River Cruising Water Cooler

[Daisi]

I believe there are mounted officers in Toronto, and I know of one in Halifax. There are probably more in various cities around. Our national police force (RCMP, they cover all areas that aren't big enough to have their own provincial or local police force) only use the horses for tourism, although if they catch you doing something, they are police!

[gnome12]

25 minutes ago, Daisi said:

I believe there are mounted officers in Toronto, and I know of one in Halifax. There are probably more in various cities around. Our national police force (RCMP, they cover all areas that aren't big enough to have their own provincial or local police force) only use the horses for tourism, although if they catch you doing something, they are police!

You are correct Daisi; we have a mounted unit in Toronto. From the Toronto Police Service website:

Mounted officers are responsible for patrolling city streets in a crime prevention and enforcement role as well as responding for crowd management. The officers and horses are engaged in constant training to ensure they are ready to provide a calm and steady presence in the city where and when needed.

[Host Jazzbeau]

2 hours ago, gnome12 said:

You are correct Daisi; we have a mounted unit in Toronto.

Who can forget Dudley Doright!!!

[notamermaid]

It is Spring and the daffodils are in bloom, the hyacinths in a garden nearby are doing well and today I have seen the first lovely white-pink magnolia tree. Not sure if that is the reason but I feel like having a bit of "fun with water" in the shape of a quiz. So here is it, a bit cryptic as it crosses a language barrier, what could I mean when I say banana lock? It is not what google suggests... 😁

 

Talk to you tomorrow.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Wings55]

40 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Who can forget Dudley Doright!!!

i was always partial to his girlfriend, Nell. 😉

[gnome12]

43 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Who can forget Dudley Doright!!!

Dudley Do-Right was not Toronto Police. He was a Mountie (although not clear whether Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) or North-West Mounted Police. According to Wikipedia, the RCMP was created in 1920 as a merger of the Royal North-West Mounted Police and the Dominion Police.

[Daisi]

@Host Jazzbeau & @Wings55, had to Google that one, I had no idea who it was. 🙂  Guess that's a more American show.

 

@gnome12 I think Ottawa borrowed some of your finest last winter. I know when we got to PEI, the RCMP wander around Charlottetown with the horses for tourist pics, and of course we have the Musical Ride at fairs etc, but that's about the only time I've seen horses on the streets. Mind you, we don't get into the cities to often.

 

[Canal archive]

Notamermaid there is a European lock with a definite bend in it but I can’t remember where it is. 

[Canal archive]

Poor Police horse injured by a dog whilst on duty. 
 

https://news.sky.com/story/police-horse-on-patrol-in-east-london-park-wounded-in-dog-attack-12841094

[notamermaid]

20 hours ago, Canal archive said:

Notamermaid there is a European lock with a definite bend in it but I can’t remember where it is. 

Correct. Well done! It is the Bananenschleuse Kostheim on the Main. It is called Kostheim but is actually at Ginsheim-Gustavsburg in Hesse and is the last of the Main locks before the river's mouth. A photo of the area: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staustufe_Kostheim#/media/Datei:Mainz-Kostheim_Mainstaustufe_2012-07-08-20-40-00.jpg

The shape: http://wikimapia.org/9595845/de/Schleuse-Mainz-Kostheim

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

I knew there was a reason for taking notice of locks.

[notamermaid]

3 hours ago, Canal archive said:

I knew there was a reason for taking notice of locks.

Never used to really, only got into the the topic on my river cruise. It is a bit like "not much to it, basically a trough with a gate at each end". Along comes a lock expert and says, "well no actually, because some have two gates and/or two troughs" - and you are pulled right into the topic. We have talked on CC about the flights of locks and now the banana lock. Some locks have two chambers of equal size, some have three chambers of vastly varying size, etc. For the technical minded (not me) there is so much to see, like the biggest chamber, the oldest lock, the highest gate, the largest drop in height, etc.

 

And then there are the technical details of the connected dams and the hydro-electric power plants.

(Sniippp!)

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Canal archive]

 

The 16 locks of Caen Hill near Devizes in Wiltshire derelict from 1952.

