The Kiel Canal is the busiest waterway in the world, with 40,000 ships passing through it every year. For over 100 years, this link between Brunsbottel, where the Elbe flows into the North Sea, and Kiel on the Baltic, offers traffic a "shortcut" between the two German seas. The canal is an unusual but interesting tourist destination, because nowhere else can you watch ocean-going giants at such close quarters; and you can also learn a lot about how locks are operated.
Tourists can even travel along part of the canal, aboard the old paddle-steamer "Freya". This floating museum provides passengers with some maritime impressions and select delicacies from the ship's galley. At the ship-welcoming centre in Rendsburg the "Freya" has to turn back again, but the national anthem is of course also played for this old-timer too - because after all, that's what a ship-welcoming centre is for.
Nord-Ostsee-Kanal Tourismus
Altes Rathaus, Altstodter Markt
24768 Rendsburg
Tel: 04331-6963844
Fax: 04331-6963845
Schleusenfohrung c/o Wasser- und Schifffahrtsamt Kiel
Schleuseninsel 2
24159 Kiel
Tel:0431-3603-0
addampfer Freya c/o Insel- und Halligreederei Kurt Paulsen
Boysenstr. 13
D-25980 Westerland Sylt
Tel:04651-987014
Fax:04651-26300