From 19th to 23th of August "SAIL Amsterdam" took place in the Netherlands. We are lucky, because this event is organized only in every 5th year. Uncountable numbers of ships has navigated from the North Sea Canal to the Ij harbour. People, who were curious about this fascinating sight, could see many-many kinds of ships from different countries.
My personal favourite was GLORIA, the one from Colombia. It was a highlight of the event to watch sailors standing up there, while the ship was passing through. I would never have enough courage to do that. Okay.. maybe at the lowest level.
My fiance was more interested in ZEELAND, the offshore partol vessel. This thing was so enormous. Its weight is 3750 t. I have never seen something like that before. It had a helicopter landing place, and some kind of cannon too. It is operated by the Royal Netherlands Navy to discover pirates and smugglers on the water and can be used for military services too. How interesting. :)
Sweden has also represented itself with a ship, the GÖTHEBORG. It was so gorgeous. It reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean's Black Pearl, but in a colourful version. As I did some research, this is a replica of a ship, owned by the East India Company. The original one was sailing the ocean around the 18th century. Now it is the world's largest wooden sailing ship.
The Russian ship, the SEDOV was also magnificant. As I know, it is the biggest traditional sailing vessel in the world. Originally, it was a german cargo ship, and the Soviet Union got it as a was reparation in 1945. Its length is 117,5 m. Unbelieveble, right??
Beside these, other coutries, like England, Norway, Spain, Germany, France, Poland, Ecuador, Australia, Belgium... have also joined with their beautiful ships.
This event shows, how great traditions sailing has in this country. For me, coming from a completely different culture, (Hungary is said to be a horse riding nation) it was an unforgettable experience. We probably will not be here at 2020, but I can recommend everyone to visit Amstedam around August. Ahoy! :)
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