Kiel; Saturday, 12 November, 2016

I had a nice long lie-in to make up for the early start the previous day, and after a quick breakfast, headed out of the hotel and next door to the Hauptbahnhof for a journey across the width of Germany, which this far north was barely 100Km.

The train ride was through some very beautiful countryside and across the Kiel canal on the spectacular Rendsburg High Bridge then back round on itself in a 360-degree loop to drop from the very high bridge back down to canal level for the station. The journey continued through the countryside, crisp white with frost (where it wasn’t disappearing into banks of fog) before finally arriving on the North Sea coast at Husum.

I had a wander through the town and down to the harbour. Following major erosion and flooding around 400 years ago Husum suddenly found itself as a major port and a key jumping off point for access to the North Friesland Islands, which on a clear day should be visible from the coast. Today wasn’t what could be described as a clear day as the fog restricted visibility to less than 100m.

I had a long wander around town and eventually found myself at the Schiffahrtsmuseum Nordfriesland so I had a look around that. By the time I came out of that museum I’d just missed the hourly train back to Kiel so I headed back towards the station and stopped off at the NordseeMuseum museum for a look around before heading back to the station in time to make the train back to Kiel.

Annoyingly just as the train was preparing to leave the sun started to burn through the fog and pretty soon into the journey back all the fog had lifted.

Back in Kiel I caught the bus up to the Aquarium about 2KM north of the train station to have a look around that, and as there was still just about time I walked down to the Zoological museum and was able to get a ticket a couple of minutes before they stopped selling them for the day.

After looking round the museum I wandered back into town and back over to the hotel to freshen up, before heading back out a little later to take some photos of Kiel at night and to grab a light dinner.