General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
Germany Trip Report Part I
Posted by:
Captain Patrick Lane
()
Date: May 19, 2001 06:35PM
<HTML>To all....
My journey to Unterseeboot land started with a great flight on American Airlines! (I have to put in a plug for my airline). I sat up in First Class in those sleeper seats which are unbelievable. They even have a back massage installed in the seats. As I reclined the seat, put my foot rest up, took my shoes off and was offered a glass of Spatlese Wine, I remember thinking, \"It can\'t get any better than this\"
During the early stages of the flight, the flight attendants came around handing out individual DVD machines complete with your own personal library of movies to watch....about 18 or so total DVD\'s to watch at your leisure. After I set my player up, I searched the library and guess what I saw? The DVD of,
\"Hitler\'s Lost Sub\" It did just become \"better than this\"! Not only was this DVD in the library, but it also had \"U-571\" and \"Hunt for Red October\". How did they know I was such a submarine/Uboat enthusiast??? :>)
Anyway, for those of you who have not ever seen this documentary, \"Hitler\'s Lost Sub\", YOU HAVE TO SEE IT!! It is produced by Nova and at the end of my report, I\'ll give you a website to go visit. Its not an ordering website, but a fanstastic site to see the remnants of what some divers had found off the New Jersey coast a few years ago. Its kind of an interactive exploration of sorts...you\'ll see what I mean. Great site.
So, about 8.5 hours later, we are landing at Frankfurt Flughafen. I go thru customs which is a piece of cake. In fact I remember wondering if I had missed a control point because I only went to one guy and he basically stamped my passport and waved me through with no questions at all. Very pleasant and surprisingly simple.
After a GermanRail Pass to Hamburg, I met up with an acquaintance who showed an interest in seeing Laboe with me.
Monday morning we got into his rental car (A very nice Mercedes!!) and we were off. I was getting very excited. The drive is a bit over an hour with traffic. Basically, you just take the Autobahn to Kiel. Approaching Kiel, we weren\'t quite sure how to find B502, the highway to Laboe. We ended up getting lost in Kiel.......which turned out to be a nice experience because I would have otherwise not gotten to explore a litte bit of that city. Kiel is layed out in the shape of a \"V\". with the water filling in the middle section. Laboe is on the upper right part of the \"V\" and we ended up on the upper left side of the \"V\". (Hope that makes sense)
I thought Kiel to be a very pleasant place...lots of parks, nice roads and friendly people. One thing you will notice of Kiel right away is that the majority of buildings are rather new. Since it was badly destroyed in the war, there is no \"medieval\" (sp) style to its architecture....something that is very noticeably missing.
Stopping at a gas station for a break and directions, a very nice man helped us out who spoke no English, but I could pick out about 1 of every 5 words he was saying. He brought out a very detailed city map of Kiel and layed it out on the hood of the car and went over with me on how to get to B502 to Laboe. Extremely friendly folks there in town.
Unfortunately, I didn\'t have the chance to explore Kiel itself, one which now I wished I would have done. I was somewhat at the mercy of my friend who was driving and didn\'t want to inconvenience him too much as I don\'t think he was as \"into it\" as I was. Guess that\'ll give me an excuse to go back!!!!!
My travel guide book says there are ferries from Kiel to Laboe which sounded fun, but we drove instead. In hindsight, I REALLY would have liked to have done the ferry....basically, sailing in the exact same waters the Uboats were when going out on patrol...seeing the same land, sights and breezes along their outward journey. I believe also in Kiel is a German Navy facility...can someone correct me on this. Is it open for tours possibly if it does exist???
So now we\'re finally off to Laboe. The highway you need from Kiel to Laboe we found out, is to take the \"WestRing\" road heading east and follow the signs to Laboe which are plainly marked. This west ring is kind of like the \"Beltway\" around Washington DC....just so you don\'t have to go through the downtown area to get where you want to go. This west ring basically encircles the southern portion of Kiel.
As we were heading north, there was the first sign I saw about the Uboat Memorial. From B502, it is a left turn from the highway towards the water.
We turned off the higway and drove about another 2 miles as I recall. You are driving thru a small neighborhood at this point which is quite charming. Then you come to a small hut and a dirt parking lot. An attendant comes out and you pay a few DM to park in the lot which holds about 20 cars or so. there were about 5-6 cars when we got there. We got out and there was a slight, cool breeze blowing which carried the sweet smell of the water to our senses. The breeze was very refreshing, not too cold, just right...typical Northern Germany summer time weather, I remember thinking.
From the parking lot you walk towards a park like setting opposite direction from the hut you paid the entrance fee at. You come to a sign saying to go either direction, left or right for the memorial. At this point, you can\'t see anything yet....such anticipation I had now.
Part II to come next....continued!!
