A butler's work is never done!!!

The " Alt Stad" of Lohr am Main

The "BUTLER"

Our "Butler" Gerald (Geert) is going up town for some groceries.

Lohr

It is a little difficult to find a marina where we fit in as most marinas can only accommodate  boats around 30 feet.
Some have one longer wall for bigger boats as was the case here in Lohr.

We had a couple of days of really hot weather and I took a dive in the water. At first it felt cool but it was not to bad once I got used to it. As a matter of fact it was quite refreshing.

Swans and Ducks

                           New life

                     A sure sign of spring

Wertheim

 Shortly after our arrival in Wertheim this young man is getting his "Arabian water pipe" ready 

I often have seen them in stores and wanted to find out what they are all about.
So after a full explanation I took a test. Mmm this time he has Cherry flavored tobacco in his pipe.

No it's not what you think and does not give you a high. It is just the way the Arabian's like to smoke by drawing the smoke though a water filled container. If I was a smoker I might want to do it this way!?!?


In exchange for a bottle of "Alo" anything is possible!!!

Erlenbach

 Small village's with "Fachwerk" houses

 Countryside with grain fields which are already turning colour  and soon to be harvested.

And as usually in Germany old castles on the hills.

Old Germany on the Main

 The first 85 Km up the Main are not the prettiest. Lots of industry, just like on most of the Rhine. 

But after  Aschaffenburg (km 85) the scenery changes and industry gives way to pretty villages and beautiful and large old buildings.

From Offenbach to Wertheim

      Monday June 27th and we left from Offenbach under clear sky's and with 30 deg. weather.
This is one of the few times that we could navigate from the bridge.

Erlenbach

We arrived in Erlenbach yesterday. Erlenbach is just over 100 km up the Main which is about 1/3 of the way to Bamberg where we have to take the Main Danube canal . we came through 9 locks and have 25 more to go before reaching Bamberg.

We received a nice comment yesterday from "Anneke". Someone Joanne knew from Holland before immigrating to Canada. We would like to get in contact with her but she left no e-mail address or telephone number to contact her. So Anneke please send this to us on the blog. We have the choice to publish or not to publish so we will not publish your contact information to keep this Private.

Anneke stuur ons aub je e-mail address en of jou telephone nummer. Wij zullen deze niet publizeren voor privѐ redenen.

Our internet connection here is not very good so it will take a long time to post pictures. Hopefully we have better connection at our next stop.

Frankfurt the financial center of Germany and the EU

 One of the things we learned on the tour is that Frankfurt is the financial center for Germany and even for the EU as the European central bank is located in this city.

These two towers (even though you can not see that they are separate towers from the angle the picture was taken) are called (credit and debit)  this is where the EU central bank is located.

On the right the Frankfurt opera house with it's many carvings and statues.

Important visitors in Frankfurt

 The tour we took allowed us to get off and on the bus at strategic stops. This stop was close to the Center of town were the government buildings are located.
Everything was barricaded off and it seemed like all the German police were there to guard the area in front of the buildings.  

After asking a few questions we understood the reason for this high security. The ministers of internal affairs of Germany were getting together in the town hall for a meeting.

Here are just a few of the many delegates.

Frankfurt from the bus

 We boarded a guided bus tour of Frankfurt and took in the sights from the top of this double-decker. The weather had been "off and on" but we enjoyed a good day with no rain.

Here we are crossing one of the bridges over the Main and it is quite different viewing the Main from the bridge rather than  going under the bridge on the Le reve.

Frankfurt walking tour

Here we are in one of the busy streets of Frankfurt with the main rail station in the back ground. We soon got tired of walking around and after having a quick lunch at one of the booth's we looked for a guided  tour on one of the double decker buses.

Frankfurt am Main

We are back......
I know it has been a while since our last posting. That is because we went to Holland with our friend Geert Kleinbleumink. While in Holland we visited our friend Ken who was on his boat in Weesp.
Weesp is close to Schiphol (Amsterdam air port) and as my sister and her husband were coming back from a trip to Canada we showed up unexpectedly to give them a ride back home.

