Organised by Der Tagesspiegel and M-Tours Live Reisen.

For the record, and posterity, and all that, the hygiene and distancing rules we have been sent are at the end of the post (in German).

Day 1 Bus from Berlin Central Station, arrival, and Wittensee

Upon arrival at the hotel (Hotel Wittensee Schützenhof), a guided walk through the town of Wittensee, and dinner.

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Day 2 Kiel, Kiel Kanal, Rendsburg

Kiel is the seat of the Schleswig-Holstein state government and an Olympic, university and port city on a fjord.

With the historic paddle steamer Freya, from Kiel to Rendsburg along the Kiel Canal which is the most frequented man-made maritime shipping route in the world and connects the North Sea with the Baltic Sea. Alledgedly, almost three times as many ships as on the Panama and Suez Canals.

Holtenau Lock. Tour of Rendsburg. St. Marienkirche, old town market and town hall.

But first, a pre-breakfast walk.

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The lock:

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First impressions at the end of day two:

What was I thinking? Why did I not cancel?

Masking and distancing rules are not being complied with at all.

Already in Berlin, several people were allowed on the bus without masks, and are consistently refusing to wear them. No reaction to that from neither the driver nor the guide. The guide mostly does not wear his when interacting with us in and on the way in and out of the bus.

During meals at the hotel (so far, dinner last night and breakfast this morning) we sit far too close to each other for my comfort (i.e. as if everything were back to normal), and the staff who serve food and drinks are not wearing masks, and not keeping any kind of distance at all but speaking straight into our faces. I feel very uneasy and am not very hungry (that is the upside of everything :-)). The Riesling goes down very well, though.

Breakfast is a buffet (unlike what was described in the programme), and people are mostly unmasked and not following the “one-way” signs, in short, ambling around the buffet area, chatting (i.e. spewing droplets on the food). Yuck. There are two other bus-fulls of people presumably also from other German states.

On the boat today, there were way too many people in my opinion, and the numbers were definitely not reduced, unlike what we had been promised), and I gave up sitting with the rest at the tables allocated to us for the buffet lunch since it was indoors on the lower deck, too cramped and with no air.

We keep hearing that “here in Schleswig-Holstein, the rules are not so strict” and therefore bus-fulls of tourists from other areas, such as Berlin, are apparently believed to have miraculously lost any contagion which they may have carried with them, the second they entered Schleswig-Holstein (?????), and can therefore drop the precautions and measures in force where we came from.

So apparently, we have all misunderstood something when travel restrictions were implemented? Is the fact really that when you travel from a more affected area to a less affected area, you immediately become less likely to be carrying the virus? The entire travel and hospitality industry is going bankrupt for nothing? Then why don’t we invite for example Americans to come to Europe and be cured, if that is how things work?

It is one of the dumbest arguments I have ever heard and reminds me of something Donald Trump might say.

The ignorance, even after almost seven months, about how this virus spreads is breathtaking.

Unfortunately, we arrived back at the hotel too late for me to start packing and making my way back to Berlin, and tomorrow I will be spending most of the day in my hotel room for the webinar, which I absolutely do not want to miss, so I have to be stationary all day.

I will then decide whether I go back to Berlin after that, tomorrow evening, or whether I stick it out, wear my mask and my visor, try to ignore what others do or don’t do, make as little conversation as possible, and skip lunch on the boat on Saturday if it is as cramped and stuffy as it was today.

Seeing the North Sea was going to be the other highlight for me, so part of me is reluctant to skip Saturday’s programme. The other part feels I am already making a big mistake by being here.

Others don’t seem to mind catching this disease, and if I knew I would just keel over and die immediately upon being infected, that would be fine, but I really do not feel like going through what others my age are going through for months when they get infected, and then either die or live with horrible after effects for the rest of their lives.

Day three: On this day, I will attend a webinar photography course, organised by artistravel and presented by Martin Timm

I will be missing a trip through “charming villages” (not my thing) to Sieseby, Kappeln and “the Viking city of Schleswig” (definitely not my thing). Happy to be staying in and near my room.

During the morning, it was raining quite a lot, so for the first couple of tasks, I “recycled” some of the photos taken the day before (above). Here are some of the rest:

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After the course, I went out to investigate the location of the nearest bus stop and took my camera with me:

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And now I have tempted fate long enough. Am returning to Berlin tomorrow (Saturday). Missing this:

Tag 4 Amrum and Hallig Hooge

Loads of nature, tour of Amrum (to which I hope to return in December for this course: https://www.artistravel.eu/fotoreisen/kurstermine/reise/2020/kuestenwind-experimentelle-naturfotografie-7545.html.)

By sea to Hallig Hooge, Königspesel, Hallig Museum, Wadden Sea protection station on Hanswarft, Wadden Sea National Park.

Day 5 Eckernförde and return

Eckernförde, lunch, and a last glimpse of the sea.

The distancing and hygiene rules we had been sent/promised prior to the trip – and I stupidly believed they would be complied with:

Busfahrt:

• Intensive Reinigung des Busses vor Antritt Ihrer Reise, besonders an allen Kontaktflächen, wie Haltegriffen, Knöpfe, Armlehnen und Kopfteile
• Sie reisen in einer kleinen Gruppe von 26 Personen, so dass ausreichend Platz im Bus vorhanden ist
• Ihr Reisegepäck wird ausschließlich vom Busfahrer verladen
• Mund-Nasen-Schutz zum Ein- und Aussteigen und während der Fahrt, wenn ein Mindestabstand von 1,5 m nicht eingehalten werden kann (ausgenommen sind Personen, die in einem gemeinsamen Haushalt leben) – für Notfälle hält der Fahrer einige Einweg-Mund-Nasen-Schutzmasken bereit
• Auf nicht kontaktfreie Begrüßungsrituale (Händeschütteln etc.) ist zu verzichten. Wir schenken Ihnen lieber ein Lächeln!
• Vor Betreten des Busses bitte die Hände desinfizieren. Beim Fahrer und auch auf dem WC steht Desinfektionsmittel bereit
• Nach jeder Beförderung werden die Kontaktflächen vom Busfahrer desinfiziert
• Um eine erhöhte Luftzirkulation im Bus zu gewährleisten werden vermehrt Pausen eingelegt
• Zu Beginn der Fahrt erhalten Sie noch einmal eine ausführliche Einweisung durch den Fahrer

Hotel:

• Das Tragen eines Mund-Nasen-Schutzes ist nicht verpflichtend, auf den Fluren oder auf dem Weg zur Restaurant empfehlen wir dies aber für Ihre eigene Sicherheit
• Das Frühstück wird Ihnen nach Ihren Wünschen vom Servicepersonal zusammengestellt
• Für das Abendessen erhalten Sie eine Auswahlkarte
• 10 Personen aus verschiedenen Haushalten dürfen an einem Tisch sitzen

Adler-Schiffe

• Die Kapazität der Schiffe wurde um 50% gesenkt, so dass ausreichend Platz vorhanden ist und der Mindestabstand von 1,5 m eingehalten werden kann
• Mund-Nasen-Schutz muß beim Betreten/Aussteigen und beim Bewegen auf den Schiffen getragen werden. Bei entsprechendem Abstand, Draußen und am Tisch darf der Mund-Nasen-Schutz abgenommen werden
• Bei den Rundfahrten auf Amrum und der Hallig werden die Gruppen nochmals geteilt, so dass auch hier ausreichend Platz zur Verfügung steht.