On Thursday, 12th November 2015, I – as a qualified guide for Hamburg, had the pleasure to guide a harbor tour on English. My group consisted of 68 American and Canadian farmers. My board staff and I picked our guests up at 1.30 pm at Finkenwerder ferry quay with our boat „Hafen Hamburg“. We could start our tour through Hamburg’s port with the sun shining like ourselves. As it was lunchtime, we also served a lovely buffet with typical Northern German food: salmon, and stuffed cabbage. As our guests had already visited the Airbus site, our captain and I decided to go to the furthest of the four container terminals in Hamburg Harbor, Container Terminal Altenwerder, because the largest ships lay there. For expample the „Shanghai Express“ of the German shipping line „Hapag Lloyd“, which is longer than 300 metres and can carry up to 13 thousand TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit). Here, right next to the giants in Hamburg Port, behind Hamburg’s most famous bridge, the Köhlbrandbrücke, I could explain to my guests which sizes exist in the world of containers, how these containers are loaded and unloaded, which jobs are the best-paid ones in Hamburg Harbor, how many people are employed by Hamburg Harbor and which dimensions Hamburg Port covers in comparison to other world harbors.
We could also observe how the most modern container terminal in Hamburg is controlled – fully automatically. Not only here could I proof that it is always recommendable to hire an English speaking qualified tour guide in Hamburg who is able to explain the most different things. Besides the huge container ships my Northern American guests were also able to have a look on our bulk cargo port and on some feeder ships. Another highlight of our English harbour trip could be discovered in Blohm & Voss‘ swimming dock: the world’s second largest yacht: the Eclipse. It is being „face-lifted“. Germany’s biggest shipyard has a huge amount of know how in the field of maintenance and building of yachts. On the other hand – and on the other side the skyline of Hamburg drew on our attention: the cruise terminal of Altona, the landing bridges including the Old Elbe Tunnel, the warehouse district which has been elected UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site this year, the new quarter of the city: the HafenCity and the latest concert hall the „Elbphilharmonie“. All in all, this guided English Hamburg harbor trip was a succes and the guests were delighted. I’m very much looking forward to my next one. Possibly with you?
