River Cruisers: How Are Things Where YOU Are?

[Host Jazzbeau]

If you do make it into Alsace, would you be able to get back to Germany without quarantining?

[steamboats]

2 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Can we expect another report when you come back?

 Of course... I will post photos on IG throughout the cruise and there will be an extense photo review after the cruise.

 

steamboats

[steamboats]

1 hour ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

If you do make it into Alsace, would you be able to get back to Germany without quarantining?

 Strasbourg is just over the bridge... The ship stops at Kehl on the German side. Currently there's no travel warning for Strasbourg. Therefore no quarantine yet. As we do have port stops on the way downriver to Cologne they (the ship) won't allow us to visit Strasbourg. Otherwise we would have to quarantine onboard (hmm, sounds like a plan 😂).

 

steamboats

[Canal archive]

Have a great cruise steamboats, in some of our hospitals they are still using fax machines as well as pagers, evidently that is now going to be changed. Luckily we are heading to the east of Scotland the restrictions are being extended on the west. CA

[djh1959]

Thanks for the cheer up posts Canal Archive and notamermaid.  I'm sure we will get through this, it is just depressing to be so locked down when the rest of the world is opening up, and they are in a far worse state than us.

 

Virtually all of our cases are in aged care and health care, not simply out in the community.  The problem is of course, that it is so hard to lock them away.

 

Canal archive, one of my cousins in England has only just been let out.  She has severe lung disease, amongst other things, so it was obviously too dangerous for her.  My mother is in the same situation here.

 

Steamboats, looking forward to your review, anything to cheer us up.  What a shame if you don't get to Strasbourg, we loved it there last year, although living in Germany you can probably go at any time, if this business wasn't happening.

[Lois R]

20 hours ago, steamboats said:

Kids are back to school tomorrow and have to wear masks this and next week (then a new decision is made).

 

Numbers are higher than they have been but still not as steep as in Spain or France. I´m off for a river cruise tomorrow on the AmaKristina out of Cologne. I´ll wait and see whether we go upriver to Kehl to visit Strasbourg or not. The French government has declared status orange for Strasbourg and they are close to red. So far we Germans do not have a travel warning but this can change daily. We have to wait and see.

 

steamboats

Steamboats, wishing you a wonderful cruise and looking forward to reading your review🙂

[notamermaid]

My state Rhineland-Palatinate will ease restrictions from next week. I have not looked up the details but it looks better for large scale events. Christmas markets may still happen, depending on town and organisational possibilities. And the weather is great for the middle of September. Was looking forward to a trip to Alsace, but that is out again. In with the plan for another short trip to Würzburg... now that is out as well as cases have risen too much there. Next plan: ship in Traben-Trarbach. That is out, I am too scared after the outbreak on the Portuguese ship. Next plan: the Saarland close to Lorraine in France. Will see how that works out.

 

Meanwhile, news has come in from Garmisch-Partenkirchen. An American 26-year-old woman has caused a super spreader event through partying. It is not clear yet if she broke quarantine rules. Apparently she has come in from the US recently and stayed on an army base where now 23 people have tested positive. It could result in tighter restrictions for the town. I expect the population to be a teensy weensy bit annoyed. If she has broken the rules I hope a hefty fine is in order.  

Military news partly confirms the story I have read: https://www.stripes.com/news/europe/edelweiss-to-close-after-getting-blame-for-virus-spread-in-garmisch-1.644837

 

Work is going fine and my neighbour's cats are enjoying the fine weather even more than me.

 

Würzburg, more on my trip in another post.

 

notamermaid

 

Edited September 12, 2020 by notamermaid
Added info

[Daisi]

It's amazing just how quickly the virus can spread.  I heard of a party of 10 people went to a cottage, one had the virus, now 40 are infected.

 

There was a foreign student come to PEI in July for school.  He didn't follow the quarantine rules, was fined 2x, then they put him in jail on the 22 of July....and released him earlier this week.  I guess he quaranined!  I am just wondering how it's going to go over with our customs guys next time he comes back and gets asked if he ever had any problems with the police.  Breaking federal rules just may not go down well. 

 

 

[KathyK13]

8 hours ago, Daisi said:

It's amazing just how quickly the virus can spread.  I heard of a party of 10 people went to a cottage, one had the virus, now 40 are infected.

 

There was a foreign student come to PEI in July for school.  He didn't follow the quarantine rules, was fined 2x, then they put him in jail on the 22 of July....and released him earlier this week.  I guess he quaranined!  I am just wondering how it's going to go over with our customs guys next time he comes back and gets asked if he ever had any problems with the police.  Breaking federal rules just may not go down well. 

 

 

I wish the US was as strict with quarantine rules as Canada is.  There was a story today about a college student in Ohio who had tested positive and 'quarantined' in he house he rents with other students.  They had friends over.  Needless to say, more are now infected.  I live in the Finger Lakes region of NY and our numbers have been pretty low for the last month, with masks and social distancing required.  There was a spike last week from some people attending a church.  The minister was interviewed and he said they didn't know how people got sick; they 'can wash their hands when they come to church and can wear a mask 'if they want to'.  Not hard to figure that one out!

