CRUISING THE GREAT
LAKES … BILINGUALLY
A REPORT ON THE C.COLUMBUS
By
Shirley Linde
If you want to cruise the Great Lakes
and at the same time practice your German, a cruise on C. Columbus
owned by the German cruise company Hapag-Lloyd could be the cruise
for you. It is a bilingual cruise with announcements, menus, shore
excursions and other programs in English and in German. On our
cruise of Lake Michigan, Lake Superior and Lake Huron two-thirds of
the passengers were from Germany and one-third were from the United
States or Canada so there were many opportunities to exchange
pleasantries in either language.
C.
Columbus was built in 1997, carries about 400 passengers, and
cruises the Great Lakes in several itineraries each summer. Our
cruise was Sept. 11 from Chicago to Traverse City (Michigan),
Mackinac Island (Michigan), Sault Ste Marie (on the Canada side),
Thunder Bay (Ontario), Duluth (Minnesota), Little Current (on
Canada’s Manitoulin Island), Midland (Ontario), ending in Sarnia (in
Canada across the border from Port Huron, Michigan).
The
Great Lakes were formed thousands of years ago when the last
glaciers melted, and they form one-fifth of the world’s fresh water.
Cruising on the Great Lakes is like cruising in the ocean, without
the salt. You mostly don’t see shore except when coming in or out of
port. It can be smooth as silk or tumultuously stormy. On this trip
skies were sunny and calm except for one rain-filled day and night
at aptly named Thunder Bay. (The ship sailed very well, hardly
blinked an eye in a 50-knot gale that night.)
The
cruise started from Navy Pier in downtown Chicago on a sunny
Saturday and our first port stop was Traverse City, Michigan where
passengers either took a wine-tasting tour of award-winning wineries
of the area or took a bus tour through Michigan farmland to Sleeping
Bear Dunes Park. The area had a Farmland Preservation Program of
interest. An ordinance allows the county to buy development rights
from farm owners so the farmers could realize the monies that they
would gain by selling to developers but could continue to occupy and
farm their land, thus preserving the rural character of the
countryside and the agricultural industry. A model program we hope
will be copied in other areas.
Next day the ship arrived at Mackinac Island, named after the
Ojibwe Indian word for turtle. There are no cars on Mackinac, only
bicycles and horse-drawn carriages. The constant sound is the clip
clop clip clop of the horses. Passengers visited the fort or the
famous Grand Hotel with its 600 ft. veranda and the 50 or so rocking
chairs for sitting and gazing at the grounds and the lake, or they
biked or hiked around the island coastline. The island is 2 miles
wide and 3 miles long. Historic Victorian houses look out toward the
water. Worth a stop was the Butterfly House, nicely put together in
a greenhouse with hundreds of butterflies that will land in your
hand or sit on your head. How sad that with development encroaching
on the natural environment plus pesticides we seldom see butterflies
anymore. I miss them.
In
Sault Ste Marie the Columbus docked at the town pier. Some went on a
rail excursion a hundred miles north to see the Agawa Canyon
scenery. Those who did not go on planned excursions hiked along the
St. Marys River waterfront walk to the dam, or in the other
direction to the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Center, a very neat
museum with a collection of bush planes housed in the waterfront
hangar where the concept of water bombing to fight forest fires was
developed by a bush pilot. There are several dozen cool old and new
bush planes, and be sure to take time to see the film. The Sault
Ste. Marie Canal opened on the Canadian side in 1895, the largest
and first electrically operated lock in the world. Ships now use the
newer locks on the US side. That and some dredging opened up the
waterways from the Atlantic Ocean down to the St. Lawrence, through
the Great Lakes all the way to Lake Superior. The St. Mary River is
the border between Canada and the U.S. and is also the connection
between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, and was an important fur
trading route. There are twin Sault Ste. Marie cities, one on the US
side, the other on the Canadian side.
Next
port was Thunder Bay and indeed it thundered and blew and rained in
torrents. Those going on tours struggled to see the scenery through
the downpour. Thunder Bay was a fur trading center, now is an
important grain export harbor. There are also many amethyst mines.
This was our only bad weather day.
Duluth was our farthest west port stop, being at the very western
tip of Lake Superior. This too was a fur trading post, later was a
shipping center for timber, grain and iron ore. Lake Superior was
the home at different times of the Cree, the Dakotah and the Ojibwe
nations.
