Third-Graders Visit Captain Heiko Felix
To celebrate its anniversary, KD is inviting school classes to a free boat ride. The first group to take part was a class of girls and boys from the Edith Stein Elementary School in Frechen.
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“Wow, it’s huge!” “It almost looks like a house in here”: The roughly 60 young guests are impressed by the MS RheinFantasie. As they board in Cologne, each child receives a red, blue, or white balloon. The girls and boys are from Class 3a at the Edith Stein School in Frechen, a municipal Catholic elementary school in the Buschbell neighborhood. Their class is one of 200 school classes that have won a free cruise on a KD.
Schools were able to apply
As part of the “200 Years of Köln-Düsseldorfer Deutsche Rheinschiffahrt” anniversary celebration, schools from North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Hesse—that is, from all the federal states where KD operate—were invited to apply. The classes that were quick off the mark and applied right away were the ones that got the chance to board the ship. There were well over 200 classes. “The response was tremendous. Unfortunately, we couldn’t accommodate everyone. We’re very pleased that our anniversary gift has reached so many students and that we’ll be able to welcome quite a few of them aboard as guests this summer,” said KD Nina Luig in her welcoming remarks.
Exploration Tours by Boat
Before the lively third-graders set out to explore the ship, they stop to refuel. The snack boxes filled with cookies, fruit, cherry tomatoes, and pieces of cucumber and carrot are quickly emptied. Later, the KD will provide KD and fruit popsicles for everyone, but for now, there’s no stopping them. The children fan out. Nina Luig had explicitly allowed them to look around everywhere beforehand. The only off-limits area was the kitchen—but not the bridge, the captain’s workplace. Small groups of ten girls and boys each were allowed to visit Captain Heiko Felix and watch as he skillfully navigates the ship—over 85 meters long and 14 meters wide—through the water.
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Looking forward to the visit for weeks
When Heiko Felix sounds the ship’s horn—also known as a typhon or signal horn—the children clap their hands with excitement. They want to know how the radar and the radio work and how fast the ship can go. Anna and Noah are thrilled to be allowed to take a quick look through the binoculars. As the RheinFantasie turns near the Bayenthal neighborhood, Thomas is amazed at how long this maneuver takes. “This is totally exciting,” Max agrees. The children quickly discover how great it is to play tag and hide-and-seek on the ship. One thing is clear: Everyone is having a lot of fun, including the ten adult chaperones. Class teacher Steffen Suchomel is correspondingly relaxed and satisfied. “Everything went wonderfully. The children had been looking forward to the trip for weeks. This is a really great initiative by Köln-Düsseldorfer.”
After leaving the ship, the children waved from the shore for a long time; some had brought their balloons along. The only thing that went unnoticed that day was the comic “The Secret of My Success” from the “Lustige Taschenbücher” series, which a boy had packed away just in case. The book went back into his backpack, unread.
's Magical Attraction:
The Ship's Bell
“‘Wow, it’s huge!’ ‘It almost looks like a house in here’: The roughly 60 young guests are impressed by the MS RheinFantasie.”