Day 1, 07.10.2018, Hamburg-Altona,
I rented a big Audi today at Schönefeld Airport in Berlin for a one-way trip to Hamburg to join the AIDAaura. This car had a head-up display with data projected on to the windscreen like a fighter plane. Streaking along no-speed-limit Autobahns at nearly 200 km/hour, or Mach 0.2 as we fighter pilots like to refer to it, focuses the mind. Cars are complicated things these days, and it took a while to sort out the navigation, communications and entertainment systems. There were probably ejector-seat and missile controls but I didn’t get that far down the menu.
The car had to be big to transport two new bikes to the ship to be used for our own pedal-powered shore excursions. These bikes will have to be abandoned when we get to Australia. They will be donated for other crew to use and if we ever get back to AIDAaura they will be waiting for us. We did the same thing on AIDAbella with two other bikes I bought in Bangkok. We see those bikes from time to time. Engineering keeps them in good shape.
I arrived late in Hamburg and checked into an apartment hotel near the cruise-ship terminal. Check-in was completely automated with a vending machine out in the street to get my room key. Modern times. Across the street was the famous and not-so-modern Haifisch-Bar. Being late on Sunday, the only food on offer was Matjes und Bratkartoffeln which is raw herring and sautéed potatoes. I had that and beer. Heike sings regularly in the Haifisch-Bar but more about that in later posts. The ship docks in Hamburg tomorrow morning.
