Sun 28 Aug 16
There were no church bells this morning to wake us, surprising for a Sunday. Anyway we made it to the wharf in time to board our cruise from Regensburg to our next stop at Passau. Nine and three quarter hours for €36 each - a bargain I think. The cheapest train ticket would cost about €20 and the journey take about one and a half hours.
Most of the passengers seem to be Germans on a day trip. There are no announcements in English but the waiters have enough to understand us and explain the menu. A good selection of food and drinks at reasonable prices.
It is still hot but there is a bit of high cloud and the air has turned hazy.
(I realise this blog is written in mixed tenses (for the retired English teachers reading this), because some of it is written in real time for a sense of immediacy - and so I don't forget things.)
A short distance down river from Regensburg is a very strange place, Walhalla, which I must find out more about. It looks as if it is in the middle of nowhere (at least that is how it appears from the river) but it is huge, a most imposing ediface.
Most of the Europeans are out soaking up the sunshine (and drinking beer) while we are moving around chasing the shade, what little of it there is. The upper deck is entirely open.
A lot of the river banks are lined with rocks and there are many breakwaters extending out to protect the banks from erosion caused by ships' wash.
Most of the towns are behind levee banks. There are "sandy" patches and a lot of people wading in the shallows, fishing and camping. Quite a lot of leisure craft also. Being a Sunday, it must give people the chance to get out and enjoy themselves, especially as the weather is so good. It would probably be a completely different scene on weekdays.
Passengers were getting on and off at the various stops.
This has been a very pleasant journey, not fantastic scenery but enjoyable nonetheless and a chance to relax and give our feet a break from walking around all day on cobblestones.
Germany puts Australia to shame with regard to the use of renewable energy. There are fields with arrays of thousands of solar panels, the houses don't have a few panels, they have the roof covered with them. Travelling down the Rhine valley there were lots of wind turbines visible. Surely Australia could and should be doing better.
There are signs of instability in the clouds on the hills to the North of us. Are we in for a change in the weather? (Relief from the heat?)
Back in the sixties, Stan Freberg wrote a song, "The Danube isn't Blue, it's Green". I can attest to that.
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