88 km across the Elbe, Bille and Alster rivers - nine rowers from Rüdersdorf and their eight guests set off for Hamburg by church boat from 28 April to 1 May 2018. Theo Kozerski reports on a round trip with a view of Hamburg's pearls.
We started the tour in everyday flat countryside and sometimes even on barren stretches and dilapidated canals. We ended in the area of the Alster, which was magnificent in places and where you could hardly get enough of the ever-changing impressions. Would we have enjoyed this expedition trip as much if the order had been reversed?
Great troop
We were travelling with a very mixed team. The Rüdersdorf core with Heidrichs, Köhlers, Pollacks, Dirk, Doris, Falk, Gudrun, Siggi and myself as trip leader was supplemented by our guests from Hamburg, Katrin and Ulrich, Sybille and Klaus from Schwerin, Rolf from Fredersdorf and Ines from Spreenhagen. The locals, such as Ulrich Rothe, the state rowing officer and an expert on all rowing areas, were able to tell us a lot about the city, the waterways, the harbour and the regatta course. Klaus Lange from Lübeck, who had already helped us with the preparations, had travelled to Lübeck on Monday evening to give us a short guided tour of the history and architecture of the city. This was the cultural highlight, which we really savoured in view of the magnificent new Elbphilharmonie concert hall. A very successful cultural prelude, organised by Gudrun, was a jazz evening in the Cotton Club cellar. The youth hostel "Am Stintfang" with its wonderful view of the harbour right next to the landing stages and the S-Bahn station offered relaxation before bedtime despite the six-man rooms with their bar. We didn't have a lot of time, but the schedule was organised in such a way that there were plenty of photo breaks and no hectic rush.
On the very first day, Rainer was willing to drive our minibus through the city, which meant we could cover the almost 2 km between RC Süderelbe and Harburg railway station quickly and without waiting times.
With tide and light wind against the current
Immediately after arriving in Hamburg, we rowed on the large Allermöhe regatta course, albeit with a short detour to Landhaus Voigt on the Gose Elbe. Well fortified, we travelled along the Dove Elbe to the estuary. We travelled 6 km upstream on the Norderelbe to the Süderelbe. The tidal current and the wind ensured that we were able to sail upstream. During the 10-minute break at the Bunthausen caravan site, the water level rose by 20 cm, which also meant that it was not always possible to get out comfortably. Of course we knew that the tidal range could be more than 3.5 metres, but experiencing it for ourselves was a great thing. After 18 kilometres for the day, we took the S-Bahn and/or Opel bus to the hostel, settled in and had a good dinner. At 8.30 pm, the six gentlemen and a younger singer began their inspiring jazz in the cellar restaurant.
Across the harbour
The friendly spring weather continued. We rowed leisurely along the Süderelbe to the relatively new coal-fired power station. The neighbouring container port with its huge ships was just as impressive as the very high Köhlbrandt Bridge, which, after a good 30 years, is said to be unable to cope with the volume of heavy goods vehicles and needs to be replaced. We turned right into the harbour area, which was once bustling with barges and inland cargo ships. However, there were only a lot of barges still busy here with their high waves, which we were usually able to avoid. A large cruise ship was moored in one of the harbours, some of which also bear the names of the Oder, Spree, Trave and Vltava rivers. Thousands of cubic metres of sludge had been deposited in the Spree harbour, sticking out of the lake like a large sandbank at low tide. We had to take a short break in front of a barrage with huge gates. We went through the Peute Canal to the Norderelbe and about 300 metres downstream to "Uli's" boathouse belonging to the rowing club "Die Wikinger", where we fortified ourselves with bread, meatballs and cake.