 

 

Caen Hill restored by 1990 now a scheduled ancient monument. In the middle of the 29 locks of the Devizes flight. Hard work to go up or down and the time depends on the number and how good your crew are.

[notamermaid]

Oh and there is the lock in a tunnel - sort of at one end - on the Lahn river. The "triple-tunneled mountain" at Weilburg. They have a road, a railway and a shipping lane going under the mountain which is (no surprise!!) topped by an edifice (hence "Burg") that is a magnificent palace (the earlier castle was demolished). The river runs round the mountain. I would love to see that, have not consciously been there, perhaps in early childhood, though. I have been to the Lahn plenty of times in the last twenty years, but not Weilburg.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weilburger_Schifffahrtstunnel#/media/Datei:Zeichnung_Weilburger_Schiffstunnel_1.svg

 

Lahn shipping is of no commercial importance these days really, but the river is used by excursion boats and canoes, etc.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

In Scotland there is a lock under a road they had to build a new road to a hospital and to save having a lift bridge to stop traffic the lock was put under the new road - interesting travelling through that one.

[notamermaid]

Yes, that sounds an odd sight. Great what solutions all those engineers find for problems. The Dutch are masters of lift bridges it seems, but I have seen a couple in Belgium and Northern France as well. I mean those that have a balanced weight. I thought this is some cantilever but according to Wikipedia one of those that I have in mind is called a bascule bridge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bascule_bridge

 

Around where I am we normally just have bridges that are high enough or ferries.

 

I have been on the Tees Transporter Bridge - weird and fascinating. Normally I would just link to a text, but this gentleman with regional accent made me chuckle, I can understand that in a steel town getting a Scottish company to build this masterpiece is a little embarrassing: https://www.middlesbrough.gov.uk/parking-roads-and-footpaths/tees-transporter-bridge

 

Sadly, there is quite a bit of repair that needs to be done on it.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

 

Bordeaux road bridge.
 

 

Bordeaux bridge open for tall ships and sea cruise ships.

 

The transporter bridge is fantastic but I think just a little scary.

[notamermaid]

Have found this today, Texas German names and connections: https://www.german-way.com/texas-german-names-and-connections/

 

Never knew there are so many.

 

notamermaid

 

[Wings55]

@notamermaid Yes, indeed there is a lot of German heritage here in Texas. We have some good German style beer and lots of great food too. Mmmmm....!!! ☺️

[notamermaid]

Talking of food. It is Spring, time for fresh herbs. Do you use wild garlic where you are in your countries? We call this Bärlauch and greengrocers stock it. Have heard that it is also used for making pesto sauce. Never tried that. Will probably make creamy wild garlic soup when I have got time.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Near Dundas towards Bath there is quite a steep slope down from the road to the canal and for quite some length it is covered in wild garlic, only accessible by boat.

[Daisi]

Wild garlic is quite common around here, but we have to wait a couple of months for the snow to melt. 🙂

 

[notamermaid]

Thanks for the responses. It is interesting how some things grow somewhere else and are used and some not. Cranberries we hardly use for example. Partly because we have our European Preiselbeere which is similarly tart and used to accompany savoury foods. Tonight I went for British and made beef pie.

 

I have been a bit busy reporting on water levels and all sorts of news on the other threads. Some time in between that I realized that my anniversary is coming up - the 10th anniversary of my river cruise! Still have not been on another one since. Something always seems to get in the way. Perhaps I can be on the river to celebrate just for an hour this week. Or even just a ferry for ten minutes.

 

Will not send a message from onboard as my smartphone is still not working. And I am quite happy without that machine doing smart things apart from being a simple phone.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Some years ago we went to Venice, beautiful city, my DH said he’d take me on a Gondola, yes he did - the ferry across the Grand Canal not the same but nearly there. I’m sure you’ll get your river cruise one way or another.

[Host Jazzbeau]

41 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

Some years ago we went to Venice, beautiful city, my DH said he’d take me on a Gondola, yes he did - the ferry across the Grand Canal not the same but nearly there. I’m sure you’ll get your river cruise one way or another.

 

Your DH sounds like the guy in this cartoon 😅