 

[ural guy]

That's a terrible set of decisions the women made.  Quick trip to Greece, return to Garmisch, gets tested/showing symptoms (the order of this is not clear, Notamermaid, is testing a requirement when returning to Germany?), was supposed to quarantine and didn't, hits the bars.

 

37 positives when article was written, bars closed, Edelweiss closed (Army recreation center, nice hotel/restaurant complex, also some cabins).  It 'appears', and I could be very wrong, that she was employed at Edelweiss.  My daughter applied for an internship there, they look for US younger people, right out of college, to work in the hospitality industry.  They have a dorm set up for them.

 

My daughter stayed in one of the cabins with us once, and was excited for the opportunity, but wasn't selected.  One of the big perks of the program was you could arrange your schedule for travel opportunities!

Garmisch/that region, is beautiful, I can't overstate how amazing it is.  I learned how to ski there (winter olympics of 1936 held there).  I was terrible, almost ended our marriage quickly as wife tried to teach me,  wound up following a class of maybe 4/5 yr old kids, and slowly picked it up.

 

Hope they can get this locked down.  Beyond selfish behavior....

Edited September 13, 2020 by ural guy
poor spelling

[notamermaid]

ural guy,

had not read about that trip to Greece. No, no quarantine from Greece into Germany as of now, just a test if one feels the need. If cases continue to go up in Greece that might change. Tests are available relatively quickly. No excuse saying "no testing near me" (not implying that she used that excuse), test always recommended when feeling "off" in covid-19 typical way, especially when no flu season - recommendation from our health experts. "Ein zweites Ischgl" is coined Coronavirus hotspot panic phrase in Germany - everybody wants to avoid a second Ischgl scenario. Looks like Garmisch-Partenkirchen has got close to that - on a very small scale though. Hope it is contained. Much work for the authorities, for sure. Fines for breaking quarantine or violation of other connected rules by the way can be several thousand euros.

 

Something I did not know: if you breach the quarantine imposed by the authorities after you have tested positive you can go to jail in Germany as well. Brutal stuff, but the law says clearly that the health of society is more important than your personal freedom.

 

notamermaid

 

[Lois R]

Unfortunately, these stories about the selfish people will just continue to happen.  These folks act like nothing matters except their own lives.

All about "me, me and me"👎☹️.  What does that say? I can't get graphic on here but to make

it simple, they just don't care.  Whether it be on college campuses, which seem to say they have no accountability,

to that group of 10----it just continues to spread. I still don't get it.  People, the science is the science!😲

[Coral]

On 9/7/2020 at 1:54 PM, Canal archive said:

Have a great cruise steamboats, in some of our hospitals they are still using fax machines as well as pagers, evidently that is now going to be changed. Luckily we are heading to the east of Scotland the restrictions are being extended on the west. CA

Pagers are common in the US in hospitals still. There is a reason why. They are not as affected by interference (lack of service) that cell services have in some areas where there is equipment that causes the interference. 

 

Most places have moved to fax servers but faxes (either faxes or fax serves) are still common for secure transmission of medical information where email may not be. I know if a doctor wants to send me results, he can't email me, he has to fax me the info. Though now a lot of the info is in patient portals on online charts - I have still had doctors fax me results.

Edited September 13, 2020 by Coral

[Coral]

I work in HigherEd in the Midwest where cases are surging. Our classes are either in session or hybrid (depending on class). This past week we (our county) posted our highest numbers of the entire year.

 

While we have not tested all students, those participated in sports were tested and many who tested positive were asymptomatic. Also dorms seems to be super spreader places.

 

Needless to say, several of us do not feel safe going to work.

[ural guy]

Notamermaid-  Spouse is up, so I had to brief her, prior to my reading your response.

 

We both agreed that prison is a reasonable outcome for violating quarantine, so no, not brutal in my book.

 

From the story, this makes it worse; she felt ill at the test station and was 'asked' to remain in quarantine.

 

“The lady had symptoms, was with us at the test station and was asked to remain in quarantine because of the symptoms. But she didn't do that, ”said the district administration's spokesman, Stephan Scharf, on Saturday. The 26-year-old had just returned from a vacation in Greece. Whether she was infected on the trip or afterwards in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, that is unclear. “We don't know where it was infected,” says Scharf. He corrected his previous information that it was a tourist who had come from the USA. There was a "transmission problem" within the authority. The woman is an American, but lives in the community and is not a vacationer.

 

https://www.welt.de/vermischtes/article215594552/Coronavirus-US-Buergerin-als-Superspreaderin-in-Garmisch.html

 

 

[notamermaid]

ural guy,

Thanks for the clarification. So the authorities mentioned her nationality only for the purpose of making it potentially clearer for people with coming forward, i.e. "yes, I met the American woman at xy bar/disco". From what I have read, the army base at Grafenwöhr is at higher alert as regards hygiene and vigilance. Seeing that the young woman did not leave quarantine after her result, but before, means she could get away with a 2,000 euro fine (the set figure - but she is not registered with the court yet, health authorities are "contemplating" her misdemeanour). Will see, but politicians demand that "an example is set". What is decided is the early closure for bars at 10pm and maximum number of people allowed indoors down to five. Not everyone in Garmisch-Partenkirchen has been infected by her, but she as a single person has pushed the town of 26,000 over the incidence limit. Economic damage most likely thousands of euros, physical discomfort to others - for her conscience sake as well as for the ill people I can only hope it will be minor. If I was her I would bow my head in shame and keep a low profile for the rest of the year.

