09 June 2010; Travemunde, Germany.

Travemunde is tucked away at the southwest corner of the Baltic. It is mainly a ferry port nowadays with regular services to Trelleborg and Malmo. Ferries with very German names such as Robin Hood, Nils Holgerson and Peter Pan are sailing in and out of the port on a regular schedule. For the rest it is a well known seaside resort with at the most northern end an area for the well heeled and monied people. Travemunde is also a gateway to the town of Lubeck. As this city was founded in 1143 it is the oldest Baltic port and as a result has a lot of culture and historic things to offer. Thus the reason for our call. In the same way that Warnemunde gives access to Berlin, Travemunde gives access to Lubeck and Hamburg. Thus far the Prinsendam has been the only HAL cruise ship calling here, once a year, but the company is keeping a close eye on the feedback from the guests to see if they are enjoying the call and if so, then more calls will be scheduled for future cruises. Once again the Prinsendam is indeed the elegant explorer by testing new destinations.

Travemunde is just around the corner from Kiel so we sailed all night at a slow speed giving other ships the option to gloat at us as normally it is the cruise ships that come charging by at full sea speed leaving coasters and other cargo ships wallowing in their wake. During this night even the smallest coaster had the chance to overtake us as we trundled along with the sedate speed of about 8 knots. However it brought us nice and timely to the pilot station at 06.30 in the morning to embark the German pilot to enter the port. Weather was overcast but there was no wind or rain forecast and that made it a good day for sightseeing.

The port consists of the old harbour and the newer inner or Ro-Ro ferry harbour. It is located along the banks of the river Trave which gives it’s name to the town. My hope was that I could dock at the old downtown pier as we had done in 2007, but in the meantime somebody had figured out that with 204 meters the ship was over the limit of 200 meters and so we were relegated to the larger docks in the ro-ro (roll on roll off ) ships docking area’s. I hope that the authorities will decide to put in one more mooring dolphin for long bow lines as that would make the 200 meter rule obsolete.

When sailing in and sailing out, you have the town with its main street/water front to the North and a marina with a large sailing ship to the South. This ship is the square rigger Passat, which together with other similar ships such as the Pamir and the Padua were once world famous as grain carriers for the Laiesz “Flying P line.”. These ships held out against the steam and cargo ships for a long time into the 20th century. When finally their time came, the Passat was moored as a museum ship in Travemunde where it has been now for the last 60 years. Next year she is celebrating her 100th birthday. As a credit to the people of Travemunde she looked magnificent when we sailed by; in pristine condition and sitting as a regal visitor among the small craft in the surrounding marina.

To alleviate the problem of not being in down town, we had arranged for a shuttle service from the ship to down town Travemunde for those not going on tour. The reports coming back were very positive and a lot of guests took the chance to have lunch at a local restaurant or to try the local brewed beer; which according to (local) experts, is one of the best beers in Germany.

By 1700 hrs. we sailed away again and our pilot this time was a German captain who had been in command of the ss Rotterdam V when she was sailing as the Rembrandt for Premier cruises. Thus we had a lot in common, as I sailed her out in 1997 and we were back in open waters very quickly. As is custom in North German ports, the river banks were full of waving people and the most clever ones observed the ship passing by sitting outside the pubs with a local beer in hand.

Tonight we will cross the South West Baltic from South to North and then tomorrow morning we will be at 5 am. at the southern entrance of the Drogden Canal which leads to Copenhagen. The weather is totally confused, I looked at three websites, one predicted sun, the 2nd one drizzle and the 3rd one rain, so we will see what we get, when we get there.

Note about yesterday:
One of my retired colleagues sent me this link with photos of the Prinsendam going through the canal.

http://www.myholstein.de/schiffsbildersammlung/24-kreuzfahrtschiffe/312-prindendam