Kiel

Farfar was turning 85, and had invited the family out for a Colorline cruise to Kiel! According to the Schleswig-Holsteiners, its Germany’s no 1 holiday destination!

This is a bit of a concept, and it goes both ways. Germans and Norwegians, both take advantage of this ferry to go for daytrips to either Oslo or Kiel. The idea is that the boat is kind of a floating partyship, you can dine, drink and party. And shop taxfree…. It tends to get a bit boganish, but I have to say, its more upmarket now than what it used to be.

We had only just taken over our new flat, and we weren’t completely organised, but managed to get down to the dock, with some clothes, were we all hooked up and took off!

We went down on the Friday, had an easy afternoon with all the cousins playing in the pool. Total we where 28 people. I think we where the whole family less about 6 people who couldn’t make it. Anyways, most of the family was there, and we got to have a great time together!

Kiel itself was nice, it had a conveniently located shopping mall within walking distance from the ferry, and suitable trolley ramps. It had kind of an older part of the city, and the modern city center. We went and got ourselves Bratwurst and Pretzels, and were pretty happy with that!

We got to celebrate Farfar proper on Saturday night, with an excellent dinner! The crew where compensating bit since they stuffed up the booking the night before though, but so they should. Later, we all went up into the loungebar after the dinner and the show. It was fun to watch the youngest cousins, 2 and 4 I think, where the 4 year old was trying to look after the 2 year old. It was not a love-love relationship!

Kristoffer had brought his DSLR, with empty memory cards. Some of our younger cousins loved it, and where very happy when they got to borrow it, albeit a bit haphazardly. I think they managed to shoot some 300 shots in less than a few minutes.

Another young cousin was so impressed with the pianoplayer, that he went and donated all the money his dad just gave him to by drinks with. Biggest tip of the night! We ended the night in the arcade, taking turns to trash the uncles in racing. They just cant drive… I think the best driver of the night was another young cousin, only about halfway to being old enough to get his license.

Good thing then, was that the beds weren’t too far away!

I forgot to pay attention to it going down, but coming up we sailed past Drøbak and Oscarsborg.

Rearend

Oscarsborg

All in all, an excellent trip! And very relaxing weekender. Sort of feels you never leave Oslo, but then at some stage wake up, step off into Germany, before suddenly being back in Oslo again.

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