My favourite thing at MiWuLa is to find a corner of the exhibition I am familiar with and spot a certain train and try to follow it and see where it emerges from when it goes into a tunnel etc. This involves a lot of going backwards and forwards so this was really impossible with how things are at the moment. But, it meant that I found myself concentrating on other things and noticed several details I had not seen before. Are they new or was it just me?
Well, anyway these are some of the interesting* thing that I noticed.
* you may not find it interesting!
This is me arriving. I always feel so happy as I arrive at the top of these stairs. I thought the floor stickers were an excellent idea and really seemed to work. I noticed at several times they were busy fixing and replacing these stickers.
The new fairground. Just brilliant. So much incredible detail. I did notice several things were not working properly (or not working at all) but I guess this is early days and I hope they get it sorted out.
Social distancing at the funfair. What a great idea.
I was in Hamburg for four days (or parts of days) and I visited MiWuLa every day. Each time I came to look at the funfair and I only saw the Wilde Maus working once. Actually I have been coming here for years and before this trip I have NEVER seen it working - so once is a definite improvement. Next to it is the Traum Boot - I never saw this working.
At night the funfair looks amazing. I especially loved the Machinarium with lots of moving cogs. I am sure I saw this on the YouTube channel with smoke and other effects - these were not working while I was there, so maybe not quite finished.
Similar with the water ride. As you can see it looks great when it is running - really this is brilliant. Although it looks a little "tacked on" and like it is not really part of the rest of the funfair, and I saw it working on two days that I visited and not working on the other two. So I guess reliability is a factor they have not quite got resolved yet. The boats seemed to get jammed up with each other.
The Millennium Falcon - just fantastic. I think I noticed fewer of the "special" aircraft taking off and landing, and wondered if these had been reduced as they do seem to draw crowds.
Is this aircraft new? I thought I had seen them all but I didn't recognise this one.
I also didn't recognise the "summer bobsled" Is this new? I don't want to sound like I'm always complaining but this was not working on any day I visited. You could push the button which turned red, but the little sled appears to be jammed near the top.
For all of these "complaints" let me say that I know it is "corona time" and I am in complete awe of the work MiWuLa do. The exhibition is looking incredible and the place had that special magic buzz that it had always had. Just as importantly everyone (and I mean everyone) was as friendly and patient as ever while I attempted to order my food in German and probably asked for a badger salad or something.
