Our Stay in Papenburg.

Post composed by Katie Kinsey

For the past few days we were in the town of Papenburg.  During our stay with some amazing families, we were able to tour the Meyer Ship Yard where they construct cruise ships for companies such as Disney, Celebrity and Norwegen Cruise Lines.

 During our tour of the ship yard, we were able to see a ship for Carnival being constructed.  The ship was launched into the river yesterday morning at 7:30 a.m.  The ship will then have to travel down the narrow river Ems to the North Sea.

Here is a foto of the passage the ship must make out to the North Sea.  I think for many Captains this looks pretty tricky!  There are about 3 meters of space on each side of the ship as it comes out of the channel in Papenburg.  Also, the river is very shallow for the ship, so they actually do not put all of the furniture and accessories on the ship until it reaches the city of Norden.  If they put everything on at the ship yard, it would run aground!!

Our host families were amazing in Papenburg and also took us on a bike tour to the city of Bourtange in the Netherlands.  Our team and some of our hosts set out on a bike tour at 7:00 am this past Saturday and rode 25 kilometers to the fortress.  The ride was beautiful and the fortress city of Bourtange was very quaint.

We had an amazing guide for our tour at the fortress and she made sure that everything we learned about the city was "clear!".  She was very sweet and had spent an entire afternoon creating an English tour for our group.

I am happy to say that no one was left behind, and we all completed the 25 kilometers back to Papenburg that afternoon.  We had a surprise picnic/wine and cheese tasting on the way back as well!  We really are getting spoiled with food here in Germany!

Thank you to our hosts in Papenburg for such great times!!  Vielen Danke!