Right now there is a cool TV project going on here, real reality TV.
One of the coastal express ships has been equipped with lots of TV cameras, and the entire voyage from the first port in the south to the last port in the north is broadcast live on TV. It's probably the longest continuous live broadcast. It's on webcast as well, click here here if you wanna see it.
The broadcast started yesterday and lasts for 134 hours, almost six days. I watched it for a while yesterday, fun to watch in small portions, but somewhat tedious after a while.
The coastal express is steaming along our coastline every day, all year, and has been doing so for almost 120 years. A full round trip from south to north and back to the start takes 11 days. All the 34 ports are served on a regular schedule, once a day. At any time there are 11 ships in operation.
The coastal express is hardly an express any more. However, in the old days, before commercial air lines, it was the most efficient (and only) way to travel along our long coastline. Now the coastal express is operating more like a cruise line, with lots of tourists. But you can, of course, still buy port-to-port tickets, and use it as public transport.
I have traveled with the coastal express a few times, between small towns up north, when the air lines have been on strike (they have powerful unions), and on national holidays, when Six Flags Airlines have taken a day off.
Tomorrow morning the TV-ship is coming to our town. Little boy wants to go down and watch and waive to the cameras, so we plan to bike down to the port tomorrow morning >:)
(I took the picture above in May 2008, when we lived up north. It's the coastal express steaming to port. This was the view I had through the kitchen window every morning at 7:30 am, while eating breakfast, before going to work. I must admit that I miss it.)
