We took good time before the departure from Heidanger.
Talked to the harbor master who runs a restaurant to which the harbor belongs. Studied the many exotic plants that can grow here due to the warm climate of the harbor and ate freshly baked bread from the restaurant for breakfast,
Up in the morning we set off, sailed a few kilometers on the canal and from there out on the Mittelland canal.
The Mittelland Canal is Germany's longest canal. It departs from Dortmund in the west and ends 325 km later in Magdeburg in the east. After almost 50 years of discussions, the construction of the canal began in 1905. The construction work was carried out in stages. The last stage was completed in 1938 with the connection to Magdeburg.
The canal is an important traffic artery and is navigated annually by 18.000 vessels.
It was very hot again. There was a cooling wind. We did not enjoy it now, because it blew with us and made the air stand completely still in the sunny cockpit.
At one point, the iPad got enough and closed down with a laconic message that it needed cooling. We put it down in the shadow of shelter and after a while it lived again.
Shortly before Hanover we reached the lock Anderten. Laid us on the piece for Sportboote or Kleinfahrszeuge as it stood on the sign and called the lock guard on the VHF.
We were told that we would be locked through with "die Martina". We had overtaken it a few hours before and in that connection talked to the skipper on the VHF.
We were locked 15m down. When we had locked something down, we found that our lock rope was not far enough. Lighter panic. We found a new rope, put it in the nearest bollard and pulled it out first. Afterwards, Pia convinced me that it was necessary to change the bollard on an ongoing basis also during the lock-in. This ensures a wide angle on the lock rope, whereby the boat is quieter plus you avoid having to stand and mess with a very long rope.
In the Yachthafen Hannover, a smiling harbor fighter took our moorings and welcomed us in the harbor.
The water was somewhat turbid, but along the way we had seen people bathing in the canal. When we had moored we took a deep breath and then took a lightning fast dip from the boat. Good enough not like swimming in the Mediterranean, but it was nice to cool off.
The next day was overtaking day.
We slept late, ate late breakfast and cycled late in the afternoon almost 5km into the center.
At the end of the 1600th century, Hanover became the capital of the Electorate of Hanover.
In the period 1714-1837, Hanover had a Commonwealth with Britain. 5 kings ruled both Britain and Hanover. The Commonwealth, also known as the Staff Union, ended when Queen Victoria became regent of Britain. According to Hanoverian law, women could not be rulers of Hanover.
Hanover is today the capital of the state of Lower Saxony and has over 500.000 inhabitants. About 90% of the city was destroyed by a total of 88 bombings during World War II. The reconstruction went fast, which to some extent characterizes the architecture.
We spent a couple of hours in the pedestrian streets in the center.
Among other things, was inside a 3-storey bookstore. Here was lively activity with lots of customers and staff. In the crime department there were books by Jon Nesbø, Arne Dahl and Jussi Adler Olsen etc. There was also a digital department selling the e-reader Tolido - developed by the telecommunications companies, as an alternative to Amazon's Kindle.
Strange contrast to Denmark, where the bookstore industry is in deep crisis.
We cycled back to the boat, ate late dinner, talked a little with our new neighbor, who we had closed a few days before and went to bed early.
The next day we set off for Minden approx. 35 nautical miles (sorry 65km). A lovely trip with a mix of very beautiful nature, mountains that started to appear on the horizon, mixed with industrial areas. However, there was most of the beautiful scenery. We saw slag mountains, which in its own way were also beautiful to see. The weather was hot around 27 - 30 degrees, a lot of wind made it all bearable.
Along the way, we got a call from Daniel that our mutual friend Dorte Leck Fischer had lost the battle against cancer, and had fallen asleep by morning. Immeasurably sad - The funeral will take place on Wednesday in Nørrebro church. We are going home on Tuesday and attending the funeral.
Dearest Dorte RIP
