Wednesday, October 4, 2023
I had signed us up for a tour to go to Hamburg but after reading the reviews and deciding we didn’t feel like another long trip, we decided to cancel the tour and just stay in the port town of Kiel.
We walked off the ship at 10:00 and picked up a map at the tourist booth. Didn’t really need the map because the town painted a blue line from the port to the downtown shopping area. Genius.
Lots of statues on the way to downtown.
We went into a Woolworth’s. I didn’t even know they were still in business. We also went into a TJ Maxx but it was called a TK Maxx.
We wanted to go inside the St. Nikolia Church, but it was under renovation.
Once we finished wandering around the downtown area, we made our way back to the port. We walked through a park that had busts of all the people who had won a Nobel prize over the years from the area. I was astonished at how many there were.
Once we got to the port, we began walking on the waterfront. We were looking for the Botanical Gardens but never saw the sign to direct us to it from the waterfront.
We did watch the harbor seal swim into and out of his outside enclosure of the Aquarium. He was quite large. He was also too fast for a decent photo.
We also saw a gentleman getting ready to take a swim in the sea. Off came the shirt. Off came the pants. Off came the underwear. Okay – that is a lot of wrinkled skin. Then, he jumped in and started swimming laps. Good for him. That water had to be freezing. It may have been a sunny day, but it was still chilly and windy.
We really had a nice time wandering around the town and waterfront. The town with all its parks was lovely. The people we encountered were very friendly and helpful. I think we definitely made the right choice for our day.
Once we made it back to the ship again, we went to the Lido for a hamburger for Chuck and chicken fajitas for me.
We enjoyed watching the sail away from the balcony. It was soon time to go to the Casino and then to the Lido for dinner. The stage show tonight was the One Step Dance Company – “In Tandem.” We’ve seen it a number of times so Chuck decided to play some cards. I played some slots and then went back to the room to finish my book.
Travel Trivia
Kiel, Germany
Pronounced: keel
Kiel’s recorded history began in the 13th century, but the city was originally a Danish village, in the 8th century. Until 1864 it was administered by Denmark in personal union. In 1866 the city was annexed by Prussia and in 1871 it became part of Germany.
Kiel was a member of the Hanseatic League from 1284 until it was expelled in 1518 for harboring pirates.
Kiel was the site of the sailors’ mutiny which sparked the German Revolution in late 1918. Just before the end of the First World War, the German fleet stationed at Kiel was ordered to be sent out on a last great battle with the Royal Navy. The sailors, who thought of this as a suicide mission which would have no effect on the outcome of the war, decided they had nothing to lose and refused to leave the safety of the port. The sailors’ actions and the lack of response of the government to them, fueled by an increasingly critical view of the Kaiser, sparked a revolution which caused the abolition of the monarchy and the creation of the Weimar Republic.
Kiel has been one of the traditional homes of the German Navy’s Baltic fleet and continues to be a major high-tech shipbuilding center.
Kiel is known for a variety of international sailing events, including the annual Kiel Week, which is the biggest sailing event in the world. The Olympic sailing competitions of the 1936 and the 1972 Summer Olympics were held in the Bay of Kiel.
The oldest building in the city is the 13th century Church of St. Nicholas.
Kiel’s Holstenstraße is one of the longest shopping streets in Germany.
