Thomas Pannkoke

Grown up in North Germany, his first contact to tourism dates back to the mid 1980’s, when he was guiding youth groups between the twin towns of Yvetot (Normandy), Lanark (Scotland) and Hemmingen (near Hannover). Later, he became a bachelor of tourism and kept connected to his university in Passau organising student’s group travel as well as planning scientific excursions for university professors and high school teachers on a free-lance base until today. His first contact with Noble Caledonia was in 1996, guiding coach extensions of their Danube river cruises to Bohemia and Berlin. After ten years in coach guiding business for different companies he rearranged his interest closer to the three rivers of Passau and he started again to work for Noble Caledonia on the Danube as their Cruise Director and Tour Manager on several different ships. Today he is an expert on the Middle European river systems of Rhine-Main-Danube-Moselle and Elbe-Moldau-Oder, but has also made his experiences on rivers of France, Portugal and Italy as well as in the USA. After ten years on river ships he became attracted to seagoing ships and so his focus enlarged widely. On the seas, he travelled South America, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Baltic Sea for Noble Caledonia but certainly has one favourite: the Adriatic Sea. He still likes to guide themed land-trips, especially in Germany, the Alps region, Scotland and Czech Republic, and very much likes to work on vintage trains.

But his passion was and is – for water!