We see the see, but not the sea

Saturday was the big review (sail-by) and we were now only a hundred metres from a  great viewing point. We sat there until the last boat crossed the startline. Why not? It was a lovely day, and the locals were saying it was the best week they've had in a decade, weather-wise. Our German friend from the boat yesterday had sown his lawn expecting the guaranteed rain Kieler Woche would bring!

The German Navy's training ship Gorch Fock II, the lead ship in the review.

A crowd trying very hard to miss the spectacle

You could step from boat to boat (but you'd get wet)

A late-comer

We'd heard about another feat of engineering worth seeing, the Rendsberg Schwebefaehrer und Hochbruecke. This was a bridge built to get trains over the Kiel canal but at sufficient height to allow tall ships to pass under. (incidentally, the aforementioned Gorch Fock had to have it's mast shortened to fit under.) The distance from the Rendsberg railway station to the bridge was too short to allow trains to climb to the height, so they had to build a loop long enough for this to happen. There's a whole suburb within that loop now. Slung under the bridge was a gondola that carried up to 4 cars across the river at once - that is until Jan 2016 when a freighter smacked into it, or v.v. 2 passengers injured and no doubt very shocked! Since it isn't running it was a lovely quiet spot to park up for lunch.

Our lunch spot

You can see the beginning of the loop off the far end, but the near side of the loop runs through those trees over there too.

Trains can still use the bridge. This is the long ramp up the south side.

If we get a chance we may take a train over it. Meantime, time was getting on so we decided on a campsite next to the Bistensee, a lake north of Rendsberg. It's lovely.

How about that for an outlook?

Life's just too hard

 It was a perfectly clear night too, with a lovely sunset.

Who pays the ferryman?

Well, we do as you'll see later.

I was woken early by J who demanded we move. Starting at 5am trucks had been passing to and from the gravel wharf at the end of the road. On top of last night's noisy ships she'd had enough. Fair enough. We drove to the other site in town that we'd thought we'd found full to discover that in fact there was a whole other area we'd missed somehow! Doh! (Again - anyone counting?) Now we're parked in a yacht club park 20m from the promenade.

We biked into town and discovered that it's Kieler Woche, the busiest week of the city's year. It's a boating festival with fairs and entertainment attached. So we biked through the stalls then decided we'd take the ferry up the fjord to see some of the sailing ships.

Just some of the participants

But not this one!

Stalls just opening

A couple maxi-yachts like those that used to race the America's Cup.

This is our next MH, just to ensure it's bigger than K & D's. Two stories with pop ups and outs. Might be a bit tricky on Italian village streets, but it's the size that matters, right?

We had to wait some time for the ferry which was late despite the renowned German punctuality. So many additional tourists meant embarking and debarking took longer than usual so the schedules were all to hell. Anyway, a friendly resident told us about what was going on and the best places to watch from.

Lovely beach boxes to keep the wind off you, and some windjammers passing by 

And some of the rest of Germany's modern navy.

We got off at Laboe on the eastern tip of the fjord and I got to look at another submarine (type VIIc this time) and another naval museum. Screw from Prinz Eugen anyone? Also a 75m viewing platform on the memorial to dead sailors of all sides in both wars. Great views!

The most produced U-Boot type VIIc, but this is apparently the last intact one

The memorial to those lost at sea in war, and Prinz Eugen's screw, lost at sea in peace.

A view from the top, toward Kiel in the distance. Can you spot J?

On the boat back we talked to an ex-soldier who served with the British Army in Germany during the cold war and who now sells furniture. At least until he retires in September. Nice bloke.

The weather was hot and 30+ is promised. I'll be staying in the shade.

Smell, noise and other sensory overloads

We had seen diesel at 119.9 per litre but when we went to fill it had gone up to 122.9! What's that all about? Anyway, we very nearly drove straight on to the ferry and were first in the queue for the next. While we waited the queue grew and grew so there were two or three loads by the time we boarded, with more arriving every minute. On the other side it was the same. Timing is everything!

Crossing the Elbe

In a town called Itzehoe I got a haircut. There was some miscommunication and rather than a number two comb all over I got 2mm. Essentially I am bald.

Oops!

Before we made our lunch something started to tickle J's nose. We explored and realised we hadn't emptied our grey water for a week! Mio dio, did it stink! So she found us a disposal area en route and we spent some time emptying and airing out. Phewee. We couldn't eat lunch until well into the afternoon.

In Kiel we managed to miss the large camping area sign and thought the parks were all taken so stayed on a site (well, actually outside) next to the canal locks. Big mistake. Although it was fascinating to see the ships going through, the noise continued through the night and then at 5am gravel trucks started visiting the quay to load. How the site got its high rating is hard to understand.

Kiel to Brunsbüttel 

Brunsbüttel to Kiel. The MHs are veerry close!

Not particularly clear but you can see the gravel wharf and the locks. We parked on the street outside the official stellplatz, and didn't lose anything for it.

The canal is quite something for all that. It is busier than the Panama and Suez canals and cuts about 350 nm off a voyage between the Baltic and North seas. We'll see more of it later.

More messing about with boats

I biked into town while J had an easy morning. I had a look at the 'Bremen kogge', a mediaeval ship that had been dug out of the silt in Bremen harbour in the 60's. Then for contrast I went through the Wilhelm Bauer, a WW2 type XXI sub that had been dug out of the silt in the 50s and put back into operation.

 Hydrofoil

 The kogge (cog) in the museum

 Wilhelm Bauer, Type XXI U-Boot

The former had displays on the recovery and preservation of the wreck (including the chain of phone calls made when it was found), and the bits and pieces found with it.

