The 99km-long Nord-Ostsee-Kanal reaches the Baltic Sea from the North Sea at Kiel, with some 60,000 ships passing through every year. It's easy to view the Schleusen (locks) at Holtenau , 7km north of Kiel. The viewing platform here is open from sunrise to sunset. There’s a museum on the southern side of the canal. To get to the locks, take bus 11 to Wik, Kanal. A free ferry shuttles back and forth between the southern and northern banks.
Inaugurated in 1895, the canal is now the third-most trafficked in the world, after the Suez and Panama Canals.
