Tourist in Kiel

[EinsteinEP]

Mates,

I will be spending this Christmas and New Years in lovely (yet very cold) Northern Germany and hope to take a day or two to head over to Kiel and see the sights. Anybody out there have any good info for a SubSimmer tourist in Kiel? Sub museums, shipyards, docks, tours, etc.? Any place in Northern Germany other than Kiel or Hamburg that you'd recommend?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by EinsteinEP

Mates,
Any place in Northern Germany other than Kiel or Hamburg that you'd recommend?

No subs, but a beautiful (and in that season probably crowded) old town: Lübeck. Wismar also is worth a day's trip (again , the centre and the old town). From Lübeck, it's 30 minutes by car.

[VipertheSniper]

Originally Posted by Skybird

No subs, but a beautiful (and in that season probably crowded) old town: Lübeck. Wismar also is worth a day's trip (again , the centre and the old town). From Lübeck, it's 30 minutes by car.

The Marineehrenmal in Laboe with U-995 isn't that far away either

[AntEater]

Kiel is a quite ugly city, due to its WW2 importance it was almost levelled and has been rebuild quite ugly.
Some barracks buildings are still left standing, but those are still a naval base and off limits.
There's the Möltenort submarine memorial and the Laboe Navy memorial with U 995, of course, but Möltenort and Laboe are both southern suburbs of Kiel.
It is strange that Kiel never dedicated anything to its naval past, while Wilhelmshaven has a navy museum. But as we sailors say, in Kiel the navy is just a source of income, while in W'Haven the navy are with friends.
Nicer towns than Kiel are Eckernförde (next bay to the north) the current main U-Boat base of the german navy and Flensburg.
Flensburg is a nice medieval city with a distinct flair (more scandinavian than german) and seat of the naval academy, which was the last government seat of the third Reich.
And it is generally quite nice.

museum ships in northern germany (those I can think of):
Kiel: navy memorial, U-995, U-Boat memorial Möltenort, 1900s eraTonlayer Bussard

W'haven: Navy Museum, postwar 205 type U-Boat, guided missile destroyer Mölders and some other smaller vessels.

Bremerhaven: maritime museum, U-2541 (type XXI), Rau IX, Whalecatcher that served as a ASW escort in WW2, Seefalke, a 1921 salvage tug which salvaged the german ships at Scapa Flow and Seute Deern, a three masted wooden barque build 1919 as a four masted Maine Schooner (the last Maine Schooner in the world, ironically).

Bremen: Deutschland, a three masted full rigged sail training ship from 1928

Flensburg: SS Alexandra, small 1902 build steamer that took part in the east Prussia evacuation 1945.

Hamburg: Soviet Tango class SSK, Rickmer Rickmers, a 19th Century steel barque, Stettin, steam icebreaker build 1933 that took part in the occupation of Denmark 1940 and the east Prussia evacuation.

Lübeck: Passat, four masted steel barque build 1911

Stralsund: Gorch Fock (I), build 1931, steel three mast barque, sail training ship of the Kriegsmarine, sister ship of USGS Eagle and Gorch Fock II.

Sassnitz: RN Oberon class SSK (who would've thought a RN cold war sub would end up in the former GDR!), Steam Railway ferry Stralsund (build 1890, served the Peenemünde test site during WW2 as a floating test station).

Peenemünde (the missile site): Juliett Class SSGN, Tarantul Class missile corvette Hans Beimler

[EinsteinEP]

AntEater,

Sounds like I would have been very disappointed with Kiel. Thanks for the catch! We leave tomorrow, so I plan on using your advice to make some updates to our trip itinerary.

Thanks to SkyBird and Viper for your input, too.

EP