Traveling from Holland to Norway

This July I had the chance to travel from Holland to Sognefjord near Bergen in Norway. I would like to share some of the photos in this thread with my comments.

We started the trip in Dutch canals. The tug boat you see in the foreground of the 1st picture is from 1920's and restored to original conditions.

In the second and third pictures are the flood gates for Rotterdam Harbor. I have watched a documentary about these large steel structures. I understand they are one of the largest man made moving structures. During high tide they are closed to avoid flooding. If I do not recall wrongly, they are above 350 meters in length.

From Rotterdam we sailed to the Kiel Canal in Germany. The 4th picture is the entrance of the canal. Kiel Canal is 100 km long and 165 meter wide and 9.5 meters deep. It was opened to service in 1895. It is the busiest man made water way. Most of the commercial traffic to and from Baltic to North Sea moves through the canal. The 5th picture is an old bridge above the canal.

Rotterdam to Scandinavia

Most of the feeder ship traffic for containers move through the canal. The canal is surrounded by forests, but there are also lots of inhabited locations, like you see in the 2nd picture.

In the 3rd picture you will see a very interesting traveling lift for commuting people from one side to the other.

4th picture is the famous Luerssen shipyard. I understand this is one of their facilities which is more involved with production of military craft.

There was even a German submarine transiting the canal,
5th picture.

Trip from Holland to Scandinavia

This is a good picture that proves how busy the canal can get. 3 ships at the same place.

As you see in the 2nd picture, there are several small ferries operating between the two shores for commuting cars and people.

There were several bridges laying over the canal. One fascinating issue was the richness of wildlife. There were several swans and different kinds of water birds living on the waterway.

Exiting Canal at Kiel

It took us about 10 hours to transit the canal, but it was a very nice trip with scattered clouds and sunshine. We have arrived Kiel around 10.00 pm in the evening, just before the sun was setting.

We went into a lock together with a sailboat and a freighter.

Next day we started heading to Danish waters and on the way out we came across this nice old lady, a paddle boat steamer.

We cruised among the Danish Islands. Our route to Copenhagen was from the south of Fyn and in between Sjaelland and Lolland. The picture that you see is of the Mons Klint, which is a chalk cliff. The highest point is 128 meters.

The last picture is the picture of Oresund Bridge, which connect Denmark to Sweden. The cable span is 490 meters and the total bridge lay over 7845 meters.

Arriving Copenhagen

We have arrived Copenhagen from the south, passing next to the Airport.

Enterence for small boats was through a tight channel on the south side of the harbor.

On this picture, you see buildings erected on the Langelinie, which was a part of the harbor, but has been converted to residential areas during the last decade.

In the 4th picture you'll see the Port office. In the foreground the 2 kiosk type structures which are the Queen's jetty.

We found a nice place to berth next to Ameliaborg Palace (Queen's Palace). The Royal Huisman yacht Anakena was also there. The building at the background is the headquarters for Maersk Line.

Copenhagen harbor

Westship/Trident yacht Tajin was also there. On the other side of the jetty the newly built operahouse stands out nicely. The building is a donation of Mr. Maersk Mc-Kinney Moeller (owner of Maersk Line) to Copenhagen City.

Dear Carl,

I would like to thank you for giving me this opportunity to share. We have a saying, with sharing happiness grows and sorrow ease away.

I hope members will keep on enjoying the next posts.

Gothenburg to Oslo

We continued our journey from Copenhagen to Gothenburg in Sweden. Unfortunately the weather was mostly cloudy, however there were still some nice occasions where light through the clouds gave me chances of capturing nice pictures.

We berthed next to the Opera House, a prime location in Gothenburg. There were several old long ships which were used as party boats or floating restaurants in the same area.

The picture with the statue on top of the column is the Sailors Wife. The statue was erected as a memorial for the sailors who died during World War I.

While we were sailing out of Gothenburg I took this picture of Alvsborg Fortress, it was erected during the 17th century to defend the city.

We moved north to Smogen which was a very interesting village with several holidays houses. We spent the evening at Fjallbacka. The route to Fjallbacka was moving through several small islands and rocks. Although it was very well marked by buoys, it was still a challenging cruise. Then at the middle of these rocks we entered a lovely small bay, Fjallbacka standing on the shore as a small town out of a story book.

Gothenburg to Oslo

Here are the pictures of rocky islands and Fjallbacka.

Fjallbacka to Oslo

We sailed Fjallbacka to Oslo Fjord. We had very strong showers from time to time. Shores of the fjord is inhabited by several nice houses and there were several marinas on the way.

We came accross a Grand Banks and the DFDS Ferry.

Fjallbacka to Oslo

We have also came accross a Hinckley. Just before entering the harbour there were two sailboats sponsered by Tag Heuer and Volvo. The last picture is of m/y "Double Haven" built by Feadship.

Fjallbacka to Oslo

We berthed at Herbern Marina, next to Aker Brygge, Stranden. This is a very nice jetty at the heart of the city with new buildings and nice restaurants. This jetty is very close the Nobel Peace Center and the Oslo Town House.

In the second picture time was close to mid night and there was still good light in the sky. The classical sailboat is s/y "Eileen II". You can reach more details at the following link http://www.maritimetours.no/default.asp?kat=351&id=960&sp=2

The owner was a very nice person. He has gone out of his way to assist us. He is chartering Eileen II and the m/y "Grace". She was sailing at Bergen at the time and we had the opportunity to berth at her place.