Main River Days

One of the fun things about a river cruise is that you wake up in a different place each morning.  So far on the ship, we woke on the first morning in Amsterdam, we woke on the second morning cruising up the Rhine River towards Cologne, where we stopped just after lunch.  On the third morning we woke  at Boppard, in the Rhine gorge and on our walking tour after breakfast, church bells were ringing at a couple of churches, because it was Sunday.  On the fourth morning we woke in Frankfurt and on the fifth morning we woke in Mittenburg, a delightful town with great decorations on the stone and half timbered houses (with shops below). On the sixth morning we woke in Wuzburg, and on the seventh morning we woke in Bamberg (here) on our second ship, the River Princess.  Our week on the river cruise has been busy but enjoyable; eating in the restaurant looking out full length windows into the forsets and fields and town along the Maine River is quite enchanting.  Sailing to Wazburg we had an outdoor concert on the deck; really fun with songs from many European countries.    

Because of the flooding two weeks ago, many cruise ships were stuck for various reasons and our ships, River Duchess could not make it over the locks connecting the Danube with the Main.  While we visited Rathensburg yesterday, our luggage was transferred from the River Queen in Wazburg to the River Princess in Bamberg.  The people coming west had to drive about 6 hours on a bus to get from where they had made it to on the Danube to the River Queen.  We are all thankful that Uniworld was able to rearrange ships and allow our cruise to continue on schedule, with just this one transfer.  Beginning next week all ships are supposed to be back on their schedules and physically back on track. 

Frankfurt was on the Main River, and we sailed upstream through a series of locks that were built in the  1930's when many other river development projects were also beginning (like TVA).  The river is controlled during floods and kept high during the summer with locks and dams.  Each has a hydropower plant (on left) that produced electricity for the electric trains.  Here is the captain of our first ship River Queen, controlling the ship through a lock (out of view on the right) from the side deck.  

 Mittenburg is a very beautiful bavarian looking town, which has been preserved to the present time.  It is still a very popular place to live, with bakery, butcher, shoes, clothes shops along town; our guide says people shop each day, and go to the farmers market for fruits and vegetables, and once a month go to the large grocery store for staples and canned or frozen The shop signs are very creative- hanging way out into the street, with symbols representing their craft (baker, cobbler).  

Many pastel colored buildings and carved or painted half-timbered designs.

Around every corner are new beautiful sights- just like around the bends in the rivers.