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I am utterly hopeless. So I'll try to post all the photos to Facebook and hope for better luck there. I won't hold my breath.
Anyway, here's the blog and the aforementioned ONE Bamberg photo.
Sigh.
7:04 a.m. Up just about an
hour. We are in another lock, with a difference: apparently Europe
has a Continental Divide just as the U.S. does. From the time we left
Budapest, I understand we've gone through more than 60 locks, all
raising us up. The lock we're in now is lowering us. (As I
say, interesting.)
10:41 Lock after lock. We're
waiting in line to pass through the next one. I'm sitting here with a
cup of hot chocolate. And between sentences managed to spill half a
cup of it over my lap. Immediately stripped down, cleaned up as best
I could, realized I have only one clean pair of pants. Hurriedly sent
3 pair of pants off to the laundry opting for the 50 percent
surcharge to get them back in 3 hours. They haven't yet picked up the
laundry bag from the hall, and I'm praying there is no repeat of the
incident.
11:59 We've been passing
through a very large town for 15 minutes or so. No idea what it is.
Preparing to dock.
1:00
Everyone off the ship for city tour of Bambeck, a town of which I
don't recall ever having heard, except for the BambergSymphony
Orchestra. Typical German city, cobblestone streets, relatively
untouched by the war. Tons of people. Tons. Another Viking ship in
town at the same time, heavy on other tourists. The result being that
whenever I wanted to take a picture of something, there were throngs
of people in the way.
Don't
know if they were having a garbage strike or what, but piles of full
plastic garbage bags were piled up in front of buildings. We walked
up to the cathedral...cathedrals seem to favor being built on hills,
to find it closed. More panhandlers than I can recall having seen
anywhere else we've been.
The
City Hall is interesting. Story goes that all the lands were owned by
the Catholic church, and when the people of Bamberg decided they
wanted a city hall, they asked the bishop for land to build it on.
The bishop said “no,” so they built it in the middle of the
river, with a bridge running through it.
On
the way back from the cathedral, Barbara and I stopped at an ice
cream shop where I got a chocolate milkshake. Nice. Barbara's really
a character, and I like her.
It
was another instance where the ship dropped us off and, to save
cruising time, went ahead through several locks—which with busy
river traffic means having to wait in line to get in and out. Buses
picked us up at 5:00 where they'd dropped us off. We didn't get lost
this time, but it took us over an hour and a half to drive to where
the ship was docked along the river bank. Passed through several
small towns and past a huge U.S. army base which, with the Germans
unlikely to rise up again any time soon, and with the Russians not an
imminent threat, has outlived its usefulness and will be closed this
October. What will be done with the base I don't know.
I'm
really getting comfortable with several of the other passengers and
apparently word that I'm a writer has gotten around. At dinner
tonight Pat (who formerly worked for IBM...husband, Terry, a former
golf pro), introduced me to a couple who joined us at our table as
“our resident author.” Kind of embarrassing, but kind of fun.
And
now we're on our way to Wurzberg, where we're scheduled to arrive at
9 a.m.
Oh,
yes, and we've left the Danube/Main canal, and are now on the Main.
(Again I was surprised to realize Europe has a Continental Divide,
until I realized that from Budapest to Regensberg all the locks
lifted the ship, and after Regensberg, they're all lowering us. Ain't
Geography fun?)
Dorien
will be posting frequent blogs while on his current European River
Cruise, and you're also invited to check out his website at www.doriengrey.com.
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