Kiel Germany and Rotterdam Netherlands

Kiel Germany

2 June 

Today we docked in Kiel.  This is yet another German city.  This one was made remarkable because of the location.  Kiel has a history of flipping between Denmark, Prussia, and Germany because of its prized location on the Baltic.  

Kiel finally became and stayed a part of Germany in 1871.  The city itself is not filled with remarkable old buildings like many others throughout Europe, but rather it is a testament to German perseverance.  The city was mostly destroyed (80%+) during the second world war because of its locality to England.  The Brits thought it too close for comfort and as they could fly their, drop their bombs and fly home, they set out to destroy it. 

Well, that’s how the story goes. Most likely, it had something to do with the fact that at the time Kiel had the second largest ship building facilities in the German Reich, and it also housed the German navy and was used as a U-boat base.  You don’t want those on your back door now do you?

Anyway, after the war, the Germans built the city back in a rather hurried fashion.  Housing was in short supply and instead of building quaint little half timber homes as was in the past, they built modern (for the late 40’s early 50’s) high-rise apartments. 

These range in size from 430 square feet to 860 square feet (the man house in hong kong was 640 square feet and I thought that to be tiny!). Our guide told us the Germans learned from their mistakes and didn’t want to repeat them so they rebuilt 'modern' instead of old. I am thinking more along the lines of they needed housing fast as over 70% of it had been destroyed.

They did have a lovely pedestrian walkway which we were told was the first of its kind in Europe, but … more likely, the government of Kiel followed the example of Essen and copied the model of Limbecker Straße. 

We started along this street and were shown a few notable buildings and many sculptures.  Many of which kept the old façade and modernized the internal.  A classic example of this is St. Nicholas church.  

After a brief talk about the Geistkämpfer and how it was saved from being melted down for guns and ammunition.  This statue was made by Ernst Barlach and is said to be a symbol of the triumph of good over evil.  The statue was cut into four pieces and moved to the peat bogs and buried until the war ended.  The gent who did this then repaired it, made a number of copies and went on an artistic tour.  Later he was sued by the city of Kiel to have it returned. As expected, he lost and the statue was then placed outside the church for all to see. 

The church itself is a Gothic revival style made of bricks and many arched windows on the outside.  The inside…wow.  My only word for it is 'confusing'. It was destroyed during the war and had to be rebuilt. The city decided to keep the original façade and modernize the inside.  It is whitewashed with the oddest of angular windows. 

The columns looked like Supertrees of Singapore.  I’d be surprised if they didn’t light up at night.  Inside there is a bronze baptismal font that dates to 1344, a triumph cross from 1490, and an altar from 1460. 

The altar was under repair and we were unable to see it so I’ve nicked a photo from the web.

All in all, I’d say the church was rather jarring to the mind. I did not like it.  An experiment gone wrong if you will.  There was an organ recital at 12:05 and I had no desire to go listen.  I can’t imagine what it would have been like given what we saw.

From here we wandered to the mayoral palaces.  These were based off the St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice. We were told the clock tower is taller than the original to show the might of the Weimar Republic. While George was listening to the talk, I wandered off and found a cute little house fairy sculpture.  There was also a large sculpture entitled Schwertträger which was erected in 1912. This statue was once placed on a fountain that has since been removed. It represents the strength of the city. 

From here we went to a local brauhaus for beer tasting and a pretzel. Each table had 3 different pitchers of beer, a pale pilsner, a blond and a dark beer.  Much to my surprise, I preferred the blond. 

We listened to a talk on the brewing process and were then taken down to see the tanks.  It is an interesting process which we have listened to before.  It seems that every time we see a brewery tour we take it.  Anyway, a funny thing happened.  When we were downstairs, the other two tables of people from the cruise decided that we weren’t going to drink our beers so they finished them off.  Even more unsettling was eating 1/2 of my pretzel. :) Such is life.  

George and I had a few shops we wanted to check out so we left and headed out on our own.  Puzzle hunting was a bust, but we did manage to get another suitcase to take home the puzzles we had previously purchased.  When we returned to the ship we discovered that one wheel had a bunch of thread knotted inside blocking the turning.  Our room steward asked why the suitcase was upside down when he came in that afternoon and fixed it for us!  

