Balmoral & Bremen

On her way north from the Antarctic, and now on a "Circumnavigation of Western Europe" cruise the Bremen arrived in St Peter Port today along with Fred Olsen's Balmoral on her "Superbikes and Scenic Hikes" cruise. She will be in the Isle of Man for the TT on the 6th June.

In August the Bremen will start her cruise from Tromsoe, sail through the legendary North East Passage and end her cruise in Alaska. On the 7th September she will cross the International Date Line and the guests will "put their clocks back". Not looking quite so adventurous here the Bremen sat at anchor for the day in changeable weather from blue skies and sea to rather grey by the time she left.

If the guests of these liners were alert on the Guernsey Vaeux bus service as they went pass Port Soif, they might have seen the Conservation Herd of Guernsey cows. The local Societe Guernesiaise have bought the animal to graze its overgrown grasslands to enable the return of wild flowers and wildlife,

As the final tenders were returning to the ships the guests on board the Bremen's zodiac tenders might have appreciated the more traditional type of the Balmoral as a cold wind started to blow. The Balmoral, in the background, was built in the Meyer Werft yard in Papenburg, in 1988,  now the builders of many of the larger liners that visit the island.

Bremen and Azura

The Azura spent a rather soggy wet day in Guernsey on her arrival from Zeebrugge with Alfie Boe on board as the 'star turn'. Some of her guests spent a even soggier day by going for a RIB ride which picked them from the pontoon and took them back directly to the tenders. The RIBs take locals and visitors for high speed rides out to see seals and puffins off the Island of Herm, as well as longer rides to Sark and Les Hanois  Lighthouse.

Some guests who would probably prefer not to get wet on a tender ride were those who on the boutique German liner Bremen which arrived from Jersey and she wasted no time getting her Zodiacs into the water. She is currently on a cruise of Europe's Heritage from Tenerife to Hamburg, next port Rouen. Autumn will see her head south to South America and Antarctica via the Corinth canal.

Dwarfed by the Azura, the Bremen is not outshone in her destinations, the Arctic and Antarctica, where she will feel at home in with her ice hardened hull. She has the highest ice classification for passenger vessels.
With a length of 366ft compared to the Azura's 951ft and her 155 guests compared to over 3,000 on the Azura the cruise experience must be somewhat different.