We are going to Berlin!

  

And it’s not just me and Sebastian, Marie is there too! It’s just a little vacation, but I’m really looking forward to it! Copenhagen is my hometown, Dublin is my second hometown, but Berlin will always be my favorite city! 

A fun story about Sebastian. The racecar driver is my favorite minifig, and he was quickly named Sebastian after German Formula 1 driver Sebastian Vettel. Vettel is now driving for Ferrari as of this season, and even though I’m not a Ferrari fan, it pleases me, since the race outfit now fits in color. And also because he’s back in a winning car, but that’s a whole other story. 

I will join Marie in Berlin tomorrow, and I asked her – she remembered her Minifig, so we will post some of our adventures, here and on Facebook. Stay tuned! 

A LEGO Church and German cathedrals.

LEGO has one thing they always keep their nose out of – religion. And so it should be, they are making toys, and in my opinion they made the right choice in keeping religion out of it.

But that doesn’t stop people from making their own MOCs of churches and other religious symbols, and as long as it is nothing offensive or demeaning I think it’s fine.
I have even considered building a church or cathedral for Autostadt Falkenburg. Not that I’m religious in any way, but I think they are architecturally beautiful. If you have read the book or seen the miniseries “The Pillars of the Earth” you would have learned a little about how much time, blood, sweat and tears a cathedral takes to build. As an Interior Designer, that part interests me very much, and I have spent some of my education learning about the architectural design of buildings.

So I would find it fun to build my own church or cathedral, maybe in microscale, or the scale of the architectural line.

I spent some time wondering what kind of church I would build. I looked at some Danish churches, but they all look the same with their white chalk walls, and almost no decoration, really not that fun to build, an easy, quick build maybe, but not as fun.

Then I saw a microscale of the Kölner Dom – the cathedral of the German town Cologne.

It inspired me to look at the cathedrals of one of our – the two chicks – favourite countries, Germany. Germany has a mixed past, but one thing that has been enchanting people for centuries are their cathedrals.

With the Kölner Dom as the most famous and extraordinary, there are also the St. Marien Domkirche in Hamburg:


the Regensburger Dom in Regensburg:

the Katholische Hofkirche in Dredsen, also a very famous church that was destroyed in the bombing of Dredsen and rebuilt in the 1980’s.

Then there’s the one I’ve chosen to replicate in LEGO: Sankt-Hedwigs-Katedrale – St. Hedwig’s Cathedral in the centre of Berlin.

It is a beautiful neoclassical Cathedral built from 1747-1773. It was also destroyed in a bombing raid in World War II, but rebuilt from 1952-1963. Its dome which is a half sphere in beautiful corroded copper will be easy to duplicate in the sandgreen brick color. And then a lot of tan of course.
One of my sisters studied at Humboldt Universität right next to the cathedral, so I’ve seen it many times. And it shares its name with my other sister, so it is really a good architectural addition to Autostadt Falkenburg!

This was just the idea fase, the build will probably take 6 months or so, because it will take me some time and money to get all the bricks. But the project is now started!

Laura & Sebastian in Berlin

So I told you a few days ago that I recently have been in Berlin, in my opinion the best city in Europe.

Berlin is yellow at the moment, very beautiful!

Sebastian went with me of course!

It is hard to see, but it is the Fernsehensturm in the horizon!

I found a cookie cut-out of Germany, so here a combination of two hobbies: LEGO and cooking!

So we had a great time in Berlin, right mini-me?

LEGO in Berlin!

So guys, instead of posting pictures of my bricklink buys, I went to Berlin instead. I’m sorry, but not sorry. I really love Berlin!
Copenhagen is my hometown, Dublin is my second hometown, but Berlin is my all-time favorite city! It is so full of life, diversity and culture. It is no secret that I love Germany, and Berlin is the cherry on top of a great country.
Before I left, I did a little search for LEGO stores in Berlin, not only the LEGO Store, but somewhere I could find some special sets, or part – and I was lucky! In Friedenau, south of the center there is a store selling bits and part. I was completely speechless, there were so many drawers, boxes and shelves, full of LEGO!

I’ll let the photos speak for them selves.
        

        

I must say I was in LEGO heaven! It was like stepping in to a real life Bricklink Store.
I was there for over an hour, looking, shopping and talking to the owner, and avid LEGO fan himself.
He showed me his Flickr account – he have made some really great things, go check it out!

We also talked about a big piece they had in the store:

It featured some of the most significant places of the Berlin Skyline – The Fernsehensturm, Brandenburger Tor and so on.
He said that it was made in the LEGO Store, and contain 42.000 1×1 pieces! If you were to buy the pieces yourself, it would cost 1700 € to make!

Quite incredible.

This was a true highlight of my Berlin trip, which actually was fantastic all around!

So if you ever find yourself in Berlin, go there! It is located on Saarstrasse 2, 12161 Berlin. You will find it by the huge LEGO brick outside.

Germany.

It is no secret to those who know us, that both Marie and I love Germany. It is really a great country, and on our week and a half train ride last summer, we got to see more of the beautiful countryside, which was great, since the only places I’d seen were Hamburg and Berlin (and Frankfurt and Düsseldorf airports, but those don’t really count, and weren’t that exciting).

On our trip we went through 7 different bundesländer. A bundesland is a state in the republic of Germany. Germany is devided into 16 states, much like the U.S., and their 50 states.

Germany is awesome for many reasons. Berlin for one. It is without a doubt my favorite out-in-the-world city. It has everything you’d ever wanted. Second, they have great flour in Germany (this might seem a bit weird, but they have this great rye flour, that can’t be bought in Denmark). Germany has provided one of my sisters with a boyfriend and is currently looking after another sister in Hamburg. It is the home country of my favorite Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel. Oktoberfest, bratwurst, Heidi Klum, Christoph Waltz, Bauhaus, Beethoven – I could continue!

So with all this love floating around, what is more natural, than to make a German-themed LEGO building day!

It began with a flag!

Then I proceded to make Germany with all its bundesländer!

It’s not to scale and some states are slightly off in size, compared to other states, but I think it looks ok.

Over the summer Marie and I will take a trip, and hopefully two, to Germany. First on the list is Hamburg, where we of course will pay a visit to The LEGO store!