On the north-east coast of Germany, looking out on the Baltic Sea,
there’s a tourist attraction that I think is really strange.
Four of them, actually, all identical at different seaside resorts.
And I think they’re strange because they’re modern.
The Tauchgondel, the diving gondola, feels like it should be
some 19th-century Industrial Revolution invention.
It’s a diving bell: a chamber that sinks under the water
and lets you look out on the ocean floor.
Which is only a couple of metres down at this point, sure,
but this isn’t like the Disneyland fake-submarines that pretend to dive
using some bubbles and lighting tricks:
this really does go underwater.
To me, this feels like it should be
some sort of overcomplicated, steam-powered thing
that’d entertain rich Bismarck-era royalty for a few years,
and then fall into disrepair and turn up in a few old photos
of odd bizarre seaside attractions from the past.
But this? It opened in 2009.
(IN GERMAN):
The technology here is modern.
And with modern technology comes modern safety standards.
This gondola has the opposite problem to most elevators:
the average tourist isn’t going to be worried that it might fall,
but they are going to ask if it might get stuck down there.
Or worse, that it might, uh...
...spring a leak.
[horn sounds]
[mechanical noises]
Ha! Okay. I did not expect that.
Just... having a wave right in your face is weird.
I didn't expect the sound.
I don't know why. But I didn't expect the sound.
[deep, rumbling waves]
There is one slight catch, of course:
there’s not too much usually visible in the Baltic Sea.
It’s not crystal-clear Caribbean water on the best of days,
and today all those waves are churning up the ocean bed as well.
So if you were hoping that sharks
or huge schools of tropical fish would swim by,
you’re going to be disappointed.
You might get a couple of curious flounders,
or a few jellyfish passing by.
The novelty is being on
what is, to be fair, an actual short diving expedition
without needing scuba equipment or a wetsuit.
But the folks here were worried that people might be disappointed if
they didn’t see anything...
so they actually close the shutters and show a 3D film.
If the goal was “see the ocean floor”,
well, you could do that without the chamber and all the fancy mechanisms:
you could set down a few big walls with thick windows in them,
pump the water out, and just have a regular viewing gallery
that you could stand in.
But that’s not as cool.
It is a little unnerving seeing the ocean rise around you,
out of your control,
and it’s also a bit reassuring to surface again into the sunshine.
Because in the end, it’s not about the fish.
It’s about the experience.