Today there was a bus outing organized, to take us to the nearby (20km or so) town of Greifswald, a Hanseatic town that was largely unscathed during the war and which houses one of Germany’s older universities, founded in 1456. However, the primary reason for our going to Greifswald was to visit the well-known and successful yacht-making company, Hanse. Despite the fact that the odds of any of our party changing loyalties and buying a Hanse, they were prepared to devote the best part of a morning showing us around. Sadly, from the blog point of view, we were asked not to take any photographs and to limit what was put in print, so I will confine myself here to generalities.

Hanse has been managed very successfully since its’ creation in 1990 at the fall of the Iron Curtain. The founder was one Michael Schmidt, winner of the 1985 Admiral’s Cup. During the financial crisis of 2007/8, the company suffered badly and sometime later Schmidt sold his shareholding to a German investment house, Aurelius. Hanse’s strategy has been one of growth through acquisition and it now owns a number of well-known brands. These comprise Dehler, Moody, Sealine, Fjord and Privilège, together with Hanse, of course. They have tried to standardize designs of parts so that they can be used across brands whilst retaining the unique feel and character of each brand. This standardization, together with the use of advanced robotics such as in computer aided cutting machinery, keeps costs to a minimum, thereby enabling Hanse to be price-competitive. Today the company turns over around €140 million and ships over 500 new boats from its’ factory every year. Seeing the long line of yachts on a production line was quite something and the attention to detail and quality control was evident everywhere we looked. A very impressive place and good luck to them.

The tour finished around midday and we now had 4 hours to see the town and get a bite to eat. We solved the latter problem by having brötchen (crusty rolls) filled with matjes (young herring, Julie ) and backfisch (fried fish, Helen & me) served from an old trawler moored alongside the river bank and very good they were. It is an excellent, inexpensive lunch and quite filling. Once sated we were ready to explore the town in the hot, humid conditions ( around 28°C). Greifswald boasts three old red brick churches, apparently known by the locals as long Nicholas, fat Marie and little Jacob and it was in the cathedral St Nikolai that the town’s most famous son, the painter Caspar David Friedrich was baptized. Sadly I only learnt about Caspar David’s link to Greifswald after our visit to the town so we missed out on seeing his work on display in the local museum. Next time! We really liked the extensive town square with its Brick Gothic buildings, lovely place. From there we went to St Nikolai and had a look around – it was impressive but I don’t recall anything that stood out. By then time was passing and Helen felt that she really needed to buy a couple of presents so we split up. Julie and I were on our way to look at the university when we bumped into James & Mea Yarrow, carrying some groceries and as we were running out of bread and some other items, we asked them for directions and soon found ourselves in a large Edeka. Shopping done, we had enough time for a rehydrating stop in one of the cafes in the town square and then it was back to the bus time.

That evening we’d invited the crew of Arnica, comprising Liam & Susan Mac Mahon and their friend Eugene Osborne, together with Calypso’s crew for aperitifs. It’s always nice getting to know new people, especially ones from one of my favourite countries, Ireland. Liam used to be an extremely accomplished windsurfer and even sailed across to Holyhead on one occasion!

Later on we all went to the restaurant on the quayside that specialized in meat ie it was steak house and there we were joined by Nicholas and his crew Pam. Everyone enjoyed their meal and it was good value at €25/ head including drinks. We’d had a busy day and by 10:30, it was definitely time for bed.