Germany: Kiel, Hamburg & Wolfsburg
Kiel is a city in the far north of Germany on the shore of Baltic Sea. It was one of the most important bases for German Navy's Baltic fleet during WWII, and today continues to be a major port for all ships and ferries sailing north.
Kiel, Holtenau Kanalstrasse Panorama (VR)
Kiel has access to the open sea by the so called "Kiel Fjord". This view is from the Holtenau area, at the mouth of the Kiel Canal (Nord-Ostsee-Kanal) running west from here (to the right in the photograph).
Kiel, Prinz-Heinrich Strasse Brucke Panorama
Kiel Canal is an extremely efficient way to connect Baltic Sea and North Sea - it replaces a 460km long route around the Jutland peninsula (where Denmark is) by a 100km long canal that is also more prone to heavy weather. The other end is at Brunsbüttel, where Elbe flows into the North Sea.
Laboe Naval Memorial Museum Panorama
Mouth of the Kiel Fjord towards the Baltic Sea. Laboe Naval Memorial Museum is dedicated to ships and sailors from German Baltic fleet of WWI and WWII. Inside you can see historic notes and models of many famous German battleships like Bismarck and Prinz Eugen. Below the exhibition area is a commemoration chamber dedicated to ship crews.
Laboe Beach Panorama
I haven't been here in different seasons of the year (photographs are from November) but somehow I get the feeling that wind never stops blowing here. What you need is a thermo suit, board and a kite so you can join other enthusiasts who wind surf here all day. A bit too cold weather to get wet for my taste, but it looks really attractive.
Stein Beach Panorama
Stein is a nice small village close to Laboe, nicely arranged walkways, nice houses, everything is so nice here that it reminds me of movies like "The Truman Show" or maybe "Gattaca". Brrrr, scary.
Hamburg, Binnenalster Lake Panorama
North European weather is something you really need to experience for yourself to get the full meaning of Monty Python's song "Always look on the bright side of life". In the morning weather was dull gray with overcast clouds, and then it started changing erratically from nice and sunny to heavy wind and rain at least four times during the day.
Hamburg Port Authority Buildings Panorama
Hamburg is the largest port in Germany, situated right where the river Elbe becomes wide and provides good access to the North Sea. One very interesting place is the so called "Hafencity", a complex network of canals and nicely preserved buildings dating even from the 19th century. Most of these are still in use for the same purpose today.
Wolfsburg, Autostadt
Wolfsburg city is the headquarters of Volkswagen company, and next to the factory you can find the Autostadt, a park created to impress true automobile fans. The most interesting place to me was the Zeithaus, a large museum of old cars from different brands where you can see some really legendary models.
