We were advised that the bow would be opened for the scenic cruise into the Kiel Fjord, from 6am. I happened to be awake so I threw a coat on over my PJs, grabbed the camera, and headed to Deck 5. It was pitch dark and clearly we weren’t going to see anything, so I went back to bed. At 7am I tried again. The bow remained closed because of winds, but the promenade deck was open. I stood on the starboard side and saw that we were close to our berth. Another ship was already docked, and we were being followed in by a third.
The captain completed the 180 degree spinning manouevre, and began reversing slowly down the fjord. Moving to the stern, I could see why he was taking his time. There was almost no margin for error. I kept an eye on everything and am happy to report that we executed a perfectly precise parallel park.
After disembarking, we headed for the shopping area first, as I had something to buy. We quickly saw that Kiel is a large and much more modern city than many in Germany. It was extensively bombed and rebuilt in utilitarian style. The waterfront is pretty with many sailboats, and there are a couple of large parks, but otherwise it is very much a regular city rather than a tourist town. Many passengers headed to Hamburg or Lubeck, but we opted to stay in Kiel for the day.
Further along the mall, we suddenly saw a group of young men, all dressed in black and many with bandannas across their mouths. They were yelling and running. They took off around another corner, and very shortly afterward, we saw police dressed in riot gear. At first we thought it was a political protest – there are elections in Germany this weekend – but we found out later that the Kiel soccer team was playing at home. The visiting team’s supporters had planned to march through town; the local team’s supporters thought it would be opportune to start a brawl. The police were prepared, and the local lads quickly rethought their plans, and scarpered. There were 40 arrests. We moved on.
A very helpful lady at the public transport service centre helped us buy a day pass for the buses, and by late morning we were heading for Laboe, further north up the fiord. The express bus dropped us in the small waterfront town, leaving us to walk about 1 km. It was a lovely walk – the beach was white sand, there were windsurfers everywhere, and the sand was dotted with colourful beach huts. There were charming houses lining the promenade, and we could have been walking in Brighton.
Our destination was the German submarine, or U-boat U-995, which is now a museum. Next to it is an enormous brick tower which serves as a memorial to all mariners. We are not sure if there are any other U-boats that you can go into, but we’ve never seen one. This one was used in WW2, and surrendered to the British. It was passed on the Norwegian Navy, and decommissioned in 1962. In 1972, the Norwegians gave it back. Now you can walk through it from aft to bow, and see all the very tight spaces. Somehow, 52 men were crammed into it, sharing tiny bunks and a single toilet (!) There were so many controls, dials, switches and valves, all operated manually, that it required a large crew who worked in 4 hour shifts. It was impossible to imagine how the cook prepared all those meals in such a cramped space.
We planned on a pleasant return stroll to enjoy the beachfront scenery; then Ian looked at the bus schedule. “We have 8 minutes till the next bus, and the one after that is an hour’s wait!” So we scampered along as best we could, only to see it pulling out just as we got there, huffing and puffing. Luckily there was a plan B – the slow bus – which left a few minutes later, and duly deposited us back in downtown Kiel. We made it back on board the ship before the lunch buffet closed (just).
Fortified, we made use of our bus passes by taking bus 11 to the stop for the Kiel Canal, or more importantly, the locks that allow passage between the canal and the fiord, and hence into the sea. The Kiel Canal cuts off hundreds of kilometres, and something like 20,000 ships pass through it annually. It is busier than the Panama Canal.
Over a year ago, Ian casually asked me “is it possible to do a cruise through the Kiel Canal?” I wasn’t sure, so I did my research, and discovered that some smaller cruise ships can get through, but larger ones can’t. In the process, I came across the cruise we are currently on. Whilst it doesn’t do the Canal, it did call at Kiel. I liked the look of the rest of it – an overnight stop in Oslo, as well as Gdansk, Klaipedia, Riga and Aarhus – all new ports for us. I copied the link and emailed it to Carla, saying “see what you think”. A few weeks later I got a reply “I really like it, and I’ve booked it”. So that made up our minds, and here we are.
So the Kiel Canal was theoretically a drawcard. Once you get there, you walk a short distance along a nondescript road, rather than the canal itself. You arrive at the viewing platform, to be greeted by a ticket machine and a sign that says You Must Pay. I had not read about this machine so was somewhat surprised. We inserted our euros, and it spat out two tickets. I like to collect entry tickets as souvenirs – but these are officially the Worst Tickets Ever.
We climbed a flight of stairs, expecting to hand the tickets to someone or go through a turnstile. But no, there was nothing or no-one to collect anything. The tickets were totally superfluous. From the platform you can see ships entering and leaving the locks, but you are behind dirty glass windows, or there are fences obscuring the view. It was raining as well.
Nevertheless, we could see one ship in the locks, and two more approaching, so we stayed to see what would happen. Turns out not a lot. One the ships are in the lock and secured, the gates are closed at one end, then opened at the other. The water level is equalised to that of the fiord, which is of course tidal. Then the ships depart. We were there not long after high tide, so the difference in water level wasn’t much – we didn’t see any really discernible change in the level. It was interesting, and something we can say we’ve seen, but it won’t make it onto the highlights reel. Apologies for the low quality photos.
Later, we shared a table for dinner with Rob and Patty from California, and another couple from Florida. The talk somehow turned to rockets and launches. Rob was clearly an enthusiast. Turns out both he and Patty worked at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), which does a lot of contract work for NASA and other space exploration companies. When Ian heard this, his eyes lit up, and I knew the conversation was going to animated. Among other things, Rob had been a mission planner for a Mars rover mission, while Patty worked on payloads – things like cube sats. Of course we talked for ages – another really interesting dinner conversation. We have talked to more people on this cruise than all our others put together!
This morning we were woken by the captain’s announcement that it was too windy for us to dock, and we would be missing our port call in Ronne, on Bornholm Island. There wasn’t going to be a lot to do here anyway – it’s a very small town and being Sunday, most things are closed. So we have had a nice relaxing sea day, mostly chatting and eating with Bob and Carla. We have a couple of big days coming up so the rest has been very welcome.
