Day 12 Cuxhaven - Fish for lunch.

Day 12 Cuxhaven -Fish for lunch.

Day started slowly with a sleep in and also gave Maritta (and Fritz) a chance to catch up on the blog, that was until our prepaid SIM card ran out of credit (which meant we had to wait until we have WIFI access hopefully at the airport tomorrow to top it up and update the blog.)

Maritta and Fritz hard at it.....

For lunch we went to the Cuxhaven harbour area - fish markets.  Although there is still a supply of a large variety of fresh fish and crustaceans from the North Sea a large number of businesses have closed in more recent years.  A number of large canneries have been whittled down to just one.  A small number have cafe's are attached and we took the opportunity to sample some local fish.  Reading the german menu proved a little tricky as we did not want to try the local delicacy - smoked fish!   

We finally settled on the fishermans plate which included four different types of fish fillets lightly pan fried with a side serving of either pomme frits (chips) or fried potatoes.  Dale savoured his fish as it was the first time for two weeks he had been able to eat fish (and chips).  He was starting to suffer a little withdrawal!  We all agreed the fish lunch was excellent even Maritta who tends to avoid fish at the best of times. 

Hans Jurgen, Traute Dale (photographer) and Maritta having Fish lunch at Cuxhaven fish markets

Maritta looking at tropical fish tank at Cuxhaven fish market.

After lunch, Maritta and Hans Jurgen went off to do the more typical touristy thing of shopping in Duhnen whilst Dale and Fritz caught up on reading, snoozing and relaxing. 

After a light dinner we met up with Maritta's cousin (Edina's brother) Stephan and his wife Silke.  It had been 20 years since they had last met.  They have a delightfully active 16 month old chocolate labrador puppy - Nala.

Nala

Day 11 Cuxhaven - Aeronauticum

Day 11:  Cuxhaven - sightseeing and the Aeronauticum (Nordholz)

The best part of staying with locals is that they always know the best places to visit.  Unfortunately the weather again today started grey and quite foggy.  We set off for a sightseeing tour around the Cuxhaven area which takes in a number of smaller villages all dotted along the Elbe River. 

We started with a look at the Elbe River from Grimmerschon where the river is approximately 20 miles shore to shore.  However the fog did not allow us much of a view.  We then went to the harbor area near the lighthouse.  This is a thriving area for tourists where various sight seeing tours, small cafes and the occasional passenger ship take off from. An interesting ship in the harbour is a converted fire fighting ship which you can now hire for private tours or parties. 

A really nice touch for visitors is a volunteer group provides a loudspeaker commentary (unfortunately only in German at this stage) of the various ships (large and small) as they go past giving their destination, size and what they are carrying etc. 

Hans-Jurgen, Edina and Maritta - view across the Elbe River and looking up towards the North Sea

After lunch Hans Jurgen took us to the Aeronautica Museum in Nordholz which is on the site of one of the original flying ship bases and still remains an active military base. The majority of the planes on display where used by the Marines for search and rescue operations. 

Some of the aircraft on display at the Aeronauticum museum in Nordholz

Maritta and Fritz sitting in the back of the Mil Mi-8 transporter helicopter.

The weather fined up fog lifted and it turned into a lovely sunny day which was quite warm when sitting in the sun.  

We then went to watch Edina and Torben’s son Eric play football (soccer) which his team won, their first win at home for some time although they usually win when playing away.

Later with the better weather we decided to go back for another look at the shipping along the Elbe. This time we could just see the other side (20 km) and saw a few ships of various sizes coming and going. 

Looking up the Elbe and toward Kugelbake in Cuxhaven

Dinner tonight was at Edina and Torben’s which is only about three streets from Hans Jurgen and Traute.  It was really great to catch up with my relatives and to meet the youngest members Eric and Sydney delightful 10 year old twins.

