The day of departure.

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The day we were due to leave finally arrived & all my family were here to see me off. So we loaded up 11 suitcases plus 2 carry ons each & made our way to Southampton where we borded the ship. At check in they wanted to make sure we had an ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation) for the USA but did not want to see the ones for New Zealand or Australia. After going through security we were in our cabin within half an hour. Just as we arrived at our cabin so did our suitcases. I quickly unpacked everything & stored some suitcases inside larger suitcases but kept 2 large suitcases which went under the bed. The other 9 cases went off for storage in the bowels of the ship until we returned 4 months later. Our first port of call was in Hamburg, Germany to pick up German passengers. We were able to get off the ship to visit some places. We booked to go to the Minatur Wunderland which is on a couple of floors of a dockside wharehouse in the historical district. They have been converted into different museums etc. Minatur Wunderland contains the biggest model railway system in the World it was fascinating to see how it works. The exhibition includes around 1,120 digitally controlled trains with more than 10,000 wagons. The Wonderland is also designed with around 4,300 houses and bridges, more than 10,000 vehicles - of which around 350 drive independently on the installation - 52 airplanes and around 290,000 figures. There is 52,946 feet of railway track throughout the two floors & further extensions are planned to include other countries. In terms of lighting technology, the system has a recurring day-night cycle and almost 500,000 built-in LED lights. I have wanted to visit for a number of years so it was another item ticked off my to do list. We then walked and wandered around the city centre visiting the remains of a bombed out church left as it was as a reminder of the horrors of war. Only the tower containing a carrilion of bells remain which you can go up but it was closed while we were there. We then caught the bus back to the ship. Hamburg is 70 miles up the Elbe river & is the most important Port in Germany. Many people emigrated to the United States from this port & it is an absolutely fascinating city. Sorry there are no photos hopefully when it is restored l will add photos.