 |
| Fishing along the Bank of the Kiel Kanal |
 |
| These guys have right of way... |
Traffic on the Kanal was interesting and at times quite
tense. The Kanal is rather narrow and at intervals widens out somewhat to
accommodate a ‘passing lane’ for larger ships. All well and good, but even on
the Kanal one encounters the German way of ‘draengeln’, meaning pushing elbow
to elbow to be fist to get through whatever obstacle one finds. (They must have
learned it at soccer stadia entrances and ski lifts, which are usually a mob
scene) Things got a bit crowded ever so often, and rather challenging for
Prinsendam at one of the ‘passing lane’.
 |
| Captain and Fist Officer on Passing Ship |
 |
| Last Minute Avoidance Tactic |
 |
| Three deep and a Sailing boat on the other side of Prinsendam |
Prinsendam (who supposedly has right of way) needed to stop
in one of the passing basins to accommodate two ships charging along cheek to
cheek - so to speak – towards her with hardly an inch to spare between the
hulls of all three of us. And a small sail boat felt is necessary to squeeze in
and overtake the lot of us as well, making for a somewhat tight fit. Following
this bunch there was another barge in a hurry, which left her avoidance maneuver
so late, with the consequence that the entire ‘heavy brass’ of Prinsendam and
the Kanal pilots crowded onto our small bridge ‘balcony’ to watch if we would
have a monster size crunch coming.
 |
| The Staff is watching... |
 |
| Sunday Driver waving to us |
 |
| Sunday Flyer waving to us |
With a hefty crosswind blowing, Prinsendam required some skillful
handling to nudge her back into mid-channel to continue on without drifting
onto the edge of the Kanal. There are bulwarks of course (most topped by
nesting birds) to prevent such a thing happening but once stuck against one of
those, the ship would have needed tugs
to get her into mid channel again.
 |
| Pilot Boat |
 |
| Pilot |
 |
| Still floating through cow fields.... |
Prinsendam carried local pilots of course, who change at
each of the two locks and in half way channel transit.
The transit is probably the most delightful in the world
when compared with Panama and Suez, which definitely have their own unique
attractions. But for sheer beauty and interest, the Kiel Kanal takes the prize:
beautiful gentle landscape in all shades of green spreads out on either side.
All manner of birds such as swans, ducks, swallows, song birds and more live
along the canal. One is never out of range of melodious bird song. One is
almost all the time out of range of not so melodious car noise. A few times
country roads approached the Canal, wherever there were ferry crossings, but
otherwise – there were more Holstein and Frisian cows, sheep and Holstein and
Frisian horses than cars or people. Well, it’s the homeland of great cheeses
and top class sport horses!
From the decks, one could converse without raising ones
voice with strollers ashore; it is so close and so quiet. Sometimes one sniffs
a distinct aroma of farm, horse, cow and pig manure which is used as fertilizer.
Villages of neat brick houses with steeply pitched roofs appear now and then. In
short the transit feels more like a leisurely walk in the country than a
cruise.
The ship served gloopy pea soup as an alleged local
delicacy. There were knackwurst (lukewarm wieners and bockwursts) and tepid
sauerkraut (straight from the can) with mustard….a Schleswig Holstein cook wood
have helped there!
As a bow to technology and environmental responsibility most
livestock, utility and storage barns, and a huge number of houses have solar
panels for roofing, thus generating a sizeable amount of their private
electricity. Wind mills – the modern kind – are plentiful as well.
 |
| Railway Bridge with hanging basket |
 |
| Basket Ferry |
One of the last bridges we passed is a railway bridge with seldom
seen characteristics. Trains approach from their flatland tracks via a long and
gently rising clover leaf approach to reach the height of the bridge. With
German engineering genius, a large basket type affair is suspended on long
cables underneath the bridge and travels on ‘underneath’ rails across the Kanal,
carrying cars, bikes and people like an air borne ferry – gratis of course.
 |
| Almost there... |
 |
| Hunting Blind in Farmers Field |
After about 10 hours and 100 km, we reached Kiel, a past
Olympic Games sites (sailing, rowing) and hotbed of current sailing regattas apart
from being the location of the eastern locks. After another short
lifting/lowering operation inside similar locks as in Brunsbuettel we entered
the Baltic.
 |
| View from my Cabin |
 |
| My Friendly helpers, the Cabin Stewards... |
 |
| Small Locks at Kiel |
 |
| Tall Masts at Kiel |
 |
| Big Locks at Kiel |
We headed off into the Kieler Bucht and passed beacons and
lighthouse ships to set off for Riga in Latvia with a glorious sunset as a
bonus for tonight.
 |
| It took 10 hours to get through |
 |
| And out we pop into the Baltic |
 |
| A new inland sea..... |
And – I will be back – for another go at this Kanal in mid-June!!
