Around the World in Eighty Minutes*

*Disclaimer: If you are aged 14 to 18 and seeking a condensed version of the famed book Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, you’ve come to the wrong place. English teachers, rejoice: I’ll always recommend reading the whole book. 😉

In any case, it may have taken Verne’s character 80 days to traverse the world, but that was in 1873…this is the 21st century and I’m here to say it can be done in 80 minutes. At least, it can if you go where Issy and I did this weekend.

About two hours south of Judenburg is the town of Klagenfurt (which we visited once before, as described in Fantastic Lindwurms and where to find them). Last time we were there, it was a very slushy, very cold day in February. This time, we decided to take advantage of stunning 77 degree weather to explore a couple of outdoor attractions, one of which is called Minimundus and gives you access to 156 to-scale models of landmarks from all over the planet. So let’s start that clock…

01:00.00: 

Upon entering the park, we were greeted by lovely Lady Liberty, and while she may not have been welcoming us to America, the message was the same: come on into Minimundus, enjoy the diversity found here!

04:08.00:

Shortly thereafter, we entered the world of South Asia, standing before the majestic Taj Mahal.

08:54.00

Entonces, necesitaba usar mi español, because we were in Mexico, exploring the old Mayan ruins of Chichen Itzá.

31:00.00

By minute 31, it seemed as though I was traveling through space and time, because I got to see the Prague Town Hall two months early (in June, I’ll be taking a trip to Prague with my parents, so this was a nice preview).

43:15.00:

Next stop: Russia.

47:14.00-57:04.00:

 

We stayed in Europe for a while after that. One of the most notable things was that the Eiffel Tower model was actually built by some high school students at the local engineering school. Move over, Gustave, there are some new engineers in town!

74:53.00:

Just before leaving, we made it full circle by coming back to the US and embracing the stars we are at the Hollywood sign!

80:00:00:

And so ended our globetrotting across six continents. Though of course it would’ve been more impressive to go to everything in person, it was still really cool to see the details of each one replicated so intricately. Plus, because they were all on a 1.25 scale, you could compare the sizes of different landmarks really easily. It’s definitely a cool place to visit–and you don’t even have to leave Austria!

Overtime:

After our exploration of Minimundus, we took a short walk to one of Klagenfurt’s other bragging rights: the Wörthersee. Described by one of my colleagues as Austria’s most impressive body of water, the Wörthersee really was worth-a-see. We ate lunch outdoors with a great view of it, music filling the air and an Austrian sandwich dipped in spicy mustard filling our stomachs. Under the dazzling sunshine, the lake gleamed two different colors, inviting us to dip our feet in. We lounged nearby for a while after lunch and then waded ankle-deep before returning to the train station.

And so I leave you with a contemplative photo of me glancing out across the spectacular vista, and these words by Verne: “It seems that it is by no means useless to travel, if a man wants to see something new.” Or woman. Like I said, 21st century.