We
took a rail tour on the old North Shore Scenic Railroad that ran
east paralleling the lake shore to the Split Rock Lighthouse at the
town of Two Harbors, and then took a charter bus to Gooseberry Falls
State Park where we could hike around the falls for an hour or so
before taking the bus back to the ship. The lighthouse was
constructed in 1910 after disastrous storms that sunk many ships and
damaged dozens of others. For nearly 60 years the light flashed each
night at 10 second intervals across more than 20 miles of Lake
Superior waters.
Our
next day was at sea with an Oktoberfest on board and a tour of the
bridge with Captain Ralf Zander.
At
Manitoulin Island the ship tendered passengers in to the town of
Little Current where they were greeted in a First Nation ceremony.
Some went on to a Pow Wow and Heritage Tour with a visit to the
Ojibwe Cultural Foundation, some went on a hiking and plant
identification tour with First Nation guides, and others went on a
canoeing tour and were treated to a First Nation lunch of whitefish,
beans, and traditional tea and learned about the Medicine Wheel. The
tours were part of the Great Spirit Circle Trail that is a
partnership project established to involve local Aboriginal peoples
in the tourism industry. Manitoulin is the biggest island in the
world on a fresh water lake.
On
our last day we arrived at Midland, Ontario in the morning and
tendered in. Midland is a small harbor town at the southern end of
Georgian Bay in Lake Huron, land of the Huron Indians. Some
passengers went to an open air museum depicting Huron culture;
others went on trekking tour in the Awenda National Park. Those not
on a tour walked about town viewing the murals painted on building
walls.
I
used to come to these lakes as a child on our family vacations. The
small towns are still friendly, the scenery still beautiful, the
lakes magnificent. But I cannot help but compare what has happened
to the quality of the environment over the decades since my
childhood visits. Logging has stripped the virgin forests in many
areas so tourists now see second growth trees; over-fishing has
depleted the fish supply; farms and industry have poured chemicals
into the river and lake waters. Some progress is being made, but
much more is needed.
C.
Columbus (yes, for Christopher), has a lounge with evening
productions of dance and music and a band for dancing. Two
outstanding performances were by flautist Hans-Jurgen Pincus. A
smaller lounge in the bow featured a keyboard/saxophone/guitar
player. Throughout the cruise were lectures on bridge by well-know
expert Zeke Jabbour and bridge games by some serious players. The
ship had a heated pool, fitness room, sauna, a mostly-German
library, a boutique, and a hair salon. Massages were available. A
physician was on board. Computers were available for sending and
receiving emails, free unless there were attachments, but you could
not access your own email account or the internet.
Dining was either in the restaurant, single seating, or on deck 6,
buffet. Most nights were casual, and two Captain’s parties were
dressy. There are designated smoking areas in the dining room and
the main lounge.
There are 134 outside cabins, each with telephone, individually
controlled air-conditioning, and a private bathroom with shower.
Deck 1 cabins have portholes; cabins on other decks have either a
large rectangular window or a dramatic round window like a giant
porthole. Most cabins have twin beds that can be apart or together.
Several cabins have a partially obstructed view, but still an
outside view, and are a good bargain. There are several suites with
a separate sitting area, several cabins can accommodate three
passengers, and there are 63 inside cabins. Two cabins are
wheelchair accessible. There are two elevators.
Other itineraries of C. Columbus in the Great Lakes go between
Toronto and Chicago through the Welland Canal or between Sarnia and
Milwaukee with stops including Parry Sound, Bayfield, Whitefish
Point and Grand Haven. From the Great Lakes the ship sails along the
US east coast, then to the Bahamas. It will later do a world cruise.
Other ships of Hapag-Lloyd are Europa, Bremen, and Hanseatic.
*****
To Book
a Great Lake
cruise, click here.
For more information on cruising visit www.SmallShipCruises.com
-- the biggest website in the world on small ships, with information on hundreds
of ships and cruises all over the world, including adventure cruises, luxury
cruises, barges, sailing ships, riverboats, yacht charters, and ships to use as
floating hotels for special events. Free newsletter.
Go to:
Add
American-Luxury to your favorites
