We started the day with an excellent lecture on the Main-Danube Canal, one of Europe’s greatest engineering feats. We had entered it that morning, and were due to go through the first of 16 locks shortly after we left port in the afternoon.
It was fun watching the lecturer transfer ashore with his bicycle following the talk. He had joined us at one lock, given his talk, and was going to cycle 4 miles back to his car home afterwards.
I skipped the trip into town today, and took a time out to relax and read my book.
Once we left port, I went up on the roof, and sat back, watching the countryside go by, as we came up to the first lock.
We had already done 32 locks on the Rhine and the Main, but the 16 on the canal are different, with panels that slide up and down, rather than doors.
As we entered the lock, the captain had to collapse the wheelhouse, and poke his head out to steer in order to get under the panel. The upper lounge had already been folded up.
Going through the 35.7 foot lock…
…with the captain steering from a side panel, with a joy stick, to hopefully keep us from bumping the sides.
The countryside looks quite different from the canal. We’re sailing higher, and on a quiet, constant width waterway.
