Monthly Archives: August 2009

Legoland – which part don’t you understand?

When I grew up in Germany during the 1960s and early 70s there was hardly any programming on TV. Computers? Internet? Yeah, right!

But there were LEGOs. Practically every kid I knew had a box full. I had a big box. And every day after coming home from school and finishing my homework I just built stuff. At that time there wasn’t quite such a huge selection of different LEGO elements as there is today. But we still built airplanes, ships, castles, spaceships, rockets, trains, you name it.

The time came when other things became more important in life than building LEGOs. I guess my mom gave the LEGO box away when I moved out. But little did I know back then that several decades in the future I would take my very own kids to Legoland in Ulm, Germany.

Here some of the impressive mini-towns and cities built entirely from LEGOs.

The first three shots are in the Berlin set.

Berlin Reichstag
Berlin Reichstag
Berlin Cathedral
Berlin Cathedral
I like this train bridge
I like this train bridge

Many of the settings include rivers and lakes featuring real water.

Netherlands scene, love the boat
Netherlands scene, love the boat
Venice with lots of canals
Venice with lots of canali
The famous Rialto bridge in Venice
The famous Rialto bridge in Venice

And upon closer looking you find out that all the plants are alive! Trees, shrubs, grass covers. Once you build the structures they stay there. They are glued together. But there are actual gardeners pruning and tending to all the green stuff. That makes everything look so real.

All trees, shrubs, grass, etc. in Legoland are real, 100% organic
More trees in teh Netherlands set
More trees in the Netherlands set
Check out the grass, lovely
Check out the grass, lovely
real grapes, probably not, but real plants nonetheless
Real grapes? Probably not, but real plants nonetheless.
You gotta go when you gotta go. The little things you see these Lego people do.
You gotta go when you gotta go. The little things you see these Lego people do.

Airports, harbors, trains, hundreds of cars and trucks, I spent hours finding new stuff to look at.

Frankfurt airport with a cut-open Airbus A380
Frankfurt airport with a cut-open Airbus A380
Hamburg harbor. Check out the soar panels on the roof to the left.
Hamburg harbor. Check out the solar panels on the roof to the left.
The solar cells make power for that ferris wheel.
The solar cells make power for that ferris wheel.
What's this riverboat doing here?
What is the riverboat doing here?
Frankfurt with it's skyline in the background
Frankfurt with it's skyline in the background
This stadium is in a smaller scale
This stadium is in a smaller scale. There must be thousands of the small Lego people.
Summit station up in the Swiss mountains
Summit station up in the Swiss mountains
...and right behind the station in the woods, a fracking UFO with green aliens.
...and right behind the station in the woods, a fracking UFO with green aliens.

Fractals in action? From the distance this looks like it’s made up of pretty big Lego technics elements. But if you get closer you notice that the big blocks are themselves built from real, smaller blocks.

Lego technics dino, big Lego blocks, right?
Lego technics dino, big Lego blocks, right?
....see the details? All the big parts....
....see the details? All the big parts....
...are themselves built from real Lego blocks.
...are themselves built from real Lego blocks.

I hope you enjoyed this little trip to Ulm, Germany.