Tour Report: Abandoned Barges

In April of 2019, we undertook a short tour to visit a friend in the German state of Lower Saxony, and of course, we had a few locations on our list of possible explorations. The first one was an easy task - just two abandoned gravel barges that have been rotting on the bank of a flooded gravel pit near a river.

There was a public parking lot near the dike that protects the inland if there is a flood that pushes water over the riverbanks. From there, it was only a twenty-minute walk to get to the former gravel pit. The barges can be seen from the trail, and there was even a small beaten path through the reeds that made it even easier for us to reach our target. The barges are in water, but the surrounding area has silted up, so we could reach the rusting hunks of metal without getting our feet wet.

The weather was beautiful - it was pretty windy, but sunny and warm, so we took our time to stroll around and take a bunch of photos. It was one of those explores that are unspectacular regarding the target, but are made memorable by the setting in general - weather, accessibility, company, potential historical relevance etc., so we really enjoyed ourselves.

The day ended with a nice dinner and a few drinks with our friend Petra at her parents' place, while we were already pondering what to explore on the next day...

To find out about the history of this place and to check out all the photos, click the button below.

Sailing Aphrodite - A Perfect End of Summer

On Monday, my wife and I were privilege to a nice little event that would mark the perfect ending of this year's summer.
Captain Aent Kingma of the Brigg 'Aphrodite' was leaving the Baltic Sea to take the ship to its winter quarter in the Netherlands. And we were invited!
It was a nice little trip from Sartorikai in Kiel through the locks at Kiel-Holtenau, where we met up with the 'Alexander v. Humboldt II', which was a pretty amazing sight, to the harbor of Rendsburg.
Rendsburg is about halfway through the Kiel-Canal, so it took about 6 hours to get there.

This trip aboard the 'Aphrodite' really was a perfect ending for the summer. A summer that included lots of sailing, lot of ocean and water, and making new friends.

Here are the photos:

I like Kiel. Part 4.

Last Sunday my wife and I took the harbor ferry over to Kiel's "East Coast" to enjoy the last warm rays of sun this summer.
There was a strong wind blowing which made the clouds paint really dramtic images in the sky.
It was a wonderful day with blue skies, white clouds, sailing ships and the sea.

I like Kiel. Part 2.

Flowers when you need 'em!

Kiel City Hall.

Lunch in the Sky.

A Kiel Evening.