 

On a happier note: plans for Koblenz Christmas market are still going ahead, it may well be moved out of the old town to the Palace grounds (there is much more space). What is new this year is a "Christmas Garden" at the fortress, it sounds like a walk-through illuminations experience. That could be really magical...

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

An update on Garmisch-Partenkirchen as this is an interesting case: the young woman is US-American but as she belongs to the base community it seems she falls under German jurisdiction as a NATO troops status applies, if the German authorities wish to exercise their right. They do and have opened a case. She is being investigated under the offense "fahrlässige Körperverletzung" which is bodily harm resulting from negligence (i.e. without intent). This can be punished with either a high fine or up to three years in prison. 700 (!) people have run to the testing centre over the weekend, many of them young people. In addition to direct punishment the idea of "Schadensersatzforderung" hangs in the air, which means the young lady might have to contribute to loss of revenues or possibly part payment of the tests for other people, etc. Results of the tests yet to come in, we already know that 24 people connected with her workplace are positive, now will need to see how many in the wider community have got it.

 

Herr Söder of Bavaria gives the impression of being rather annoyed. Understandable. This is a report from Bavarian news channel: https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/staatsanwaltschaft-ermittelt-gegen-garmischer-superspreaderin,SAZ9Xaj

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Well so far thank you Scotland, social distancing, face masks all working well absolutely no problem and Saturday and Sunday were so busy Scots getting out and about you would not believe the number of motorbikes (very nice ones I must say) and motorhomes out on the roads. The weather is sublime but of course no cruising. CA

[ural guy]

Canal archive-  best of safe travels to you.  Just finished rewatching Hamish Macbeth which gets us thinking that a return to Scotland is order, especially while the niece is still in Glasgow.

[notamermaid]

17 hours ago, Canal archive said:

Well so far thank you Scotland, social distancing, face masks all working well absolutely no problem and Saturday and Sunday were so busy Scots getting out and about you would not believe the number of motorbikes (very nice ones I must say) and motorhomes out on the roads. The weather is sublime but of course no cruising. CA

Good to hear. I am sure this trip will do you a lot of good. Are you avoiding the big cities? Last year, I went to Edinburgh for the first time. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

Avoid Birmingham on your trip back down South. Safe travels.

 

notamermaid

 

[franski]

It has just been announced that the Canada/US border will remain closed until October 21st.  There is speculation, however,  that it most likely will stay closed until November - and perhaps not reopen until next year. 

 

Fran

[Canal archive]

But evidently stuff is still getting through! My Aunt on Vancouver island says the sky’s are clogged with smoke from the USA wildfires. Not good for everyone.

in Scotland the rain of yesterday has passed and today so far is overcast. The wildlife was not daunted by the weather and put on quite a show. We’re not going to Edinburgh or Aberdeen this year and will sneak through the midlands on our way home. Keep busy all then the time till the next cruise will come all the quicker. CA

[gnome12]

1 hour ago, Canal archive said:

But evidently stuff is still getting through! My Aunt on Vancouver island says the sky’s are clogged with smoke from the USA wildfires. Not good for everyone.

 

Smoke has actually got as far as Ottawa.

[notamermaid]

14 minutes ago, gnome12 said:

Smoke has actually got as far as Ottawa.

Our regional weather forecast last week said that the sky was a bit hazier as particles from the wildfires had travelled high into the atmosphere over Europe. Scarily reminded me of the reports of the "Year without Summer" in 1816. Will not come to that next year I should think, but the effect will be felt in air quality in America - a few places like Seattle already in the dangerous to health zone I believe. Saw last night on telly that there is such a detailed map website for the world - do not recall the name. Covid and smoke for lungs - makes you wonder if a river cruise might not be safer. Even a 100 people yacht out of Los Angeles. Would need quite a few yachts to get all of you river cruising friends out ...

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

@jpalbny

I made it to Würzburg! On a few hot days in August a trip took me to Würzburg, Markt Neubrunn, Randersacker, the Taubertal and Lohr on the Main. Of Würzburg I had only vague memories of me as a child standing in front of this huge building, so when I got to the Residenz I thought: "Yes, that was the one!" It is massive. And the souvenir shop has some nice quality stuff, too. It was hot, but it was not crowded. Still, after two hours of walking and escaping the heat in a café, a trip to the village of Randersacker nearby was in order. Here are the regulations for the Residenz:

 

This is the "tasting tree" (help yourself to fruit) in Randersacker:

 

And to make you really envious, here is my well-earned beer in the evening:

 

Only a small glass, so I had room for a glass of local wine with the meal in a nice restaurant.

 

Also enjoyed the other villages and Lohr. Certainly would visit the area again.

 

Now, need to organize a hotel in the Saarland.

 

Byeee.

 

notamermaid