If you're into cruise ships, cruising or anything maritime, I'm going to tell you
about an event that you should plan to build into your wish list - and make sure
you do as part of your cruising experience. Hi I'm Gary Bembridge of Tips
For Travellers and I'm going to talk about Cruise Days Hamburg and show you why, and
tell you why, you should try and either plan to go on a cruise that actually
incorporates Cruise Days Hamburg into the actual cruise or alternatively you
should visit Hamburg during the weekend when cruise days is on. So, what exactly
is Cruise Days? Cruise Days is a three days weekend event celebrating
everything cruising. It happens every two years in the second week of September.
The big highlight of the event culminates in a massive six ship parade
out of Hamburg down the River Elbe. There are six cruise ships. That's a maximum
amount that the port of Hamburg will allow, and each cruise ship has four
smaller ships - so there's 24 support ships, along with an incredible fireworks
display watched by up to 200,000 people. It's an incredible atmosphere. It's
incredibly emotional, whether you're on the ship or you're on the bank
watching this magnificent parade. This is an absolutely magnificent cruise
spectacular. It's unique. It's impressive. It's dramatic. However Cruise Days has a
few other things going for it as well. An absolute must do thing is Blue
Port Hamburg, a ten-day event which is created by a local Hamburg artist called
Michael Batz, and he's been doing it for many years now and he has a real vision
and passion for it. He originally created for the football Euro Cup. What happens is
all down the River Elbe, and through the harbour, blue lights are placed on
everything from buildings, ships, cranes and all sorts of structures down the river.
As you can see on this video, where we're actually on a boat trip down the
river, it's a magnificent event. Again lots of people come out and they fill the
bars, they watch the ships going up and down looking at the blue lights and it is a
really fantastic event. The actual blue harbour lasts for ten days, but the
real heart of it happens over Cruise Days. If you're in Hamburg for Cruise
Days there's many more other cruise things that you can do. There's lots of
concerts, there's lots of events and a series of
things which are called islands. They are focused on each of the cruise lines
taking part, and the cruise lines will have all sorts of displays. So, for
example, Aida had actually replicated what a cabin looks like. Other places
gave away free balloons, held raffles and there's beer stands, drink stands, sweet stands,
sausage stands. There's a real carnival atmosphere all along the river. You can
also go and visit the Maritime Museum. This is a massive big building. I think
altogether there's 10 floors but 9 floors are exhibition areas with
all sorts of incredible displays. On the top floor there's this
monstrous big collection of miniature models of ships. It really is quite
remarkable. As you work your way down you pass through other floors which are
dedicated to things like maritime art, where you see a huge collection of
beautiful maritime paintings and pictures. There's another level which is
dedicated to warfare at sea where you will see lots of weapons, you'll
understand the various uniforms, the various structures that existed, the
ships and find out much more about warfare at sea. There's also a whole
section on submarines where again you'll learn about the history of submarines,
u-boats and the different models and different types of submarines that exist.
There's also another area which is dedicated to safety at sea. There's
another section which is all around the different uniforms and traditions and
medals.There are phenomenal models all around the museum, some hanging from the
ceiling like this dramatic one up against a background of a rough sea. As
you work your way through the various nine floors of exhibitions you'll keep coming
across artwork, models, weapons, paintings. So definitely if you visiting Hamburg
for Cruise Days I would strongly keep with the maritime theme and go to the
Maritime Museum. The collection is housed in the Kaiserspeck B. It's a
beautiful and stunning a waterfront warehouse. Another very important
structure on the River Elbe, which is definitely worth going to, is the Elbphilharmonie concert hall. This is a special structure which was built at the
creation of the new Hafen city, which is a big urban development which is
opening up the whole Harbor area to all sorts of very
interesting buildings and living spaces and shops and places like the Elbphilharmonie
concert hall, which is a massive big concert hall. It's really
quite magnificent and it's become part of the whole maritime story of Hamburg.
The lower base representing the tradition of the old brick warehouses and the top
this beautiful wavy structure representing the waves and the sea. So
there you are, that's a little bit about Cruise Days. It happens every two years
on the second weekend of September. It's a phenomenal event. Over 500,000 people
visit during the course of those three days, with up to 200,000 watching that
very important procession which happens on the Saturday evening at quarter past
nine as those six cruise ships sail out. I strongly recommend to go on a cruise
which either embarks during cruise days or includes cruise days as part of the
trip - or of course you can just come on a weekend visit and
spend a couple of days wallowing in the great maritime adventures and cruising
and have a great carnival time. I hope you found that helpful if you did I'd love
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