BA were fantastic as usual and apart from some turbulence and a rough landing (there were a couple of shrieks emitted - not from me!) we arrived in Hamburg safely where I met the agent.
The port was a fifteen minute drive from the airport and the agent dropped me at the ship immediately.
The boarding ladder was somewhat far away from the dockside so I actually had to sit on a slippery old wooden dock post and then climb aboard - it was this careful approach or the leap of faith. With the constant rain here the latter would have been somewhat dumb as it's so slippery. However, my boarding this way somehow involved my hands delving into some substance which smells like cowshit - surprise! Despite repeated washing I smell like a vet that's been arm deep...
The ship: Japanese this time rather than Chinese and it's very different. The last two ships both came from the same yard in China so had similarities. I can immediately see the difference in build quality and the way things are done differently. The Japanese ship (from what I've seen so far, and also have heard many engineers profess the Japanese ship quality as superior) is better made (and I'm mainly counting what I can see and encounter rather than inspecting the construction of the hull!), however there is something very institutional and clinical about the interior. The doors are all metal rather than wood and everything is square and box like rather than rounded and smooth. Differing styles, but less beauty in this one.
Anyway, enough rambling - Tomorrow: hammer and tongs. I'm told we leave port on Monday headed for Antwerp which is only a one day voyage. The captain joked about us heading somewhere else much much further away. He joked...
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