Thursday 24 May 2012

THE END OF A BEAUTIFUL VOYAGE

Today we reached Hamburg, the end of our fantastic trip through the Baltic Sea. There is no words to describe the beauty of all the towns we visited under a warm sun. Last night we passed the Kiel Channel connecting the Baltic Sea to the North Sea, and in the early morning sunshine we sailed on the Elbe.
We had three different pilots on board, the first one for the Channel, the second one for the Elbe and finally a third one for the harbour, those guys know how to share a business.

All of us enjoyed the scenery: lots of trees, yacht clubs, nice mansions, the five stars hotel « Louis Jacob » on one side, and the industrial zone with shipyards and among other companies the aircraft builder Airbus on the other side. Benno felt really at home here and gave us lots of insider information about Hamburg and the life in town: art, culture, architecture, business, sports, transportation and more.


Later in the morning our passengers left the ship, and they told us that they were ready to come back again. For the crew, this was a day of hard work as the new passengers arrived in the afternoon.
After check in and a short discovery tour of the ship, our guests were invited to the mandatory safety drill on deck 5.











Fram left the harbour of Hamburg at 18.15, still under a beautiful sun. Hamburg gave us great impressions of modern architecture. After dinner, we all went to the observation lounge for the captains’ welcome cocktail. Captain Rune Andreasen introduced some of the officers and kept us updated about the weather forecast. Our expedition leader Anja Erdmann introduced her team of lecturers and all agreed that we are en route for a great sailing experience, en route to Greenland.