Aug 7 Hamburg

We arrive in Hamburg about 6:00 AM. the ship is cleared and passengers begin to disembark by 7:30. I am surprised at the number of passengers that have just taken the 2 day cruise from Southampton to Hamburg. Think of the crew having turn around every other day.

Yesterday we, really Lynn, did laundry. There are laundry areas on each deck. Totally free! The machines are small, what I would do in one load at home takes 3 loads here. But much better than having the ship's laundry do it. Probably our worst choice of days as many passengers that are going on to other destinations from Hamburg, such as a river cruise, want to leave with all clean clothes.

Hamburg is a very large commercial port. Built on the delta of rivers that flow north to the north sea. The ground is very soft, muck as described by a tour guide. When there is a storm surge, gates are closed to protect the city from flooding. Hamburg, a city of 1.9 million has more bridges than any other city in the world. Many ships can only enter the Hamburg port during high tide.

The weather is perfect, mostly sunny and reaching a high of 80,  with a light breeze. We take a city tour followed by a visit to Minatur Wunderland, the largest and most well known model railroad in the world.

Most of Hamburg is relatively new, the result of extensive bombing during WWII, but there are a few structures that date back centuries.

The famous red light district of hamburg is now mostly just a seedy tourist area of fast food restaurants and souvenir shops.

Minatur Wunderland is housed in old warehouse buildings. Just a few facts: 17,330 sq feet of layout, over 10 miles of HO track, 3,527 trunouts and 55 computers to run everything. Most trains are 8 to 12 cars in length, the longest I saw was 22. Much like our layout at the train club, some areas were excellent in detail and execution, while others were not as well done. A product of 20 years of construction consuming over a million hours by many workers. The construction cost has been over 42 million dollars, and they continue to expand the exhibit.

Our tour doesn't get us back to the ship until almost 7:00, an hour late for dinner, but we are accomodated, just not at our usual table. At 6:15 any unoccupied tables are used for "my time" dining guests if needed.

Dinner was excellent as usual. After a long day, we forgo any enterainment tonight. A long nights sleep sounds better.

The ship leaves Hamburg at about midnight, again to coincide with high tide.  The next two days will be sea days in the North Sea headed to Norway.

Aug 5 At Sea

We leave Southampton and are headed to Hamburg. Our course will take us through the dover straights and along the coastline of Belgium, Holland and Germany. A distance too great to do in one day, but very easy in two as we cruise along at less than 10 knots most of the time. The captain needs to time his arrival to coincide with high tide in order to have enough water depth to navigate to Hamburg

There is quite a bit of  commercial ship traffic, mostly oil tankers. The coastline is dotted with wind farms, a significant source of energy for this region of Europe. The  air temperatures remain in the upper 60's. Very nice in the sun.

We are joined by new speakers for the insights series. Elizabeth Cunningham speaking on Astronomy, Astrophysics and Nuclear Physics and Derek Tedder a retired TV news journalist talking about behind the scenes at the news anchor desk.

Elizabeth, probably yes, Derek probably not.

We have changed tables in the dining room. Not far, just two tables away, we now have the window table for the rest on the journey. All Lynn has to do is politely ask. The dining room continues to be good. I have not had a bad meal. Everything is served hot when it should be. Service is elegant, but not always prompt. It is more than infrequent that you need to remind the waiter of something, like ice water which they don't automatically serve.

The main entertainment tonight  is a different production from the ships singers and dancers. "Be our Guest". Again very good.

The Beat 45's were scheduled to play in the Queens Room tonight,  but were cancelled. I guess Cunard's opinion of them was no higher than mine. I give them credit for cancelling them at the last minute.

The venue where they play jazz every night is the only venue on the ship that only has very deep, very low, very uncomfortable seating (for me anyway). Tonight we find comfortable seating at the bar and enjoy a set of jazz. Not Blue Bamboo quality, but good never the less.

Tomorrow we arrive in Hamburg.