</HTML>
My journey to Unterseeboot land started with a great flight on American Airlines! (I have to put in a plug for my airline). I sat up in First Class in those sleeper seats which are unbelievable. They even have a back massage installed in the seats. As I reclined the seat, put my foot rest up, took my shoes off and was offered a glass of Spatlese Wine, I remember thinking, \"It can\'t get any better than this\"
During the early stages of the flight, the flight attendants came around handing out individual DVD machines complete with your own personal library of movies to watch....about 18 or so total DVD\'s to watch at your leisure. After I set my player up, I searched the library and guess what I saw? The DVD of,
\"Hitler\'s Lost Sub\" It did just become \"better than this\"! Not only was this DVD in the library, but it also had \"U-571\" and \"Hunt for Red October\". How did they know I was such a submarine/Uboat enthusiast??? :>)
Anyway, for those of you who have not ever seen this documentary, \"Hitler\'s Lost Sub\", YOU HAVE TO SEE IT!! It is produced by Nova and at the end of my report, I\'ll give you a website to go visit. Its not an ordering website, but a fanstastic site to see the remnants of what some divers had found off the New Jersey coast a few years ago. Its kind of an interactive exploration of sorts...you\'ll see what I mean. Great site.
So, about 8.5 hours later, we are landing at Frankfurt Flughafen. I go thru customs which is a piece of cake. In fact I remember wondering if I had missed a control point because I only went to one guy and he basically stamped my passport and waved me through with no questions at all. Very pleasant and surprisingly simple.
After a GermanRail Pass to Hamburg, I met up with an acquaintance who showed an interest in seeing Laboe with me.
Monday morning we got into his rental car (A very nice Mercedes!!) and we were off. I was getting very excited. The drive is a bit over an hour with traffic. Basically, you just take the Autobahn to Kiel. Approaching Kiel, we weren\'t quite sure how to find B502, the highway to Laboe. We ended up getting lost in Kiel.......which turned out to be a nice experience because I would have otherwise not gotten to explore a litte bit of that city. Kiel is layed out in the shape of a \"V\". with the water filling in the middle section. Laboe is on the upper right part of the \"V\" and we ended up on the upper left side of the \"V\". (Hope that makes sense)
I thought Kiel to be a very pleasant place...lots of parks, nice roads and friendly people. One thing you will notice of Kiel right away is that the majority of buildings are rather new. Since it was badly destroyed in the war, there is no \"medieval\" (sp) style to its architecture....something that is very noticeably missing.
Stopping at a gas station for a break and directions, a very nice man helped us out who spoke no English, but I could pick out about 1 of every 5 words he was saying. He brought out a very detailed city map of Kiel and layed it out on the hood of the car and went over with me on how to get to B502 to Laboe. Extremely friendly folks there in town.
Unfortunately, I didn\'t have the chance to explore Kiel itself, one which now I wished I would have done. I was somewhat at the mercy of my friend who was driving and didn\'t want to inconvenience him too much as I don\'t think he was as \"into it\" as I was. Guess that\'ll give me an excuse to go back!!!!!
My travel guide book says there are ferries from Kiel to Laboe which sounded fun, but we drove instead. In hindsight, I REALLY would have liked to have done the ferry....basically, sailing in the exact same waters the Uboats were when going out on patrol...seeing the same land, sights and breezes along their outward journey. I believe also in Kiel is a German Navy facility...can someone correct me on this. Is it open for tours possibly if it does exist???
So now we\'re finally off to Laboe. The highway you need from Kiel to Laboe we found out, is to take the \"WestRing\" road heading east and follow the signs to Laboe which are plainly marked. This west ring is kind of like the \"Beltway\" around Washington DC....just so you don\'t have to go through the downtown area to get where you want to go. This west ring basically encircles the southern portion of Kiel.
As we were heading north, there was the first sign I saw about the Uboat Memorial. From B502, it is a left turn from the highway towards the water.
We turned off the higway and drove about another 2 miles as I recall. You are driving thru a small neighborhood at this point which is quite charming. Then you come to a small hut and a dirt parking lot. An attendant comes out and you pay a few DM to park in the lot which holds about 20 cars or so. there were about 5-6 cars when we got there. We got out and there was a slight, cool breeze blowing which carried the sweet smell of the water to our senses. The breeze was very refreshing, not too cold, just right...typical Northern Germany summer time weather, I remember thinking.
From the parking lot you walk towards a park like setting opposite direction from the hut you paid the entrance fee at. You come to a sign saying to go either direction, left or right for the memorial. At this point, you can\'t see anything yet....such anticipation I had now.
Part II to come next....continued!!
</HTML>
| Subject | Written By | Posted |
|---|---|---|
Germany Trip Report Part I
|
Captain Patrick Lane | 05/19/2001 06:35PM |
|
RE: Germany Trip Report Part I
|
Steve | 05/19/2001 07:18PM |
|
RE: Germany Trip Report Part I
|
Frank Blazich | 05/19/2001 07:30PM |
|
RE: Germany Trip Report Part I
|
Joe Brennan | 05/19/2001 10:25PM |