Very smooth sail last night through North Sea. Long sail up the harbour to port in Amsterdam after we negotiated the lock at 5am. Amsterdam known as the liberal city as you may well have heard from stories of red light district and marijuana use. Cookie does not mean cookie as you know it and while there are rules about traffic and like, no-one obeys them. Still everything moves along nicely with the bikes usually winning out over the cars. Cyclists everywhere of course and they expect you to get out of the way. Massive bike parks including tiered systems and double ups. Theft is rampant we are told and we could see huge chains and padlocks in place unlike Copenhagen where bikes just seemed to be mostly left free. Apparently theft is why helmets are few and far between – no point as nowhere to store. Our guide thought traffic was bad but pretty light I thought compared to Auckland and she has obviously never been in a Moscow traffic jam.
Kiel Canal Transit
27th September
The Kiel Canal, also known as the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal (Emperor William’s Canal) until 1948, is a 98-kilometre long freshwater canal in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The canal links the North Sea at Brunsbüttel to the Baltic Sea at Kiel-Holtenau or vice versa in our case. An average of 250 nautical miles (460 km) is saved by using the Kiel Canal instead of going around the Jutland Peninsula. Might have saved us some rough seas too.
The Nautica – 12 day cruise from Copenhagen to Lisbon
Spent some time this morning (26 Sept) wandering another part of Copenhagen including a visit to the Round Tower and the beautiful church beside it. I think it is my favourite church of all I have seen so far. Simply elegant and beautiful with a magnificent organ playing very acceptable music. Suspect they were setting up for a wedding.
Also enjoyed walking along canals admiring architecture of new Opera House and developments and contrasts with wooden boats and old shops and houses.