Dinner was interrupted by trying to book flights for our return to Italy in August.  We ended up finishing it in our room.  A very frustrating end to a very pleasant day. 

Kiel Canal Transit

3 June

This day was a lazy one.  We stayed in bed until around 11 watching the canal go by.  We did see some wonderful bike trails and made a note of taking a tour there one of these years.  I know our biking friends will love it.  There is just so much to see along the 61 mile long canal. 

After lunch we played cards with friends and had a nice dinner in the Polo Grill.  Not much happens on sea days.  

Rotterdam 

4 June

Today we felt like we were going home again.  We love the Netherlands and have such wonderful friends here.  We opted to spend the day with them instead of on a ships excursion.  This is where the real fun part of the cruise begins.  We will be visiting with friends on many of the stops from here to New York. 

We docked at the Rotterdam cruise terminal. Just down from us were two very interesting buildings.  One is propped up with just a single pole and the other (De Rotterdam Building) was designed by a friend of ours (Franz de Vreugd) so we have to take photos of it when ever we go there.

The best part: he made a puzzle of the building! 

Oskar and José picked us up at 10 am and we walked across the Erasmus bridge and had a hot chocolate while waiting for the Blue Amigo boat that would take us to Kinderdijk. 

On the way we picked up another couple Peter and Fredi when we changed to another ferry to the island.

This tour was fascinating. We knew about a large portion of the Netherlands being underwater, but I guess it really didn’t sink in just how much this was. In one of the buildings we had a wonderful talk by a guide and he told us it was just over 40%! The area we were in originally had 20 working windmills to help pump the water away so the land stayed dry. These were later changed to steam powered pumps, and in modern times converted to electric pumps.  Today the Netherlands has over 200 of these pumps keeping out the sea water.

The ground here is made up of peat and therefore, when the water is pumped out, the soil dries out and over time, the land becomes lower and lower. The guide told us that the area has dropped over 2 meters since the middle ages.  His own garden has dropped around 1 1/2 feet during the 20 years that he has lived in his home. 

We learned that in the past decade the government has rebuilt or reinforced all of the dykes surrounding the area.  In 1953 One of the dykes failed and over 2000 people perished.  In order to make sure this doesn’t happen again, the pumps must run 24-7.  We also saw three of the largest Archimedes screws.  These things were massive, but sadly, not working at the time we saw them. 

We had a nice little lunch at the local cafe, and then wandered over to a working windmill.  The noise as we went past was astounding.  I was very very impressed. We entered inside and were able to see what life must have looked like for a family of millers.  The beds were tiny and placed anywhere there was room. I was particularly taken aback on one of the floors that was used as a play area which was separated from the turning wheels of the mill only by a simple fence of wood.  I couldn’t help but shudder at the thought of a young child crawling below the fencing.  The kitchen area was a separate building outside of the mill.  Life must have been tough at this time.

One bit of interesting information I learned was that the mill could be used to signal the birth of a child, a wedding, a death, as well as a number of other important events based on the position of the arms of the mill.  There are only 19 of the original 20 mills still in the area.  Today there are only 6 families who live in the mills. Three mills are used as museums and the rest are maintained for tourism only.  Each family must have a certain number of rotations of the mills each year to be able to keep their homes and get government subsidies to maintain them.  From what we saw on the canal boat ride we took, they must be very proud of their homes.  They were in wonderful condition.  

After our visit to the museum we returned to the ferry pier where we played with a few puzzles while waiting.  We then road back to Rotterdam to catch our ship for our next port of call. It was once again a wonderfully short visit with friends.  This is one we will never tire of repeating.  

On a final note, Rotterdam is a wonderful city that we have been to numerous times before.  The architecture never ceases to amaze me.  I add a few photos of places that caught my eye on this trip.

Until next time, Happy Puzzling and Smooth Sailing.

And if you look through the buildings, you will see the yellow houses that started the adventure that George and I have been on ever since that ay in 2016 when we went there.