The contrast couldn’t be greater: between the endless quays in Rotterdam, the immense storage areas for containers and crude oil tanks for the chemical industry and a dreamy landing stage for fishing boats in Lofoten.
The journalist Ulf Kaack has turned to the large and small ports of Europe and shows in his new illustrated book entitled “Gateways to the world – The most spectacular ports in Europe from the dreamy fjord port to the Mediterranean container port “ the whole maritime diversity. The suspense ranges from industrial plants to romantic, natural bays with a few ships that have moored there.
“They are the opposite of the open sea, the antithesis of the great expanse: harbors – here the proud ships lie motionless at the pier, here it’s about the cargo in their stomach under tough time pressure,” writes Kaack aptly in his foreword. “They are the nerve cords and main arteries of small and large economic cycles. Complex, multi-layered systems, functional and following an invisible rhythm.”
His compilation of extensively annotated footage of ports from Iceland to the Black Sea gives us a glimpse into a world often glorified by media, literature and cinema.
When reading, we learn a lot about the history of the respective places, their change in meaning over time and their current function – also for cruise shipping. This illustrated book is a must for anyone who enjoys traveling on board ships.
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– Empty buffet and wrong cabin: How to complain about cruise trips correctly
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