Schleswig

Well, as promised we devoted yesterday to culture - we arrived at Schloss Gottorf around 1030 and didn't leave until after 1600. It's hard to say why it was so good - I think it's a mixture of wonderful building and location, beautifully laid out, several very different collections, and mostly wheelchair accessible. 

The first part of the display was up four steps, which fortunately Sam managed very easily. There are sumptuous medieval carvings and early paintings including a fine selection of Cranachs - I was introduced to Cranach the Elder as a small child by a poster of Eve inside my parents' broom-cupboard door, and I've had a soft spot for him ever since. 

The incredibly helpful attendant was very apologetic that Sam couldn't go further, and arranged for us to see a slide show of the rest of the collection. Ben and I popped upstairs to get a quick look for ourselves - my father would have loved it, full of Delft ware and with wonderful views out over the Schloss park.  

We had a very good lunch in the Schlosskeller (down one step) and then on to modern art in the afternoon - a delightful exhibition of paintings by contemporary north German artists, some of which I would happily have taken home, and a rather dreary permanent collection of 20th century work. There's sculpture in the park, and a Baroque garden up the hill behind - a bit disappointing following the recent heat and drought, although we found a lovely cool bower to rest for a while before the 10-minute walk back to the boat. 

We may have another night here. As I write it's 0730 and a force 6 promised for 3am sounds as though it has finally arrived. I'd really like to see the middle of Schleswig, so maybe this is my chance. 

This is a very odd marina. It seems to have been very solidly built many years ago but never really updated. Many of the stern posts are 3m apart which makes the berths too narrow for anything over 30ft or so - Kalessin is 3.5m wide. Some berths may also be very shallow, it's hard to tell. Possibly because of this, many of the berths are empty - I'd estimate only about a third are occupied. There's a boatyard here, a sailing club, a sailing school, a chandlery, a closed Chinese restaurant - everything you might expect except for yachts, and actually we haven't found the showers yet either. If it wasn't for the traffic noise it would be very quiet. Still, it's the cheapest place we've stayed in a while - €12 a night. 

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