We finally made the switch this weekend to Daylight Savings. One less hour of sleep is really rough, so I will go ahead and apologize if this is not one of my better blogs. Each year I am always surprised by how this little adjustment feels so big that first Monday. :-) We are now six hours ahead of you. Imagine instead of losing just one hour, you lost six! Jet lag experts say it usually takes one day for every hour difference in timezone to feel normal again. Fortunately for us, it only took about three days to really feel OK when we got here in September.
As for the weather, high pressure is expected to arrive late tomorrow and dominate our weather for the foreseeable future. One day is even expected to get to near 70 degrees! Thankfully, we installed some window screens this weekend (remember, no air conditioning), so hopefully we will be able to cool off if the sun makes it too warm through the windows.
My question on Friday asked where the biggest model railroad in the world is. I am taking the liberty of sharing a news article on this very subject because it was written better than I could do in a summary of it. The article appeared on the Yahoo web site's news items, dated March 26th, 2009, and was written by Vanessa Gera. Yahoo pulled it from the AP wire.
HAMBURG – It's billed as the world's largest model train set — a miniature world that snakes along eight miles (12 kilometers) of track, amid fields, cities, even the snowcapped Swiss Alps.
And it's quickly becoming one of Germany's biggest tourist attractions.
Twin brothers Frederick and Gerrit Braun, 41, have turned their boyhood passion for model railroads into a lucrative private museum called Miniatur Wunderland that has kept adding track since its 2001 opening and drew 1 million visitors last year.
"It's a dream," said Gerrit Braun, who only reluctantly joined his insistent brother in the project, fearing it could be a money loser. "We still can't believe how successful it's been. Every year gets better than the year before."
Set on three floors in an old warehouse along the Elbe River, Miniatur Wunderland features realistic replicas of parts of Scandinavia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the U.S. Figurines about a half-inch (just over one-centimeter) high represent people in all walks of life.
About 20 percent of the trains were produced by iconic German model railway maker Maerklin Holding GmbH, which filed for bankruptcy protection last month after it was unable secure new credit amid the global credit crunch. (Note: We have one of their shops here in Kempten. It would be a shame to see it go.)
Last month, Miniatur Wunderland ordered 150,000 euros ($200,000) worth of new products from the company as an expression of faith in it.
"We believe in the brand," said Sebastian Drechsler, half brother to the Braun twins and one of the 180 museum employees. "We think it's impossible that the brand will die."
In one section, police surround a crime scene in central Germany where a bloody ax lies on a river bank while the victim floats in a river. In another, a shark chases a scuba diver beneath the water in the Florida Keys. Elsewhere, a sumptuous palace in Bavaria burns, spewing real smoke, and prompting miniature fire trucks with flashing lights and sirens to rush to the rescue.
On Thursday, a swarm of people crowded around that scene. Children could be heard crying out "cool!" and pushing their parents to take photos. But the fascination crossed all generational lines. "The fire truck has just left!" exclaimed 75-year-old Ingeborg Gehrmann as a bright red truck left its miniature fire department. She and her husband traveled two hours by bus from their home in Hannover to see the train set — and were not disappointed. "There's still a bit of child in me," Gerhmann said, her eyes sparkling.
As the visitors walk through the rooms, workers at a control center monitor about 45 computer screens that show the movement of trains. About 30 accidents occur every day, often involving trains derailing or colliding, said Drechsler. When that happens, someone is dispatched to fix the problem.
For Drechsler, the key to the museum's success is "its mixture of technology and fairy tale atmosphere."
One things is certain: the brothers want an even bigger miniature world to control, and plan over the next years to create scenes from Italy or France, and later parts of Africa or India.
"We want to keep on building for ever," Gerrit Braun said.
Hamburg is quite a ways away from us. We hope to get to the northern part of Germany one of these days, and perhaps we will catch this amazing display. I know our boys would really enjoy it. Take a peek at their website to get a better look. It's in English, among other languages. http://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/ If you ever get a chance to see a really good model train set in action, take the time to look at the details. They are all so incredibly fun to watch!!
The word for today is model train: die Modelleisenbahn (moe dehl i zen bahn where the "i" is like in "kite").
The question for today is "Who discovered all this air pressure that has such a negative or positive effect on everyone's weather?"
Auf Wiedersehen,
Frau Spitzer
