In August I sailed up and down a small section of Europe’s 10th longest river – the Elbe. Like the Guadiana in Portugal and the numerous Avon’s in the UK, Elbe means river. The reason for my travels was the Queen Mary 2 was heading to Hamburg to drop off and to pick up passengers. We travelled up river in the very early hours of the morning and consequently with the exception of a couple in port I didn’t capture any photographs travelling up river.

Nighttime in port

However when we departed Hamburg twenty four hours later I had the whole morning to capture the delights of the Unterelbe (lower and tidal reaches of the Elbe). First we had to get out of the port and say auf wiedersehn to Hamburg and a very nice ‘yacht’ located in the dock beside us. Click on the gallery to project enjoy the views of Hamburg as it is going to be quite a few weeks before I post about my Hamburg adventures.

The Elbe is 1064 km (680 miles) in length; rising in the northern Czech Republic before flowing through Bohemia, Germany and out into the North Sea at Cuxhaven. More than 24 million people live within the vicinity of the Elbe, but in the lower reaches it is mostly farmland, industry and wind turbines. The land is flat around here, barely above sea level and consequently is at risk from storm floods.

My brother and I must have stood out on the decks for a couple of hours. Incredibly relaxing. First focused on the starboard side, then on port and then back to starboard. Occasionally looking up!

Around 12noon we were receiving the usual daily weather update and sailing plan from the bridge, and also (unusually since normally at 12noon we were in the middle of an ocean or in port) a bit more information on what we were passing. The locks at Brunsbüttel; the western entrance to the Kiel Canal. The Kiel Canal is around 130 years old and 98km (61 miles) long. It connects the Baltic Sea to the North Sea, and it’s one of the busiest waterways in the world. Around 90 ships a day use it, thereby avoiding a longer journey around the Jutland Peninsula.

Nord-Ostsee-Kanal

Queen Mary 2 will never be traversing this canal as she is too long, too wide, too high and has a draught that is too deep. In fact up until 9 years ago the Queen Mary 2 couldn’t go through the Panama Canal either. In January 2026 she will make history when she travels through the Panama Canal for the first time.

After 60 odd miles we were almost at the mouth of the Elbe; the river had widened from around 2miles to around 11 miles. The mudflats and sandbanks becoming more evident, and we even saw people out on them digging for shellfish.

It will have taken you less than 5 minutes to read this post, it took me though 5 hours to travel this far down the Elbe. I was ready for a break from river watching, and headed inside for a hot drink and inevitably some cake. It had been a lovely relaxing morning, and not at all like an Enid Blyton adventure. Still I like the title!

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  1. Pingback: Juxtapositions of Old and New in Hamburg – The life of B

  6. When we did our Baltic cruise last year one thing that really struck us was the huge number of ships and ferries using all the waterways. It’s not something we see here where we live and it was fascinating to watch them all.

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