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| Schleswig Holstein and Denmark |
It was a long transit, so this edition comes in two parts….
Part 1 Kiel Kanal, Schleswig Holstein, Germany
Many people may have never heard of this historic canal,
which slices through the German/Danish peninsular connecting the North Sea with
the Baltic and shortening the route by a good chunk of time, distance and cost.
It was dug quite some time ago. The technology used for the locks is still
applicable today, however lock maintenance requires constant attention due to age
of the installation and impact of forceful propeller washes from modern ships.
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| Brunsbuettel Kanal Entrance |
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| Large Locks |
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| Sliding Door Chamber |
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| Opening the Way into the Kanal |
The canal handles about 45,000 cargo vessels each year, which
is more than the number of ship transits of the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal
combined. Only six cruise ships have the required dimensions of draft, width,
length and height to fit into the locks, the canal proper and underneath the
numerous bridges. Prinsendam is one of the six lucky ones.
Thousands of small pleasure
boats make their way along the canal as well, and smaller locks accommodate
this traffic beside the large locks for cruise and commercial traffic. There
are parallel large locks at either end, Brunsbuettel in the west, and Kiel in
the east. Only one lock chamber is required to lift or lower the ships to
accommodate the up to two meters difference in water level. The North Sea has
large tides, the Baltic hardly any. The North Sea is warmed by the Gulf Stream
and never freezes, the Baltic is cut off and parts of it freeze over during
winter. During WWII thousands of refugees fled on foot, by horse and cart and many
other means from the advance of the Soviet army across the frozen Baltic to
safety.
The lock gates do not swing open as they do on the present
Panama Canal, but work like ‘sliding doors’ and travel into a recess once
equalization of water level has been reached. The new Panama Canal will deploy
this sliding door technology as well, whereas the ‘old’ one uses opening doors.
Prinsendam had to lower her antenna and flag mast again to
enable her to fit under the bridges, some of them with only six feet of
clearance to spare.
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| Made it - again! |
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| Swimming the Canal anyone? |
The peninsular is a little less than 100 km wide at this
point. Both shores of the Kanal are German; Denmark’s border is about 50 km
further north. To let Germans freely travel between the two shores, there are
of course many bridges, but also numerous small ferries – free of charge as
Kaiser Wilhelm decreed for eternity – which connects opposite shores near each
village – and there are many.
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| Modern Nesting Places for Gulls |
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| Cows and Refineries at Brunsbuettel |
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| Legs for Oil Rigs maybe?? |
Once one enters into the Kanal and has passed the industrial
refinery sites and wind generator farms, the landscape becomes bucolic. Flat
with a little roll to it, the country stretches out for miles on either side
blanketed in farm fields, meadows, forests and marshes and small villages. Sandy
lanes weave through the fields and lines of trees, and trails hug the shore on
either side for the entire length of the Kanal. Being Sunday – many people rode
around, walked their dogs, held picnics on the many benches, made themselves
comfortable for a day of fishing, enjoyed a meal in one of the many ‘ferry
side’ romantic restaurants or just hung out and waved, and waved and waved.
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| Unidentified Floating Object |
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| Our Fan CLub waving from a Bridge |
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| ..and here they are again |
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| Kanal Ferry |
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| Pleasure Craft |
One group of people, armed with flags met the ship at
Brunsbuettel, and then turned up (driving a little red car) at each ferry
crossing and a couple of the bridges waving their flags and shouting welcome
greetings. The ship responded in kind, and the deafening horn went off almost
every time these faithful followers made their appearance along the 100 km
water way. What a way to spend a Sunday with your family!
Sailboats and power boats travelled faster than the
Prinsendam, who crawled along at about 6 knots to avoid making a large wake.
Bicycles and the odd wheelchair bound stroller all outpaced big Prinsendam.
