Adventures on the Canals of France ,Netherlands and Germany: July 2009

BREMEN
We stayed at the Bremen Motorboot Club right in town. It has good facilities and only about 500 metres from the old town. The river is tidal here and the pontoons float up and down with the tides. This is near low tide. At high tide the top of the boat is just under the yellow stripe.

The port area of Bremen further out of town was badly damaged in the war but fortunately the town of Bremen suffered little damage and has many very beautiful buildings surrounding the town square.The statue of Roland dominates the other side of the square. The Town Hall called the Rats Haus was built in 1405-09 and the Statue of Roland are on the UNESCO World Heritage list. We went on a tour of the inside and it is just magnificent.
The two best known symbols of Bremen is the Beck Beer which is produced here with the left facing Bremen Key and the Bremen Musicians from a Grimms fairy Tale. There is a bronze statue of the fairytale characters and it is said that if you hold onto the donkey’s leg and make a wish it comes true. So we will see.
There are statues of the musicians all over town. Even a post card showing them dressed for winter.

The old town has a lot of small streets with shops and restaurants. We think Bremen is the nicest place we have been to in Germany. It has a good feel to it.

HELGOLAND
While in Bremen we caught the train to Cuxhaven on the coast and caught the Ferry to Helgoland an island 70 k out in the North Sea.

It was once owned by the British and swapped for land in Africa by Queen Victoria in 1890. It is a Sandstone Rock about 1 square kilometre and about 100m high with a small island of sand alongside.

All announcements on the boat were in German and as we were approaching the island an announcement had all the people surging towards the staircase down to the next level. I thought hell does this mean we are sinking!! One lady took pity on me as Kevin had gone off to take some photos and I suppose I had a queer look while trying to work out what the announcement was about, and if I should look for the lifejackets. She told me I would need to go down as it was from this level we would get in the small boats to go ashore. This was news to me. Fortunately Kevin joined me at the top of the staircase and down we went with the crowd.

The ferry boats moor out and the passengers are transferred in small lighters carrying about 40 people. This takes place as the boats move up and down with the waves. Two men on the ship grab hold of each arm and pass you to two other standing in the boat. All went well d we landed on the island safely.

Once on stable land we found a tour group with a guide who also spoke English and off we went on a two hour guided walk around the island which was very interesting. Others went off to the shops as this is a duty free island.

The island is sandstone with grassy depressions which are old bomb craters. The light house was the only structure standing after the bombing.
We walked up to the top level and out to the end of the island. It is a very important Bird Sanctuary and lots of people were there for that reason.

The island has 11 k of tunnels, you can see an entrance in this photo.
We had a late lunch, bought some duty free chocolate and then it was time to go back to the small boats and back to sea.

Unfortunately getting back on the boat was not as smooth an exercise as getting off and I broke my glasses and my watch.
We had a great day out and we added another island to our list. So far we have been to Rottnest in the Indian Ocean, Lord Howe and Norfolk islands in the Pacific, Kangaroo Island in the Southern Ocean, Texel, Tschelling and Schiermonnikoog off of the Dutch Coast, Borkum off of the German coast and Helgoland in the North Sea. Next we will have to add an island in the Atlantic.

We left Bremen on the outgoing tide and made our way down to the Esfleth so we could go up as the tide was turning. We made our way east to the Kusten Canal
Through Oldenburg our last big city and made our way slowly behind a barge from Lemmer who had 5 boats trailing behind, who all tried to pass but he was going just too fast. After 4 hours we reached the Dortmond Ems canalI was not very happy about going down to the Dollard and back that way in case the wind was too strong and the waves too large. You can tell I am abit of a wimp when it comes to rough sailing. To please me Keving decided to go via the Haren Rutenbrock canal again and into the Netherlands.

Living on the boat is like looking at postcards of ordinary people lives as we slowly pass by,
lovers kissing in a quiet corner of a park; a father and son fishing; walkers out with their Nordic hiking sticks; look into the living room of a house; wave to a child standing on a bridge; be totally entranced by a beautiful building or a perfect reflection on a still lake; asking someone if they speak English when we need some information and getting a shrug or a smile; see the ferry boat passengers trying to work out where our flag is from, then telling their neighbour it is Australian or just going on wondering; or marvel at the amount of forest still standing; look at little garden allotments busy in the short summer season, full of vegetables or flowers or a small portable swimming pool; eavesdrop on an argument in a foreign language as people pass by in the night; join in the fun at a festival; listen to Dixie Jazz songs sung in English by a German band; sit in the streetside bar eating Curryworst and frites; listen to the town drunk as he sleeps nearby our mooring on the town wharf; watch the people pass by talking in a group wondering if we have come all the way from Australia in our boat; Everyday is another wonderful surprise.

Goodbye Germany we had a great time. We always feel priveledged that we have been able to meet so many wonderful people and see so many wonderful things. Even when we have problems, it is just another day and another sunrise is coming.

Hello Netherlands, what new fun awaits us now?

We started the Mittelland canal from the East this time but it was just as we remembered the West end … a lot of bridges. However at this end I think they have employed a female bridge painter or they have a female boss, we passed a lovely apricot with grey trim, a lilac and mintgreen, a dove grey with navy and cherry red trim. I guess you think I am fixated with bridges but believe me when you pass under one each kilometre for 340 kilometres you notice them. The colourful ones were quite an unexpected surprise to relieve the boredom.

Bridge building was in full swing. This one was built on the canal side and presumably would be pushed across the canal.

This one was getting finishing touches.

The barges were in full on mode as well, carrying all sorts of cargo. Machinery.

Crushed car bodies.

They also seem to be moving earth or rocks from one end of the country to the other.
In the Museum at Minden we saw these graphs showing the advantage of using Barges to Trucks.

Our next stop was Wolfburg where Volkswagen have their original assembly factory which now produces the Golf model (which is the largest selling motor car in the world). The Autostadt complex has showrooms for Audi, Lamborghini, and all the Volkswagen models. It is also a Museum of cars of all makes dating back to 1837, an adventure park and driving track, restaurants and hotel, a train ride through the assembly factory and twin towers and Welcome Centre where customers pick up their new car.

We visited the towers where the cars are brought from the assembly factory before they are delivered to the Welcome Centre. Each tower holds 400 cars and the process is fully robotic from the factory then two car transporters moving up and down the centre of the tower. We were disappointed in not being able to do the train ride or the ride up the tower as they need to be booked several weeks ahead.

The car museum was fantastic. I liked this little red sports job

And this pre model of the Smart car.

We thought the advertising for the T model Ford was good.

Kevin liked the old race car.

And if you are as old as us you will remember the Messerschmitt, it would be fabulous for shopping, one could park it anywhere.

Early morning and we are back on the Mittelland.

Our next surprise was a control check by the Water Police just past Hannover. They asked us to moor alongside and we were asked for the boat ownership papers and our boat skipper’s licences. They photocopied our Australian Skippers Tickets as the policewomen said she had never seen one before. All was well and off we continued down the canal to Minden.

We went over the Bridge Canal and stopped overnight at Minden for my Birthday and went into town for a meal.

We had a very interesting sweet.

We spent the morning at the Museum which had very good working displays of all the different types of locks, canal bridges and lifts we had been through so it was very interesting to see how they worked.

This shows how the water is saved when the lock is working, only about 25% is lost in the process. Some have exchange chambers under the ground and others at the side of the lock. You can see this when we are in these locks as the water bubbles up from the side or the front

At Minden we were going down into the Weser River to Bremen. The old lock which had been working when we came through in early June was closed so we had to go down two locks to get onto the Weser.