River Cruising Water Cooler

[CPT Trips]

@Canal archive I think autocorrect got you. 
Wasn’t Screaming Lord Sutch “credited” with the worst. rock album of all time? IIRC, there were some big names on it . . . don’t ask me who. Now off to travel down a Google rabbit hole in search of the tunes. 

[Canal archive]

He may have but he also stood in the general election to try to become a member of parliament many times. 
He had a so called group - Screaming Lord Such and the Savages.

Its on YouTube.

[notamermaid]

Quite a lot is happening in the tourism industry and river cruising among this, several interesting news items have come up in my searches and next week there is obviously the ITB again, the famous tourism fair in Berlin. I will not be going, too far. Closer to home tourism is also picking up. All promising for this year.

 

Unfortunately, my plan for a short river cruise has not worked out. My travel companion had access to a special deal for a specific date which made the whole adventure cheaper, but it just so happens that I have to work within that short four day river cruise. No chance changing work schedule on this occasion. Which has left me a wee bit disappointed. Perhaps another time...

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

Save the date! Actually, I do not know the exact date yet, but have just seen the announcement that a U-Boot, a genuine submarine, is coming up the Rhine. It will be in April and I will try and find out more details that are hopefully not full of cookies or behind a paywall, to post in the Rhine thread. The submarine is going to the Technik Museum in Speyer. So this is a pre-warning, if you are on your river cruise ship and see a submarine, it is not the result of any drinks you may have had. 😁

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Hope it doesn’t try to submerge.

[Host Jazzbeau]

4 hours ago, notamermaid said:

So this is a pre-warning, if you are on your river cruise ship and see a submarine, it is not the result of any drinks you may have had. 😁

Nor is it Nessie, taking a vacation from Scotland!  😅

[notamermaid]

Just now, Host Jazzbeau said:

Nor is it Nessie, taking a vacation from Scotland!  😅

Well, we did have Moby Dick on holiday in 1966. And, yes, the ones reporting the sighting to the police had to take a blood alcohol test: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_Dick_(Rhine)

 

Some original footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFBGhB-APMs

 

I reckon there will be quite a bit of playing the film music to "Das Boot" during the television coverage of this transport.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Great film.

Believe it or not there are people still searching for Nessie. A few years ago we cruised the Caledonian Canal and overnighted in Urquhart harbour where the searchers are based. Loch Ness when it’s in a bad mood is not the easiest to cruise on.

[Host Jazzbeau]

2 hours ago, Canal archive said:

Great film.

Believe it or not there are people still searching for Nessie. A few years ago we cruised the Caledonian Canal and overnighted in Urquhart harbour where the searchers are based. Loch Ness when it’s in a bad mood is not the easiest to cruise on.

On our cruise of Loch Ness the mist was so thick that the captain had no trouble assuring us he was tracking Nessie from the bridge!  So, in the same way that our guide in Costa Rica assured us we had seen 50 different bird species on our one-hour walk: I have 'seen' Nessie!  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!!!

[sharkster77]

5 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

On our cruise of Loch Ness the mist was so thick that the captain had no trouble assuring us he was tracking Nessie from the bridge!  So, in the same way that our guide in Costa Rica assured us we had seen 50 different bird species on our one-hour walk: I have 'seen' Nessie!  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!!!

On our cruise, dear wife swore these ripples were from the wake of the boat, but I am convinced it was the second photo:

Edited March 7, 2023 by sharkster77

[notamermaid]

Just now, Canal archive said:

A few years ago we cruised the Caledonian Canal and overnighted in Urquhart harbour where the searchers are based.

Would love to see that, especially the castle there, love it. I fell in love with the green pastures and sheep of the lowlands when I was ten through photos in a school project, went to England for the first time in my teens but only managed to get to Scotland for the first time in my thirties.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Canal archive]

 

Loch Ness on our return Urguhart castle around the headland on the port side. No sign of Nessie but the hole in the cloud makes the square patch of sunlight.

[notamermaid]

Schnee!! 😊 The afternoon rain turned into snow during the night, I saw a tiny glimpse of it. Enough to make me happy even it is all gone already. A couple of river cruise ships that are sailing to their embarkation ports now may have even had some flakes dropping onto the sun deck during the night. Above 300m it is still cold today so the snow may be staying there for a bit. Overall the ground is too warm in the valleys in the west of Germany though.

 

My tourism board for Rhineland-Palatinate is busy at the ITB in Berlin. Saw the footage on telly. Nice stalls. Yes, we want more tourists to come! Who wouldn't? 😉 They bring money. But for me it is also time to speak some more English again, I am a bit starved of interesting conversations in person. My last British tourist that I met in a business capacity was from Scotland, some time in November I think.

