AE_Collector Posted June 21, 2015 #1 Share Posted June 21, 2015 (edited) One of our favorite cruising events was going through the Kiel Canal in Germany on Ocean Princess last year (June 2014). We almost did the same cruise again this year but didnt so I figured we would try to watch a lot of it on the Ocean Princess Bow Cam tomorrow. For some reason the Bow Cam on Ocean Princess has been very sporadic with its updates the last few days so I don't know how well it is going to work watching them go through the canal. We were late entering the canal last year, I think they initially talked about 10 AM but we were late getting out of Amsterdam the evening before and didn't arrive at the entrance to the canal until about 11 AM. There had been a heavy rainfall over night and apparentlyp they weren't letting any ships into the canal in the early morning hours so there was a line of ships waiting their turn. It was after 1 PM before we entered. It took us about 8 hours to go through arriving at the other side at about 9 PM where we sat in the lock for about an hour off loading a medical emergency. They brought a German Omm-Pah Band on at the lock into the canal and off loaded them at the lock on the other side. The band set up again on the lock and played us off to the cheering passengers as we headed into the Baltic. It was all a great adventure. For those expecting locks at each end of the canal similar to the Panama Canal....not at all. Just like the lick into and out of Amsterdam, it is a single lock that effectively doesn't raise or lower anything. The lock controls the tides and keeps the canal fresh water only. I calculated that we DROPPED a couple of feet in the lock entering the canal. The 98 KM (61 Mile) long canal shortens the distance into the Baltic by about 250 miles but ships the size if Ocean and Pacific are pretty much as large as can possibly go through the canal. I went armed with a list of all of the 10 bridges that cross the canal so that I could identify them all as we progressed. Probably the most interesting thing (to me) along te way was the Transporter Bridge suspended from the Rendsburg High (railway) Bridge. This is a ferry that holds maybe 4 cars and a bunch of pedestrians that is suspended by cables just above the water and it darts back and forth between approaching ships carrying people from one side to the other. While this season will be Ocean Princess' last trips through the Kiel Canal (as a Princess Ship), I see that Pacific Princess will do this cruise next year. If the Bow Cam smartens up it could be a good tour but will likely start through the middle of the night for those of us in North America. Here is the Bow Cam for the Ocean Princess: http://www.princess.com/bridgecams/?shipCode=op Here is the WiKi or the Kiel Canal: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/?title=Kiel_Canal Terry Edited June 21, 2015 by AE_Collector Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Essiesmom Posted June 22, 2015 #2 Share Posted June 22, 2015 If you would like to see the ship in parts of the canal, start here with the locks at Brunsbeuttel: http://www.kiel-canal.de/webcam/webcam_choice.htm Cams 3&4 are Brunsbeuttel, and sometimes the time changes but the picture sticks. With the HD cam, you have to click the bars in the upper left corner to choose Brunsbeuttel. It is a streaming cam and it doesn't work for me in Chrome, so I have to use it in IE. Later on the first cam she will pass is at Schulp bei Rendsburg: http://www.kielkanal-live.de/index.php It takes about ten minutes to get to the next cam. The next cam is Ahlmann-Zersson. Click on the crane to get the cam: http://www.ahlmann-zerssen.de/index.htm As soon as she is past this cam, switch to the next cam below. Next are the cams at the Rendsburg railroad bridge: http://www.canalcup-cam.de/ There is an AIS map at the bottom of the page to follow her progress. Next is the other cam at the bridge, on the other side. this one also has the AIS map below, and it shows more than just passenger ships and updates automatically: http://www.brueckenbote.de/webcam The last cam in the middle is Gemeinde schacht Audorf: It takes about ten minutes for her to get there from the Rendsburg cams. http://www.schacht-audorf.de/gemeinde/webcam#content The last cams will be at the locks at Kiel-Holtenau. Same link as at BB, the UCA cams, plus this one: http://www.sartori-berger.de/kiel-canal/webcam-kiel-canal/ Happy tracking! EM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AE_Collector Posted June 22, 2015 Author #3 Share Posted June 22, 2015 Aahh, I didn't even think of land based web cams. Thanks for putting all the links together. I will try to keep up with the progress. As we cleared the Brunsbeuttel locks our dinner companions on the ship from Australia had friends who drove for hours to get there to wave at them as they passed by. I had just bought a new camera with a 42x zoom lens so I was able to get them some real good pictures of them waving franticly from shore. That was just the start of people waving at the ship from shore as we went by. Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Essiesmom Posted June 22, 2015 #4 Share Posted June 22, 2015 Leaving Brunsbeuttel locks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AE_Collector Posted June 22, 2015 Author #5 Share Posted June 22, 2015 Ocean Princess just passed the Rendsberg High Bridge with the hanging ferry. Of course the land based web cam bogged down right then and updates became extremely slow. I managed to see just the very back of Ocean Princess clearing the bridge. You can see the Hanging Ferry going back and forth in this link that Essiesmom provided in an earlier post: http://www.canalcup-cam.de/cam1.php Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Essiesmom Posted June 22, 2015 #6 Share Posted June 22, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Essiesmom Posted June 22, 2015 #7 Share Posted June 22, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AE_Collector Posted June 22, 2015 Author #8 Share Posted June 22, 2015 Thanks for posting all of the great pictures EM. Good memories of a great cruise one year ago for us! Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Woobstr112G Posted June 22, 2015 #9 Share Posted June 22, 2015 Great pictures. Thanks for sharing.....:):):) Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AE_Collector Posted June 22, 2015 Author #10 Share Posted June 22, 2015 (edited) Ocean Princess is in the locks at Kiel now preparing to leave the canal and enter the Baltic Sea. I can see the temporary gangway to the side of te ship to offload the German Oom Pah Band in this web am shot: http://www.kiel-canal.de/webcam1/webcam_live.htm Terry Edited June 22, 2015 by AE_Collector Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrak Posted June 22, 2015 #11 Share Posted June 22, 2015 (edited) I just had to Google that Kiel Canal Transporter Bridge. Way cool! :D Edited June 22, 2015 by Thrak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Essiesmom Posted June 22, 2015 #12 Share Posted June 22, 2015 Approaching the Kiel-Holtenau locks On the Sartori & Berger cam, you can get seriously bent! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Essiesmom Posted June 22, 2015 #13 Share Posted June 22, 2015 That's all, Folks! EM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AE_Collector Posted June 22, 2015 Author #14 Share Posted June 22, 2015 I cant remember any sharp bends of that magnitude that required the ship be Articulated! Thrak: Watch the transporter bridge live in action on this link that Essiesmom posted: http://www.canalcup-cam.de/cam1.php Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Essiesmom Posted June 23, 2015 #15 Share Posted June 23, 2015 On that link, click on Zeittraffer in the upper left, then choose a date - not the current one, as the day for the cam starts at 3am. Then click the arrow on the pic and see the time lapse for 24 hours. EM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AE_Collector Posted June 23, 2015 Author #16 Share Posted June 23, 2015 (edited) I cant seem to figure that out. I click Zeitraffer which gives me a calendar to choose a day but the picture of the bridge with the "play" arrow on it vanishes as soon as I click on a different date. I can choose from two links then, one for each camera but that takes me back to todays date. I am stuck in a loop! Terry Edited June 23, 2015 by AE_Collector Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Essiesmom Posted June 23, 2015 #17 Share Posted June 23, 2015 I click on Zeitraffer, it gives me a page with the cams stacked, and a calendar next to each. when I click on the date 22 for the top cam, it takes me to the larger picture with the calendar above. I just click on the 'run' arrow in the pic and it starts. EM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AE_Collector Posted June 23, 2015 Author #18 Share Posted June 23, 2015 (edited) The difference is when i click on a day on the calendar the page changes to a single calendar top left corner but no single picture below. To the right i get this message with two camera links at the bottom. Clicking one of those links takes me back to the beginning with the two pictures and two calendars back on todays date. Über den Button (hier rot dargestellt) rechts unten im Player, wechseln Sie in den Vollbildschirmmodus. Mit der ESC-Taste kommen Sie in die normale Ansicht zurück. Wenn Sie mit der Maus in das Bild hineinklicken, hält der Zeitrafferfilm an. Durch erneutes anklicken des Filmes läuft er weiter. So kann man sich in Ruhe den gewünschten Ausschnitt anschauen. Zurück zur Archivauswahl Zum Archiv der Kamera 2 I am using an iPad and when something doesn't work the way it does for others, it is usually something to do with me using an iPad. I will try on a real computer at some point. Thanks for the help! Terry Edited June 23, 2015 by AE_Collector Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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