We first went to Bremerhaven, where we wanted to visit the maritime museum and then continued to Cuxhaven, to get our first experience with the watt, the tidal flats between the mainland and the little islands in front of the North Sea coast.
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| Sunset at Bremerhaven |
Bremerhaven, about 53km north from Bremen at the mouth of the river Weser is the harbour of Bremen and part of the state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. We spent a night at the port and watched the sunset at the river mouth.
The next day it was a short ride to the German Maritime Museum which houses a very interesting historic ship which was found in the river Weser and is now exhibited here.
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| Museum ships |
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| Cycling along the harbour crossing a lock |
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| Entering the harbour |
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| Old poles which once protected the harbour wall |
The discovery of the ‘Bremen Cog’ in 1962 in the Weser River was a sensation. After decades of conservation, the German Maritime Museum now displays the world’s best preserved medieval merchant ship.
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| How a cog could have looked like |
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| Remains of the medieval cog carefully preserved |
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| Model of the cog found in the river Weser |
From a different time was the submarine exhibited opposite the museum. The “Wilhelm Bauer” (named after a German engineer who constructed the first submarine) is the only surviving example of the German submarine Type XXI, the first military submarine in the world that was able to conduct a war mission almost completely submerged. All submarines developed before it were more or less surface vehicles capable of diving for a short time, mainly for attacking or escaping from the enemy. Another decisive factor was the increase in underwater speed to 17.2 knots. But this technical masterpiece was “too late to help” the Germans to influence the war any more.
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| Very luxury interior for a WW2 submarine .. |
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| It was operated by military and civilian crews for research purposes until 1982. |
We left Bremerhaven to the North were we found a nice caravan place in Duhnen at the North Sea. To explore the watt – the tidal flats – for the first time, we joined a guided walk, where we learned a lot about this eco system.
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| The children had the most knowledge about the animals living here |
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| Eddy didn’t love the mud between his toes at all 🙂 |
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| The watt seemed to extend endlessly |
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| Big red worms living in the watt leave these worm-like sand piles all over the watt surface |
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| Little crab living in the watt |
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| When the crabs are bigger they move to the open sea |
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| Searching for mussels |
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| We watched them move and dig them self into the mud again |
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| Unimog used for rescues |
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| Lovely beach at Duhnen |
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| Sunset over the watt |
