Nurnberg and the Main-Danube Canal

Friday, September 18

We crossed the continental (watershed) divide overnight. No longer are we on the Danube, which empties into the Black Sea.  From now on, we are traveling on rivers emptying into the North Sea.

Shortly after we left Regensburg, we had entered the Main-Danube Canal, and we had gone through 12 more locks by the time we reached Nurnberg. 

Midmorning we had a local historian provide a briefing on the history of various attempts to build the canal and lots of information on the canal that exists today.  This was particularly timely since we will travel on the canal for 2 days.  

Now that we are on the other side of the divide, we will be descending at each lock, no longer climbing.  It is a very different feel.  We sail into our narrow slot and can see the river and land below us.  We ride the water level down and sail on.

Just after our briefing, we entered one of three tall locks we would encounter--in each, we would descend 25 meters (or 81 feet).  That's quite a drop and requires some pretty crafty engineering.  We were able to see almost immediately some of the process we'd just heard about put into action.

This gives you an idea of how we fit into the locks:

Here we are at the beginning and end of our first 81-foot descent:

After this excitement, we had yet another taste of Bavaria.  We had a special Bavarian lunch buffet, including Weisswurst, curry wurst, and smoked sausage, dumplings, potatoes, and spaetzle.  The crew apparently wanted to make sure we knew we were in Bavaria.  I don't think it was lost on us.  It's all about the wurst.  (And the beer.  According to our presenter of the previous day, Bavarians have the highest per capita beer consumption in the world.)

By early afternoon, we left the ship in Roth, where we boarded a bus for the 40-minute drive to Nurnberg. We got a tour of the city walls and the dry moat surrounding them.  There are numerous medieval towers still intact as well.  We also visited the Imperial Castle, from which we had some good views to the city below.

Though Nurnberg suffered significant damage during WWII, an amazing amount of their medieval past has remained.  Today it is a city that is an interesting combination of both modern and historical elements.

One of the rampart towers:

In the old medieval heart of the city.

Views of and from the castle:

Then we visited the Market Square, where there were rows and rows of booths, selling souvenirs and household items.  On the way into town, the bus had dropped Chuck at the train museum.  He made his way to the market area and hooked up with us again.

After a coffee and pastry break, Jerry and I visited Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), which had the  market booths at its front door and which was sporting what looked like a brand new pipe organ.

Meanwhile, the Impression  had moved from Roth to the Port of Nurnberg, which is where we rejoined it.  We got back around 5:30pm and immediately sailed on down the Main-Danube Canal.  Many more locks to come.