NORWEGIAN ESCAPE 25th October 2015

Many months ago I was on the circulation list of a note suggesting an ESCAPE! Aha, I thought, here we go again - it must be Norwegian Cruise Line's new vessel NORWEGIAN ESCAPE. Indeed it was, and so I was pleased to book a cabin on board their newest ship, and make other travel arrangements. Having enjoyed sailing on NORWEGIAN GETAWAY in January 2014, I knew a little of what to expect so I was looking forward to another fun experience.

Friday 23rd October 2015
I happily set off for Hamburg early on a sunny Autumn morning in late October and under blue skies I landed at Hamburg airport and took the train towards the city. I had to make one change and the second train took me on an elevated track over waterways and local roads, until I got off at the St. Pauli station. I walked about 100 yards alongside a busy road and soon reached my hotel. Once checked in I was about to head for my room when I was greeted by a good friend who had arrived before me. His message earlier told me that there was to be a riverside party this evening, to watch the NORWEGIAN ESCAPE sail out of Hamburg on a trip for agents, with fireworks. Hooray, now the little trip is off to a excellent start.

We soon headed for the River Elbe and decided to go for lunch down-river at the cafe ship; we took the local ferry ELB MEILE, disembarked on the pontoon, only to find that the cafe was closed for the day. That was a shame, but she seems to be preparing for the weekend's activities. We took the ferry WASSERHOF back to the Landungsbrucken (the biggest landing stage in the port of Hamburg, with its two St. Pauli piers) and headed for the Blockbrau beer hostelry for some lunch. After that we could make the most of the time before the ship party at 6 p.m. by going to see the new vessel.

This time we sailed on KIRCHDORF, built by J J Sietas in 1962, on an interesting tour around Hamburg harbour.

Kirchdorf


Our time on board KIRCHDORF was enlivened by the catering on board, being able to look down at the engines through a glass section in the lounge deck, the sight of the still-unfinished Elbphilharmonie building in Hafencity, the little steamer SCHAARHORN, a tug going along near us tugging something that made a tremendous wash and wake, and a small container feeder ship called MV RAGNA which appeared to be running errands around the harbour, stopping at multiple berths. We noticed her and her turquoise-green hull calling at an Evergreen berth (for Taiwanese toys perhaps?), an MSC berth (for Italian olive oil and Parmesan?), a Danish ship berth (for Lego and bacon?). She was a busy little thing; I later found out she was built in 1998 at 3,999 gross tons.

splashy tug, churches, St Pauli landing stages

Aft deck

Kirchdorf's menu

The engine room

J J Sietas built Kirchdorf in 1962

Schaarhorn

Still unfinished

Mare Frisium

A view from the River Elbe which reminded me of another picture

This photo was taken by my Father in 1931 or 1932 when he was an engineering officer on Blue Star Line's Arandora Star and the ship visited Hamburg. The metal bridge in the picture seems to be one of the two in the previous picture, in the background. The church is now under scaffolding, as shown in my picture.


In one of the cuts we were really close to the bulbous bow on a CMA CGM vessel, which made for an interesting picture.

Rather close to a big bulbous bow


Soon we were approaching the NORWEGIAN ESCAPE, and realised just how huge she is. At 163,000 gross tons she is the first ship in Norwegian's Breakaway-Plus Class but it was wonderful to see her from sea level. The hull art painting is by marine wildlife artist Guy Harvey and we thought it was truly amazing and beautiful. I feel so fortunate to know that I will be sailing on this new ship on Sunday.

Norwegian Escape

She is big!

Up close

The hull art


Once back at the landing stage we could join the crowds preparing for the party and by going up to the viewing area. Norwegian Cruise Line were giving out umbrellas as gifts so I now have a lovely blue one with their logo and named ship on it. The sun set behind rather dark clouds, gentle music started, and finally we could see the NORWEGIAN ESCAPE moving away oh so slowly from her berth at Hamburg's newest cruise ship terminal on the other side of some of the dry docks. There is no public transport of any kind to get there, but presumably there will be at some stage in the future. This ship is so big that she is not able to use the other two cruise ship terminals nearer the city. By this time all other river traffic had been stopped and Police launches were making sure that nothing else moved.

The ship sailed out of the harbour cut where she had berthed, and her accompanying tugs gently pulled her stern round to starboard and then assisted her coming astern towards the waiting crowd on the River Elbe landing stage. She finally arrived mid-river and then held her position. The music played, the people on board waved from the top decks, we waved from ashore, and then the fireworks started from somewhere just on the other side of the river. They were big, high up in the sky, colourful and noisy and really fun to watch. It made for an exciting occasion and send-off for Norwegian Cruise Line's newest ship, which was built in Germany by Meyer-Werft, and was now in front of a mainly German crowd waving her off from the port of Hamburg.

