01 Dec 2008, Our Moony Vacation Begins, 54 21.60 N/ 010 12.60 E
 Levi is doing well considering his age and his cancer
prognosis
so we decided that we should pursue our trip to Kiel Germany to visit
Wolfgang and Denise from SV Moony. We left yesterday at 1809 ET from
Dulles airport and headed for Kiel via Zürich and Hamburg. All
went well but Bob did not like much to sit for 8 hours at a time. Still
he endured. We arrived in Hamburg at 0930 UTC where Denise was there
waiting (Wolfgang was at a doctor's appointment). Denise expertly
crafted our Fiat through all of the traffic obstacles to the Autobahn,
past Kiel Zentrum to a suburb of Kiel, Hiekendorf. But before we went
to home base, we picked up Wolfgang at the University hospital where we
discovered that all was well. Our holiday flat was quite spacious for
the four of us and it had Internet access. For lunch, we went to the
Karstadt department store. Of course, Denise and Wolfgang had
to translate for us. Not bad! Sadly, lazy Bob did not take many pictures of this trip so poor Ann had to do the job. Therefore she is not in the pictures.
Not good!
--
3 Dec 2008, Seeing sights of Northern Germany , 54 21.60 N/ 010 12.60 E
 Tuesday morning we headed for Kiel to drop off Wolfgang
for a doctor's appointment. We then headed for Karstadt again for bread
and coffee where Wolfgang met us around 1100 LT. Nice view from the
cafe. Then we headed for lunch at the restaurant near the Holtenauer
lighthouse at the northeast end of Kiel Kanal. The restaurant has recently
been rebuilt and it was quite classy. Prices were not too bad and the
euro exchange rate was getting better by the day. Tuesday was like most
winter days in northern Germany; a bit cool and almost always cloudy.
Next we headed for the AWN marine store where we were supposed to just
look around. Instead we bought a xxx (Ann will not let me say how much) euro oil lamp for Jule. Hope she
appreciates it. Next we headed for the Christmas Market (Wiehnachten
Markt) for some Glühwein. We were really getting used to this stuff
 Wednesday found us on the snowy
roads somewhat early (0800 LT) heading for the Farmer's Market being
celebrated near the city's Zentrum. After buying nothing, Wolfgang
headed for another doctor and Denise and we headed for the Rathaus
to renew her passport. We finally re-united around 1100 ET and headed
for Flensburg to pick up some stainless steel stuff at Niro
Petersen's (where SV Moony received her stern arch). Afterwards, we
headed for the Danish border to pick up some herring and get a few
wieners from the local hot dog stand. No Weihnachten Markt this day.
--
4 Dec 2008, Arnis, Kappeln, and other fun places, 54 21.60 N/ 010 12.60 E
 Thursday was mostly cloudy but a lot colder with some
hope for sunshine. Denise called her mother and planned to spend a
couple of hours with her. The rest of the gang decided to explore our
adopted town, Heikendorf. Denise dropped us off at the local harbor and
we decided to do some dock walking. Not the best plan as this was
the coldest day so far. Still it was quite fun. We strolled the nearly
deserted marina and stumbled upon a 80' sailing yacht, SY Mulligan.
Afterwards we headed for the Zentrum for coffee and cheese at Carri's
and then back to the house. When Denise arrived, we all ran for the
car and headed for Arnis, home of Jule III's boat builder.
 Arnis was about 60 km away from
Heikendorf but the trip was as interesting as the destination. We saw
large modern windmills, vast expanses of farmland, small villages with
roofs thatched with reeds, and of course the River Schlei where Arnis
lies. Wolfgang tried a 'short cut' but the ferry was not running so we
had to loop around and go through Kappeln on our way to Arnis. Arnis is
not a big town, in fact it is barely a villiage, but it is typically
German. Sadly, no one was around as this was not the busy season
and many folks were on holiday.
 We found Jule III's place of origin, where she became a yacht
(see Die Yacht
) but again no one was
around. Still it was nice to see this place where 30 years ago Jule III
was commissioned. Matthias and Paulsen work primarly in wood and the
interior of Jule exemplifies their craftmanship. Not bad!
 Next stop was a stroll through
Kappeln where, of course, they have a Weihnachten Markt which we had to
check out (Glühwien and sausages). Ann found some silly Santa
sticks and then had to buy one. Sigh. We will never get all of this
stuff on the airplane. Kappeln is a nice old town on the shores of the
Schlei which is much larger than Arnis. After we had our fill of
Kappeln, we drove back to Kiel to refresh ourselves at their Weihnachten
Markt. Though we were tired, we had time to go to the Traugmbh
restaurant where Bob had pizza, of course.
--
|
Levi is doing well considering his age and his cancer
prognosis
so we decided that we should pursue our trip to Kiel Germany to visit
Wolfgang and Denise from SV Moony. We left yesterday at 1809 ET from
Dulles airport and headed for Kiel via Zürich and Hamburg. All
went well but Bob did not like much to sit for 8 hours at a time. Still
he endured. We arrived in Hamburg at 0930 UTC where Denise was there
waiting (Wolfgang was at a doctor's appointment). Denise expertly
crafted our Fiat through all of the traffic obstacles to the Autobahn,
past Kiel Zentrum to a suburb of Kiel, Hiekendorf. But before we went
to home base, we picked up Wolfgang at the University hospital where we
discovered that all was well. Our holiday flat was quite spacious for
the four of us and it had Internet access. For lunch, we went to the
Karstadt department store. Of course, Denise and Wolfgang had
to translate for us. Not bad! Sadly, lazy Bob did not take many pictures of this trip so poor Ann had to do the job. Therefore she is not in the pictures.
Not good!
