We Have a Way of Stumbling Into Parades

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Geo: 54.3227, 10.1359

As I noted earlier, the bulk of passengers on our sailing had embarked from Kiel, so when we docked early on Saturday morning, the ship was abuzz with about 2,000 people looking to disembark and head home. We, however, were among a much smaller number trying to get off for the day. To the cruise line's credit, we were able to get off immediately, bypassing the lounges full of people trying to leave. We had to clear German immigration, as our last port of call had been Russia, and we had to queue in the sole two lanes reserved for "other passports." Most of the people in line around us were Russian or Lebanese, and they were talking a very long time to clear. We waited our turn, and when we got up there and were passed through with no scrutiny, the immigration officer said with a smile, "USA. Easy!." As close to German humor as I can imagine.

We'd booked a rental car, as we already knew there wasn't much of note to see in Kiel proper. It was leveled in World War II by the Americans, as it was a major U-boat base. Katherine has always wanted to visit Luebeck, so we decided to drive down there for the day. We had the option of going to Hamburg instead, but Luebeck is smaller and easier to digest in a relatively short amount of time. Anna had spent a lot time in both Luebeck and Hamburg last year, during her exchange program, but she was happy to go back. The town in which she lived is only about 15 miles from Luebeck.

Traffic on this Saturday was unexpectedly heavy, and what should have been about a 75-minute drive ended up taking closer to two hours. The numbers of cars really surprised me, and when we reached Luebeck proper, the cars just got worse. We drove down toward the old city and every parking garage had lines of car waiting to get inside. I knew it was Saturday and there was the regular weekend market underway, but the numbers of cars and people seemed excessive. We finally parked and got into the main pedestrian area and it was literally packed with people. We elected to walk down to the river front, near the main city gate (Holstentor), and grab a bite to eat. We settled on small restaurant which had an outside seating area straddling the narrow road bordering the river. It was cloudy and cool, but it was great weather to be outside. As all three of us enjoyed a Radler (half beer, half lemonade) -- given that the drinking age is 15 for beer and wine -- all of sudden a marching band came up and over the bridge (not yet playing their instruments), and formed up immediately next to our table. The city was bedecked in rainbow flags, and we had earlier determined that Luebeck was having its annual Gay Pride day. Readers may recall that two year earlier, we had literally driven into the middle of Copenhagen's Gay Pride parade. Well, next thing we knew, the band started to play and as if by magic, all of sudden we could see that the entire road behind them was already full of dancing people and floats. What we had thought were temporary stages or stalls were in fact parade floats. We had inadvertently sat right at the head point for the Gay Pride parade. We watched in half fascination as float after float went by, with exuberant people dancing in the street between them. Many floats were sponsored by German political parties, and people were handing out campaign literature (sprinkled in with occasional condoms) as they paraded by. Anna saved some of the flyers, as they had spent a lot time in German class talking about the political system. She wanted to bring them back for her teacher. We ensured that NO condoms were anywhere within the literature.

We cleared out after the parade passed and went down to tour the main cathedral and to see the Rathaus, among other sights. The parade came full circle a couple of hours later and blocked part of our path back to the car, but it all worked out. So after a few shopping stops, we loaded back in and headed north toward Kiel. I was worried that traffic might snarl us on our return, even though we were heading back via a different route. A couple of planned sightseeing stops along the way turned into drive-by viewings, to ensure we got back in time. Traffic was far lighter and the return route was more scenic, but we still arrived with only about 30 minutes to spare before the ship departed for Copenhagen.

Back on the ship, it was a little surreal, as we felt like the "old hands" returning home, while circa 2,000 new guests had just boarded the ship. Scores of people were excitedly exploring the ship, asking where things were, etc., while we quietly sat down for our pre-dinner drink and somehow felt like we were already in on a secret.

We skipped the show on this, our last night, and instead worked to get our bags repacked, and to find places to stash all of the goodies we'd accumulated over the week. We put the bags out into the hallway around 9:30pm and went straight to bed.

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Photos

Our Rental Car
I had hoped to have some time to let Anna try to drive this car, as it was manual transmission. I thought we might have time to go to an empty parking lot of something, and allow her to at least try a manual transmission. We, alas, ran out of time.