It was just a short stop in the harbour of Hamburg, unfortunately. This weekend is the port anniversary in Hamburg, hundreds of ships are in the harbour and one of the highlights is their parade. But FRAM had to leave quite early to hurry to Stralsund. In just three hours everyone was on board; it was probably the shortest lay-over time of FRAM in a habour.
We started the trip on the Elbe and got plenty of explanations about Hamburg, about some of the vessels, the beautiful part of the city: Blankenese, the shipyard Blohm & Voss and so on. In the afternoon was the first lecture about the “Nord-Ostsee-Kanal” (Kiel Canal) just in time before we approached the floodgate in Brunsbuettel, the entrance to Kiel Canal.
The whole Canal is around 100 km long and was built by the German Emperor Wilhelm I in 1896 and finished in 1914. It is a beautiful trip passing the “Marsch”, a green and fertile landscape in northern Germany. We enjoyed being outside on the decks in the sunshine, especially during the sunset. Indeed a marvelous start of our voyage in the Baltic Sea.
Captain Arild Hårvik and his crew gave us a warm welcome and nice ending of an exciting day.