Nearly in position

Up close

Norwegian Escape

First fireworks

Some of the wonderful fireworks

Goodbye

The fireworks finally ended and the ship started to move, and we watched NORWEGIAN ESCAPE sail off into the darkness down river. She will be back on Sunday morning and then we will join her for a couple of nights sailing to Southampton, and then one more night out of Southampton and back again.

After the excitement died down, and clutching my new blue umbrella, we made our way for a welcome sit-down and meal at the Maredo Italian restaurant nearby. What a long and eventful day it had been, and so enjoyable.


To be continued...

Summer 2011 Part 14 (the final one)

Hamburg

Sunday 17th July 2011
I slept well in my cabin on CAP SAN DIEGO. However, I was woken once during the night by something or someone out in the corridor, which was unexpected as there were few of us staying on board. This is the one thing I now realise about staying on this hotel ship – it seems there are no members of staff on board other than the man on the gate at the top of the pontoon gangways. Once the guests had left the hired rooms at the end of my corridor, the ship appeared to be empty. I think I imagined the ship would be full of guests, especially on a Saturday night in high summer.

When I met my travelling companion for breakfast we compared notes about the quiet ship, and he mentioned that he had also heard what he thought was a ‘prowler’ outside his cabin (on another higher deck) - the person seemed to have been carrying something heavy which knocked against his cabin door. We decided that this was rather eerie and slightly disturbing.

Breakfast was welcome and generous again and we were surprised when a group of six other people arrived in the Bord Bistro. Presumably they must have been staying on board the hotel ship too.



This morning we are going to visit the famed Hamburg Maritime Museum, walking east along to HafenCity and enjoying the sights on the way. I particularly liked the artwork on a bridge pavement created to look like a beautiful carpet.




We stopped for a coffee break beside a plastic wrapped hotel, which may or may not be its finished outer covering, near a ferris wheel.



Also in this area were several holes in the ground, which were destined to be hotels at some stage in the future. There were lots of people walking around, wrapped up to cope with a brisk breeze under a grey sky, and some of us tried the ‘playthings’ set into the paving around the coffee shop. We sat and looked at the two cruise ships that had arrived in Hamburg port – the AIDA BLU and the AIDA LUNA – and at the other harbour vessels.



Once in the Maritime Museum, it was another world – Mr Peter Tamm’s collection of thousands of ship models of all kinds, and other nautical items now housed in this 1878-built warehouse, with its internal wooden beams. It opened in June 2008 and is internationally popular. We enjoyed seeing so many items from Deck 10 down to Deck 6. I saw many Union-Castle Line ship models, and layouts of various ports around the world, and everything was fascinating and amazing – thank you Mr Tamm.

It was soon time for my companion to set off on his journey home, so we retraced our steps west and back to CAP SAN DIEGO to collect his and my luggage, and say goodbye. I walked further along the quay and bought a ticket to take a harbour cruise; there was a choice of seeing the docks on a long cruise down river, or a shorter cruise taking in the main harbour area and the cruise ships and this was the one I decided to do.

I boarded the little KIRCHDORF, which was built in 1962, and has obviously done good service over the years. We left the quayside and headed down river and saw the strange-looking building known as Docklands,

Docklands

a lovely sandy beach,



the tower with the time and temperature on one face,



lots of huge cargo ships in the dock basins on the south side,





and many local ferries. Heading up river again we approached the plastic-wrapped hotel we saw this morning, and then the two cruise ships (AIDA BLU and AIDA LUNA) alongside HafenCity.

On the way back we could see the rather new-looking MISSISSIPPI QUEEN and the LOUISANA STAR, and then the CAP SAN DIEGO beside her pontoon.

















I’d been on the harbour cruise ship for nearly an hour, and enjoyed it tremendously, so I was reluctant to have to leave this amazing maritime city to get to Hamburg Airport for my flight home.

Ships seen: Aida Blu, Aida Luna, Kirchdorf, Mississippi Queen, Cap San Diego, Louisana Star, Navi Baltic, Lion King ferry, Tarzan ferry and many other local ferries and working craft.

I’ve enjoyed nine nautical days on such a variety of different ships in previously unknown waters, as well as calling or staying in ports that were new to me, and had the most amazing and fun time throughout – I feel so lucky.




THE END