Germany Post Catch-Up 1: Meyer Werft

After spending the first week in Germany at my parent's house, it was time to change the scenery for a little while. Last year we made a trip to Bavaria, so this year we travelled in the opposite direction up North.

We stayed with my best friend from high school and her husband.

After taking it easy on the day of our arrival, we were presented with tons of activitivies to do the next day and out of all the offers, Terry and I wanted to visit a shipyard.

This way, we ended up at the Meyer Werft in Papenburg:

The guided tour started off with a little video about current projects (the Disney Dream, I believe) and the history of the company. Of course I can't remember any details, but there have been tons of ship models.

From earlier productions:

To more recent productions... Not as recent as the Disney and Aida cruise liners, though.

There was Mr Duck....

This is a peek into the construction area for the Disney Dream... The picture really doesn't do it justice. By looking into the construction site from an elevated position the dimensions of the boat were not that obvious. When this boat is done, the cruise ship will be over 1,000 feet long!!! And the construction building is even bigger, because they'll be able to finish up the boat inside and on top of that start building the next one in the back of the building... insane.

This was a picture in one of the exhibitions and it gives you a slight idea of the dimensions. This little tugger boat is being put on the other side of the boat by a crane to push the cruise liner out of the building into the port right at the shipyard where they do the finishing touches to the boat.

And here are a couple of pictures from newspapers that documented the journey a boat has to take, once it's done... From the shipyard over a little canal to the ocean.

On the way to the shipyard, we actually drove on this road. There is a tunnel under the canal. Of course it's not that exciting to drive along, when there is not boat towering over you! ;-)

On our way back to my parents, we stopped in Wolfsburg for a little visit to the Autostadt... But that's another post for another day.... Tomorrow maybe? ;-)