Little Dubai

I had interrupted my earlier entry about our visit to Bremerhaven as I wanted to add some pictures Schatz took with one of his various cameras. Unfortunately, that very camera had a faulty light baffle, as he found out - some rubbery thingie in that old camera let light into the camera body where and when it wasn't supposed to come inside and ruin the picture.

Anyway, I ended the first part of the Christmas 2008 Bremerhaven story with a picture of Schatz leaning against the side of the house, taking pictures of the 'new harbour' in the late afternoon. He photographed something like this:

more Christmas trees

Walking further south along the River, I caught sight of yet another illuminated object, the so-called radar tower.

radar tower

It's much like the tower for air traffic controllers, only in this case it is for sea traffic controllers... looking after ships on the River Weser north of Bremen to the island of Wangerooge. It also houses all sorts of equipment and facilities for maritime radio.

Like the globe at the Auswandererhaus, the radar tower is illuminated. And it changes colours. And it will continue to do so!

They started the light show a few years ago but as something rather temporary. It was continued year after year, but the city council thought the cost was too high, and so they only renewd the budget post year after year. Mind you, we are talking about the mindblowing sum of €15,000 a year! Most of this actually has not been for electricity expenses but for buying new light bulbs...

It seems they have now decided to make the illumination a more permanent feature and so maybe they will look for a more long-term and less bulb-consuming solution.

Looking the other way, you see this fancy new development:

not changing lights at night.

And looking great in the daytime too.

The Bremerhaven Burj al Arab

No, this hotel was not built by Atkins, a British design company, and it is not located on Jumeirah Beach. The 'Fischtowners', however, do call it Little Dubai.

hotel, conference center and offices

To be honest, the 'sail' looks better in this location than a 15 floor square highrise would but one wonders about the conferences that will take place in this small town. Not that I would mind working there, of course.

But back to Christmas Day late afternoon. We had by now walked past the Fischtown Burj, on to the terrain of the Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum where Schatz enjoyed some more special photographic moments.

Schatz adoring a whaleboat

Rau IX, a former whaleboat, as adored by Schatz

In the meantime, I took another shot over Schatz' back.

former lightship from the Elbe 3 position

And looking in the opposite direction, I spotted yet another Christmas tree high up in a mast.

tug boat Stier at night...

...and the next day.

And, especially for Kees, here's a picture of the Wilhelm Bauer, also moored in the museum harbour:

Wilhelm Bauer - closed to visitors until end of March

That's basically all from Bremerhaven this time, although maybe I should mention that Schatz talked me into playing some snooker. Oh my...