 

Talking of tourists: I was a bit surprised to hear Dutch quite a bit in Cochem on the Moselle. Even in the winter on grey days they come to the Moselle apparently. I can understand it, for me the river always has appeal. Not necessarily Cochem but in general certainly. Oh, and Piesport was the focus of the report from the ITB. That is a wine village close to Traben-Trarbach. Must have a look at that place on a nice sunny day this year.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[Canal archive]

We’ve actually had about a generous sprinkle of snow now turning to sleet and rain we needed it as it’s been the driest start to a year that I can remember.

[gnome12]

We had between 20 and 30 cm last Friday night and into Saturday, including thundersnow which is thunder and lightning during a snowstorm. Despite a fair bit of melting (most days since have been above freezing), I was out this morning and there are huge mounds of snow on local streets. Spring is definitely not in a hurry to arrive. 

[Daisi]

@gnome12, we didnt' get the thundersnow, but I heard that up in the city they have had over 300cm of snow so far this year. I think we have at least that much if not more. Our poor ducks have to fly out of the creek, the snowbanks are so high along them. We have a small path shoveled (more to drain water from the house than for them to walk on) and have been laughing at them slipping down the sides to get on it. Our squirrels have so many tunnels in the snow in the back yard, it's like the old "Wack-A-Mole" game watching them pop up and down.  I did notice yesterday that our bird bath has surfaced (at least the rim) so the snow is slowly dropping.

[Canal archive]

We’ve gained a squirrel but it’s a grey whos building a drey in a tree at the end of the garden but the Magpies are trying to take it over as a nest and one of our neighbours cats, when the weather is okay sits on a dilapidated shed hoping to catch something.

 

 

Stealing from the bird feeder.

 

 

[notamermaid]

3 hours ago, Canal archive said:

We’ve actually had about a generous sprinkle of snow now turning to sleet and rain we needed it as it’s been the driest start to a year that I can remember.

Yes, it was too dry here as well. All change. The puddles are massive today. I saw footage of Alnwick Castle in snow. Lovely.

 

When I was Nickenich it was a warm spell and I actually saw a butterfly (photo coming up in the Rhine thread). Nothing flying today, not even the magpies, but I did hear birds, the ones that do not leave us in winter.

 

While the temperatures are set to rise, it may only be an interlude. Spring not yet in the vicinity.

 

During the afternoon I happened to spot the Excellence Coral in the Koblenz webcam. She sails for a Swiss company. Ships are definitely out and about now, one after the other leaving Cologne Niehl harbour sailing to their embarkation ports.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

The Wilhelm Tell has got a problem, she cannot return home. This beautiful old vessel, a steam ship, has been decommissioned, if that is the word, and is no longer allowed to sail under its own steam, i.e. engine. It has been a restaurant ship on the Vierwaldstättersee - Lake Lucerne - for decades but went into a shipyard for overhaul. As the ship can no longer sail another boat needs to push it across the lake. A storm warning prevented the procedure yesterday and this morning after initial preparations they stopped with it. Here is the MS Wilhelm Tell ready to leave, but now she has to stay in the shipyard till tomorrow: https://www.luzernerzeitung.ch/zentralschweiz/stadt-region-luzern/vierwaldstaettersee-raddampfer-wilhelm-tell-rueckfahrt-musste-abgebrochen-werden-ld.2427486

 

It is quite windy down there in the South of Germany and in Switzerland. Lake Constance by the way is so big that it has its own storm warning "gauge" as it reacts much more than the Rhine itself.

 

I love those steamships in Switzerland and on Lake Constance. Sadly we have no real steamers left on the Rhine. The "MS Goethe" is a paddle wheeler without steam.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Canal archive]

Yes it’s the boiler that goes, they cost so much to keep in tip top condition it can become prohibitive to keep any steam engine working.

[notamermaid]

About the U-Boot: found the info! https://www.technik-museum.de/en/u17

 

It starts its journey on 28th April in Kiel.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Love the head line. We’re going to have to do the Bordeaux cruise again just as an excuse to see the Luminaire in what used to be the U-boat pens.

This is some of what was left in 2016. 

[Canal archive]

Do be careful where you use your mobile phone the mounted police may get you!

 

Mounted police ride after driver holding his phone https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-64982398

[notamermaid]

I find the sight of policemen on horses quite odd, we do not have them around where I am. Not such a custom in Germany in towns. Not sure when I last saw a mounted officer. Checked it and now I know why I hardly ever see one - Rhineland-Palatinate does not have any police horses, but some other states do.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Canal archive]

Across the country we have quite a few forces with equestrian units there very useful superbly trained and actually a reassuring presence.