Northern sea

Departure Bremerhaven

A dream was to see the northern ice regions before our way of life destroys this bizarre world of ice giants. Since I will hardly live to see it, I tried to sensitize my son Paul for it, well, with mixed success 😅 I didn't think about the ecological footprint of this cruise at that time, I was then too little sensitized.

After a relaxing car ride, we checked in. 7 p.m. we left with 832 passengers for Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. I had written myself a smartphone program to permantently send pictures to the website for friends and relatives. As was to be expected, however, there were constant connection problems en route. We had right on the North Sea outside no network connection at all. Only via ship satellite it would have been possible at high cost, I have left.

Well, not much happened on the first day. We took our cabin and found that we are probably the youngest 🙂 on the ship. The restaurants were, as the cliché would have it, flooded with passengers on time. First time getting used to for us. But the meals were super prepared, however, the size of the portions corresponded to those of gourmets. But there was something to eat or drink almost non-stop. The obligatory rescue exercise was completed and the first "assholes" revealed themselves. The giant ship, the MS Albatros, and the beautiful view of the sea compensated for this, and the initial fear of seasickness did not materialize. The first night was therefore very relaxed.

At sea

The following 2 days we are only on the ship. Was also a lot to discover in the beginning. We often go to the fitness center, play table tennis or shuffleboard on the top sun deck. Weather is ok for the latitudes. The wind strength ranges from 3 to 5, the sea strength is usually one unit below. Very pleasant on the North Sea.

We saw drilling platforms and according to our expedition leaders fulmars, gannets and a black-backed gull. Well, at first rather something for ornithologists. Speaking of expedition leaders, this one was top. Klaus Kiesewetter, a man also known from TV, explained everything important and interesting to us on the trip and in his funny authentic way. Later, our Swedish captain and the cruise director introduced themselves.

Otherwise, it is initially difficult to make connections with the rather richer clientele here. So we tend to keep ourselves busy on our own, but that works well, we've even been in the cinema. Daily schedules are issued every day, so that one could choose something appealing from lectures, dance classes, sports and children's programs. On board television, the first excursion destinations were announced, which could be booked later. Well, the animation things appealed to us less. And after visiting a sports event, we were aware that we would have more movement in our sleep and also the children's animation was rather what for dolls, but not for Paul.

There are very few children on board, yes of course, which child also wants to voluntarily get to know Greenland, that also came to my attention so gradually 🙂. We discovered for the time being the wonderful swimming pool and whirlpool.