 | Near the hotel, there's an advertising kiosk covered with giant ads for the Hamburg Dungeon. The Dungeon is a local tourist attraction that puts the "fun" back into "gruesome events in Hamburg history". I've never been there, because I find the concept completely unappealing, but from all I know, it's pretty much a haunted house with a thrill-ride section (a water ride based on the Christmas Day flood of 1717). Enjoy your way through such jolly hits of the past as:
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| ... but maybe you're reading all that and saying to yourself, "yeah, yeah — that's all great, but it's simply not enough." Well, not to worry, as the Dungeon has now added the Cholera Epidemic of 1892! Apparently a cholera infection makes people rise up and become zombies with heavy facial bruising. I don't know what's more gruesome — the fact that some stone-cold accountant-type created a business case where he had to justify that reenacting a cholera epidemic would be a good idea, or the fact that the Hamburg Dungeon has apparently trademarked the word cholera (click on the image at right for an enlargement where you can see the ™ symbol). In forty years, will there be an updated Hamburg Dungeon that features such new classics as the Great Flood of 1962, or the Bombing and Firestorm of 1943? |  | |
| If you're thinking about a trip to the Dungeon, I recommend that you save your money and go to Miniatur Wunderland instead — it's even in the same building! If you're into pirates, go to the Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte — they've got an exhibit that features real pirate skulls from Störtebeker's time, nailed to a log with giant spikes. That's some authentic gruesomeness. | ||
I have to say the Hamburg Dungeon is a lot of fun. Kind of like history, a water ride and a fun house all mixed into one.
But by far the best exhibit is the one by Landdungbruecken of things they've fished out of Hamburgs water system over the years. You'd be amazed.
Posted by: Dave at April 22, 2005 10:17 AM