an American cookbook from 1891, the name originating from a beef dish which was very popular in Hamburg at the time.

Widerøe has a direct route from Hanseatic Bergen to Hanseatic Hamburg.

For further information, please visit https://www.wideroe.no/