The latter was a walk through of this (ground breaking?) U-boat, the first to be able to travel faster under water than on the surface, and constructed in modules joined together in facilities like the Valentin pens. Like the pens this sub was not used for the purpose it was built, being scuttled by its crew at the end of the war.

Looking up in the conning tower

Cramped conditions

I got back after check-out time but fortunately avoided the penalty charge. We headed east to the Elbe river, stopping at Wischaven, a ferry terminus.

BTW, we haven't managed our Internet and have used our monthly allowance. We thus have to rely on campsite wifi which not all have. That's why blogs are late and pictureless. I'll backfill as wifi becomes available.

A rather large box

We took a dip southward to visit a box. It was a nice country drive that included a brief period under the Weser river which suited the submarine theme of the last couple days.

Our destination was the Valentin submarine pens, a huge 'bomb-proof' submarine fabrication plant on the Weser river near Bremen. While it was quite a feat of engineering it was ultimately neither bomb-proof, nor ever fabricated a submarine. Indeed the reason it should be remembered is that it was a site where forced labourers were worked to death in huge numbers (~6000). The chief engineer went to his grave taking no responsibility for the use or abuse of these workers. He wasn't alone in that attitude - noone was ever even charged after the war. Almost all of the complex - camps, oil storage, railways, roads, even the inlet and wharves have been obliterated post-war. There are a couple of memorials around the campsites, and one outside the pen.

"Extermination by Labour"

First view of the pens

When you first see the inside you think it's big...

...and then you turn around!

This hole did for the entire project: made by a Tallboy bomb I think.

 Completed U-Boats would have left conducted submersion tests and then sailed from here.

Then into this bay, when it was one.

Moving on, we camped in Bremerhaven, for no reason  really. I had misremembered the Grimm fairy tale about the 4 musicians as being Bremerhaven rather than Bremen. 30 odd years ago I had seen the statue of these on my bike trip, and I had seen the story as a child in primary school!

Anyway, Bremerhaven  is where we stopped. We took the opportunity to do all our laundry and look like a mobile laundry mobile as a result. While it was on wash we took a dip in the lake as the day was stinking hot. Tomorrow another submarine - the Wilhelm Bauer,a type XXI u-boat.

Messing about in boats

Attraction of the day was the Marine Museum. There were a number of post-WW2 museum ships ranging from a coastal submarine through fast patrol boats to a destroyer. The displays covered the rise of the German Navy from before there was a Germany, through when there were two, to the current day.

 A Seehund 2 man sub from late-WW2. One of the few WW2 exhibits.

SMS Seydlitz got hit several times during the Battle of Jutland, once on a gun barrel, and here it is!

These are plates from the infamous Tirpitz: 8" and 6". They were used for penetration testing after the war which is where the 'oles come from.

Ooh. 'Ello sailor...

Destroyer, minesweeper, sub, fast patrol boat.

We biked past a few large bunker-like constructions that I think may be air-raid shelters. I'll look 'em up for tomorrow. [Edit - they are.] We also biked past several small completely unlike-bunker constructions which you can see now.

Aside from the navy, Jade/Wilhelmshaven's claim to fame is that it hosts Germany's only south facing beach.

Jade aka Wilhelmshaven

A quiet day today. We drove to Wilhelmshaven (previously Jade,so it was curious to see a Jade  Stadium, which only Kiwi readers might appreciate) to have a look at half the modern German navy. En route we had lunch in the driveway of a village football club and watched two robot lawnmowers wandering about their pitch. Exciting stuff.

It was rather warm when we arrived at our camp so I had a siesta, followed by a bike ride when it was cooler.

Apparently Jade/Wilhelmshaven has such a problem with churches being stolen they have to tie the buggers down.

Little things

The three main attractions are an old ship (1909), a castle and Miniaturland. The ship was absent, hopefully not sunk, and we've seen a few castles already so I forced J to see the latter.

Miniaturland shows highlights of towns around the area, including Leer itself, in HO scale (1/87). Trains go around, boats sail the waterways (or should - none seem to be sailing on this day), trucks, tractors and cars move around and there are little interactive bits that you set off with buttons. A lot of work has gone into this attraction, and the modellers have filled it with little human stories.

This fair is in our car park - Reggie is about where the red sign is below the Ferris wheel.

Hall 1. There're two of these halls.

Somebody call the cops!

Godzilla?

This was animated. You can imagine...

There was an  outside railway at a larger scale but it made me feel sad. I think the whole thing had been set up with great hopes and as some group's passion, but the feeling I got was that it was already past its prime and was starting to get run down again. I wonder how many years it will survive for?

The temperature was well into the 20s so our walk was a warm one. Sadly my sun-allergy has returned so I have to wear long-sleeved shirts and it gets rather sticky! And a heat-wave of 30+ degrees is promised...

The Stadtfest was still going so we watched a couple of the bands for a while. Our favourite was the Moonshine Boppers who played rockabilly, rock and roll, and a little blues. Oddly (to us), although several of the audience were dressed for the style, no one danced it! In Britain there'd be guaranteed a few couples dancing appropriately. Award for weirdest song? All Along The Watchtower performed rockabilly!

Sadly the evening was a marred by a bag theft from right in front of us, witnessed by J. The owner seems to have got it back but we're not sure of its contents. In the Netherlands youths would nod and say hello to us. Here we've seen youths fronting up for a fight, pissing in doorways in public, and stealing bags. It's like being back in Britain.