Day 10 Cuxhaven - Bremerhaven

Day 10 Bremerhaven - German Emigration and Immigration Centre

We are staying with Maritta's Aunt and Uncle (Traute and Hans Jurgen) in the picturesque fishing village of Cuxhaven.  This is situated right on the meeting point for the Elbe River and the Nordsee.  There are a steady stream of large ships and tankers on their way to and from the massive shipping port of Hamburg some 4 - 6 hours upstream.  Again the day started wet however it is not windy and therefore not cold either. Given the weather today we decided to visit the German Emigration Centre in Bremerhaven with Edina, Torben and Hans Jurgen.

This is a fascinating display following the progress of German Emigrants and Immigrants to and from all corners of the world including Australia.

Emigration room - each individual draw represents a single person and their particular story

As part of your entry you are given a boarding pass which contains a key card and the names of two people which you follow through the display as they leave (first name) or then enter (second name) German society. 

The interactive display also includes scenes on the wharf at Bremerhaven over the years.  Germany’s (in fact Eastern Europe’s) main emigration port and a walk through first a late 1800’s sailing ship and then an early 1900’s Steam ship.

Bremerhaven port scene with models dressed in costume from across the last 100 years.  Center visitors can also be seen.

The various displays show how harsh early travel conditions where and also how they quickly improved even for 3^rd class passengers. 

Then after being processed on Ellis Island (USA) you travel through Grand Central Station, New York, from where you would have ventured into your new life.

Representation of New York Central station

 This is well worth a visit and gives a detailed view of life for emigrant as well as immigrants. 

Day 9 Rostock to Cuxhaven.

Day 9 Rostock to Cuxhaven.

Today we travelled from just north of Rostock (Warnemunde) on the Ostsee (East Sea) to Cuxhaven on the Nordsee (North Sea) to spend a few days with Maritta’s relatives.  The day started once again quite wet and windy.  The country is green and lush with all the new spring growth.  The locals however are fed up with the rain and want the summer to start.

Lunch stop in Itzehoe

We decided to stay on B roads as much as possible and travel to the North of Hamburg, avoiding the city completely. We passed through the towns of Bad Doberan, Wismar, Grevesmuhlen, Lubec, Bad Segeberg, Itzehoe (which has the most amazing ice cream palour) to Brunsbuttel.  This also meant we had the opportunity to travel up the east side of the Elbe River and look across the mouth to the port city of Cuxhaven and then drive down the coast to Gluckstadt where we crossed by ferry to the west side of the Elbe. 

Blunsbuttel - view across Elbe to Cuxhaven

Unfortunately the weather stayed wet and cloudy so we couldn’t see a great deal across the Elbe, but it was a very nice drive through mainly cultivated land.

 

Ferry crossing over Elbe from Gluckstadt

Surprisingly the ferry crossing was very smooth and took about 25 minutes.  The rain however stopped us from venturing out on deck.  We did note that the GPS had some difficulty with the river crossing.  Once across we drove to Cuxhaven.

Day 8 Around the Jasmund Region (far North)

Day  8 Around the Jasmund Region (far North).

Woke up this morning to thundering rain in contrast to the clear blue skies of yesterday.!

Had planned on climbing the nearby light house in Rostock, a very popular tourist destination, however decided instead to drive East and North into the Jasmund Region and the National Park. This is an area, along with a number of others, set aside after re-unification in an effort to allow nature to take over and return some wildness to the forested area's. To an Australian eye the forest we drove though is very pretty but regimented and obvious from the notice boards in the park it is seen the same locally and they are trying to create some truly wild area's.

Chalk cliffs of the Jasmund National Park

We had considered
visiting the chalk cliffs however you had to be on a coach tour or take the shuttle bus and we didn't really have time for this.

Our trip took us through some very old villages with narrow cobbled roads and houses built right on the street, sometimes with barely enough room for two cars to pass then meeting a bus on a corner really tested Maritta's nerves when we got very close to the adjacent building.

Had another trip on an "unlimited" A road, got up to 160 km/hrs this time but still had cars go past at a great rate. This speed does galvanise your concentration when you have a truck doing 90 in your lane and someone doing whatever speed (~200 km/hr) in the lane you want to use.

Looking out on the Ost Sea near Lunde in the Jasmund Region

Off to Cuxhaven tomorrow to visit the relo's so it might be a few days before we update this again.