Leaving Gdansk we headed to the port city of Gdynia for lunch then on to Hel, the first of the Polish resort towns on the Baltic. The north coast is literally 100 miles of sandy beach with a few ports at the mouth of rivers. Our destination was Szczecin on the German boarder. While the city was heavily damaged in WWII, the Pomeranian Dukes’ Castle is in wonderful condition.
Our first stop in Germany was Lauterback were we encountered our first rain storm in quite a while and German Customs officers. After checking our papers, they inquired about our last fuel purchase and asked for the receipt. While Dan had entered the purchase in the ship’s log, he did not have the receipt. They asked to take fuel samples…in Europe commercial and recreational diesel have different prices and color…they suspected we bought commercial diesel in Poland for cash illegally, we did not. Stralsund, Rostock, and Wismar are all charming port and resort cities.
Lubeck still has much of the original city wall and a wonderful old gate house. The city also has a spectacular city hall. From Lubeck we took a train to Hamburg and revisited the Museum of Miniatures, one of our favorites. In Fehmarn we encountered an unusual docking situation whereby the boat was held about 3′ from the dock due to the pilings. Dan managed to get our passerelle off the roof and for the first time attach it to the side of the boat. Our new friends Lies and Sjaak helped us secure some lines to make for safe boarding.
We then headed over to Denmark with our first stop in Bagenkop where we had met Per and Sherri back in 2019. Svendborg became our base for four days as we explored the city with its sailing and costume museums. Odense was a short train ride away and hosts the wonderful and charming Hans Christian Anderson museum as well at the Kunst Museum of Art. All in all aterrific city to visit. Our last Danish stop was on the island of Aeroskobing as we tried to get our travels in sync with the weather.
From Aero we headed straight thru the Kiel Canal to Brusbuttel on the North Sea. The Kiel is a very major waterway connecting the North Sea to the Baltic. On the north end the recreational boat lock was being repaired so we had about 25 recreational boats in the lock with four monster freighters. After exiting the lock we encountered a steading stream of freighter, many cross canal ferries and one that hangs from a bridge. We exited the canal at Bunsbuttle on the mouth of the Elbe River.
Click on the photo to see the album of this trip