Day 29, In the Navy....

We were sorry to leave this lovely peaceful sunny field on the banks of the Elbe, but it was time to move on.

We had decided to try and bypass the horrendous Hamburg traffic by taking a different route; one that involved crossing the River Elbe by ferry, from Gluckstadt to Wischaven. The crossing only takes 20 minutes, but the queue can build up and it can take a while to get on. We waited about an hour, but were then on the open ferry, sandwiched between all the big lorries. The tide was out, so docking the other side was interesting; it looked like we were in inches of water!

The travelling in Germany was quite relaxed; lots of open, rural, farming countryside, with the agricultural smells to match! My phone signal here was often non existent; surprising really when I always had coverage in the most remote islands in Norway. The countryside made up for it though, with lots of tree lined roads.

We were heading towards the Naval town of Wilhelmshaven, and got there after a few hours. Wilhelmshaven is a town on the Jade Bright on the North Sea coast of Germany. It is the proud owner of Germany’s only south facing beach; the Sudstrand, and we ended up finding a fabulous paying car park right on the bank above it, with huge spaces for motor homes. We had an endless unobstructed 180 degree view out to sea, and the sun was shining.

We had a minor battle with the pay & display machine, as it didn’t like either of our debit cards, despite one of them being from a Dutch bank. A little old man stopped to help us, and tried for ages, despite him not speaking English, or us speaking German! We eventually ended up putting all our euros into it, but that wasn’t enough to pay for 24 hours, so we knew we had to go out and get more change. Hmmmm, maybe we needed to go out for a drink??

We went onto the prom, and walked and walked. We walked towards what Wilhelmsaven is famous for….and the reason we were here! It is the home of the German Naval Museum, and three of it’s biggest exhibits are displayed outside. The missile destroyer Molders is huge, with it’s 40m mast, and that is moored alongside the mine hunter Weilheim. We could also see the submarine U10. Lyn was looking forward to spending a few hours here tomorrow!

We walked over the impressive Kaiser Wilheim Bridge and then stopped for a drink on one of the waterside bars. We sat on bean bags and watched the sun set, clutching our all important euros!