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.