What was impressive during our harbour tour was the unmistakable and constant change in the economy and transport system. In addition to the intact buildings, there was a lot of stagnation and decay, but also new and beautiful industrial buildings. It was even more striking in the Bille area, where the last 65 kilometres had been expanded into a large port and industrial area many decades ago, when there were no lorries. The canals were relatively wide and straight. The plots are now often parking areas and unsightly places. Things only got better in the area of the "Bille Rowing Association". In the last natural bend of the Bille, we felt more at ease, almost transported to the Müggelspree in Berlin with its many allotments. We then took the shortest route back to the Elbe to reach the architectural highlight, the new Elbphilharmonie concert hall. A little wind, lots of sunshine and little boat traffic allowed us to take a longer break. Many photos were taken before we turned into the Alster. After 2 locks, we landed at RC Allemania, where the friendly "good spirit of the house" assigned us a great berth for the boat. He also guided us to the main railway station, from where the S-Bahn took us quickly to our accommodation and dinner. It was a very varied day.
An impressive and, for most of the participants, unknown rowing area with more than ten rowing clubs, some of them very important, was to be experienced on the third day: the Alster. As the weather forecast was for showers, I headed straight for the Osterbek Canal, where there are many bridges. The third was very good for a short break from rowing, as the first of the many impressions had to be processed: Garden culture, villas, former urban harbour facilities, residential buildings of very different sizes as well as commercial establishments lined the often very high banks. Sometimes nice ladies greeted us from their balconies during a tea break. There were a number of pleasure boats. Some canoes even hung over the water on the balcony. There were usually also green trees and bushes on the banks. We travelled as far as Dulsberg, where the canalisation of the Osterbek ended after 4.5 km. For 1.5 kilometres, we now had the pleasure of seeing what we had experienced from the other side, before turning north to the Goldbek Canal, which has less high and close development. Here, too, we encountered groups of (mainly paddle) boats. We did a lap of honour on the Stadtparksee, which also has a well-built natural swimming pool. Via the Rondel Canal, we reached the lake-like Outer Alster again, which we followed upstream to the north. Our destination was now the Olsdorf weir, past Eppendorf with its villas and park-like gardens. Here we also found public park benches, which were perfect for a picnic.
Not only was this waterway impressive, where just a few passenger ships travelled, but also the many branches, which were certainly important for draining and freight transport in the past. Everywhere we went, we encountered fours, eights and twos from various clubs engaged in leisure and recreational sports. We also noticed the noise of aeroplanes landing nearby. This probably doesn't bother the Hamburg rowers as much as it does the Grünau and Tegel water sports enthusiasts.
After a short stopover at the now well-known and popular RC Allemania, we headed straight on to the two locks via the Outer and Inner Alster. It had started to rain lightly all the time. Immediately behind the mouth of the Alster is the City-Sporthafen Hamburg e.V., where we were registered. When the very friendly harbour master remembered this, everything went very quickly because we were supposed to moor with lots of fenders as a buffer where it said "mooring prohibited". That suited us very well. We were still moored in front of the Überseebrücke in the narrow side channel, where we wanted to leave for Blankeneese at around 9 a.m. on 1 May.
However, this was not to be, as the storm here on 1 May was so intense that it seemed dangerous to row downstream unharmed on the wide Lower Elbe, which is used by many ships. Jan and I looked for an alternative before we got up and found one upstream at Entenwerder, where there is a convenient access route for the "HAFENCITY RIVERBUS", which also floats. With many detours through the very interesting warehouse district, we arrived there at around 11 a.m. a little soaked and were able to start our journey home earlier than planned.
However, we would like to report on the very pleasant evening before 1 May in Hamburg's old town. The relatively early dinner at Großneumarkt was followed by a tour with lots of interesting facts, which Klaus offered us in an entertaining way. The highlight was a visit to the Braukeller Gröninger, an almost 100 metre long pub with many large to very small sections and corners in old walls. We remained seated close to the exit as there was only one round for everyone, which was served in no time at all by the very young staff. The brevity of this break had the advantage that we were all able to walk through the Speicherstadt. Some women were drawn very close to the marvellously illuminated Elbphilharmonie concert hall. But even those who looked out from the quay wall very close to our boat enjoyed this fantastic harbour city.
Hans-Peter "Theo" Kozerski