To Nuremberg, 07-08-12

7:21 We've arrived in Nuremberg and are “parked” on one side of the river (I understand we left the Danube overnight and are now on the Main-Danube Canal) with an as-far-as-the-eye-can-see line of other river cruise ships. Some go from Nuremberg to and from Amsterdam, others from Nuremberg to cities east. In any case, there are a lot of them.

9:12 While having breakfast, sitting on the patio forward of the lounge, I was thinking once more of just how incredibly lucky I am. I'm sure, to those who for one reason or another, are unable to travel, I must sound like I'm bragging when I tell of all the wonderful places and sights I've enjoyed on these trips. But it really is similar to pinching myself to convince me that it's real. What, I wonder, is a kid who lived with his parents and a dog in a 14-foot house trailer in Gary, Indiana, doing on a cruise ship in Nuremberg, Germany? As I say, incredible!

When my camera's battery died yesterday, I really felt lost. Now the memories of those places are only in my head; I can't look at them directly again, and because I want to share my adventures with you, I feel I've deprived you, too...a bit presumptive of me, but....

10:12 Took a walk along the shore past several other cruise ships (interesting how many variations there are on a few very basic designs), and spotted, across the canal, the Mississippi Queen, built to resemble a Mississippi river boat complete with smokestacks. Doubt it can go any further upstream, since it would never fit under the bridges. Probably just for local cruising.

Dorien and I (and yes, I do consider us at times to be two different people) had a discussion about laundry. Since it is my money rather than Dorien's, he's happy to spend it like a drunken sailor. I'm a tad more frugal, and after having paid $176.00 for one load of laundry in Cannes last year, I'm a bit cautious. On ship, to wash one pair of socks costs 2 euros—around $3.00; a pair of shorts costs 5 euros—around $7.50. (I have the laundry price list in front of me as I type.) I'd brought a small pill bottle of laundry detergent with me and, when we returned to the ship, proceeded to save ourselves 60 euros...$80 (?) by washing things out in the sink. I've washed out a couple of shirts that way while on the ship, and the problem is that they take forever to dry. I do it right after the steward leaves and hope they're dry so he doesn't have to see them when he comes back at night to make the bed.

12:41 Leaving at 1:30 for the tour of Nuremberg. Had a choice between a city tour and a tour of the locations of the Nuremberg war crimes trials. Would like to have seen both, but remember the trials from movie newsreels at the time. So opted for the city tour.

5:30 Back from tour. A very pretty city with a fascinating past. It looks as old as Regensburg, but the fact is that it was the second most heavily bombed city in Germany during WWII—after Dresden—because of its being a rail hub for most of Germany, and was the prime manufacturer of engines for all Hitler's tanks, submarines, trucks. It was 90% destroyed. Rebuilt as close to the original as possible, and if you didn't know, you wouldn't know. (You did follow that, didn't you?)

8:45 Back from dinner...a little earlier tonight. Have met some really nice people, and perhaps gained a few potential readers, one of whom told me as I left dinner that she had googled me, read some of my blogs, and intended to order one of my books when she got home. That was very kind of her, and of course made me feel good.

We leave Nuremberg at 1a.m. For a twelve hour sail to Bamberg, where once again the ship will drop us off and proceed to Hapsburg, where buses will take us after the city tour of Bamberg. One thing about a river cruise is that you never have to worry about getting bored.

And now to caption and hopefully post photos from Nuremberg. We shall see.

Dorien will be posting frequent blogs during his tour, and putting up accompanying photos on Facebook and Google+. And you're always invited to stop by his website at www.doriengrey.com.