Today (Sunday 26th) we are back on the boat and will be going further up the Main tomorrow. But first I would like to post a few more pictures of our tour of Frankfurt am Main which we took last Tuesday June 21st.
We took the subway to the heart of the city and toured this large financial center of Germany. As soon as we got off the subway we looked for a suitable place to have our morning coffee break. And here we are in  front of the main station (rail/subway) of Frankfurt.

Some more Castles

Castles on this section of the Rhine (Koblenz to Bingen) are plenty full.

Sometime you see two or more from one vantage point.

More Rhine

 The traffic on the Rhine can be very heavy at times with with sometime two coupled together. These can be as long as 180 meters long. (over 500 ft) this is not long as compared to the traffic on the Mississippi but considering the much narrower Rhine with fast current it is quite a length.

Here we met a cruise boat, most likely coming from the Danube.
You see some vineyards in the back ground.

The vineyards on this part of the Rhine are nothing compared to what we saw on the Moselle last year.

Transiting the loreley

One of the sharp narrow bends in the loreley. We are following a cruise boat.

The black board with the white lights (three on top of each other) in the right of the photo lets up stream traffic know what is coming down stream.

The Maiden of the Loreley

July 18th we set out to go through the treacherous section of the  Loreley. But..... not before I talked nice to the Maiden who supposedly has caused so many ship wrecks.  She promised to be good to me and indeed  she was as the traffic was not very heavy and the current much better than I had expected. The later because a couple month drought in Europe.  

St Goar

 Yesterday (June 18) we arrived in St Goar. The last stop before going through the "Loreley"  The narrowest and fastest flowing section of the Rhine. Legend has it that there is a beautiful maiden on the rocks singing to the sailors transiting this part of the Rhine. With her beauty she messmerizes the sailors and they end up crashing on the rocky shore this part of the Rhine is known for.
Hopefully we will be able to keep our eyes on the peeled for the nav. aids and not be distracted so we end up being a victim of the "Loreley maiden" 

We took the bus up the mountain to have a birds eye view of the Loreley. 

Three boats transiting one of the three bends of the Lorreley. the third boat is on the bottom of the picture and you can barely see him

 Here the long double boat on the top of the picture is waiting for the pleasure boat and an other boat coming down.

 You can tell by the prop wash that it takes a lot of power to go through this section of the Rhine.

A view down river from the top of the mountain. 

Castles on the Rhine

The stretch of Rhine from Koblenz to Mains is perhaps the prettiest  part of the Rhine and has many old castles.
Above are but a few of them.

Visit to Horst and Anni Eckstein

We wanted to go and say hello to Horst and Anni Eckstein who we got to know last year. Horst is a wealth of information especially about where to go and where not to go on the German waterways.
After visiting for a while we had to say farewell and we were off.

 I should mention one more German person we met. Hannes Petersohn. When we were ready to start off from Duisburg we could not get the get home engine started. We decided to take off anyway and deal with it some where down the road. Well we ran in to Hannes in Koln and when he mentioned he was a mechanic I asked him if he knew anything about the Nanni engine. As it turned out he did, and got it started for us. when I asked him "how much" he replied  "nothing for Canadians". How about that.? thank you Hannes.

Side trip in Koblenz

After we docked in Koblenz we could not resist to take the dingy and go back up the Moselle to stock up on some fantastic Moselle wine. We ended up in Winnigen at Fries winery. After serious tasting and a tour of the winery we were convinced that this is where we should be stocking up.

Back in Koblenz

After 4 days we are back in Koblenz. This is as far up the Rhine as we made it last year.

This picture is taken from our boat as we pass the "Duitsen Eck" the corner of the Rhine and the Moselle. A freighter is passing us and he is carrying a load of " John Deer" tractors!!! Quite a contrast with the statue of the Duitsen Eck in the back ground.

On the way

Peter is at the controls and I take advantage by having a snooze on the front deck.

 Our last breakfast with Christie Andy and Bo before we shove off to go up the Rhine on our way to Turkey

As we leave Duisburg harbor The Dislich fam. is waving at us from the foot bridge that spans the harbor.

More solar panel pict.

 Here are a few more pict. how the solar panel works in conjunction with the davit (crane)

 For lighter work like raising and lowering the tower and the radar arch we can move the cable to the end of the extension and have a longer reach.

After the dingy is loaded we can swing open the panels again so that they are facing directly to the sun.