From Norderney to Cuxhaven in the River Elbe

We have moved on rather quickly so I will skip the less sensational stuff other than to say that we did a trip of almost 10 hours from Norderney to Cuxhaven at the mouth of the mighty Elbe River following a never ending distant sandy shoreline dotted with concrete blocks and where signs of humanity revealed itself - occasionally in nude form, this is Germany after all - ordered ranks of beach chairs marked designated areas where at least some activity was not verboten. It is curious that the frequency of advisory signs does seem to have increased here.

The River Elbe deserves a chapter all to itself but alas ..... in a few words then, it is vast and awfully powerful, gathering water from an area greater than the whole of England - I could not see both sides at the same time until well into the river, the tidal stream is so fast that yachts can only go in the direction of tidal flow, it can produce the most dangerous seas in the wrong conditions and for added interest is populated with a steady line of ocean going ships in both directions In benign conditions over three hours we were swept into its mouth following along just outside the shipping channel starboard hand buoys, again in company with our French and Dutch chums and from time to time noticing one of the others doing something different - wondering why, and should we.

Cuxhaven is a convenient stopping harbour both going to and coming from the Kiel Canal (or Kaiser Wilhelm Kanal as it was known until it seemed a good idea to be more geographical ) our first town in Germany, kind of quaint in a new and organised way and with a lot of people. It has a remarkable antique iron weather forecast semaphore used by the old fishing fleets but for a country that invented the phrase "vorsprung dur technique" it appears to have been designed and built by Heath Robinson.

Enough. Next episode "The Kiel Canal"