River Cruising Water Cooler

[rcaruso]

35 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

We usually have a bottle of Schnapps in the freezer a hangover (no pun intended) from my husband working for a German company and far to many visits there without me.

There used to be a race every year to see who could get a bottle of Beaujolais Nuevo back to the U.K. from France.

 

36 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

We usually have a bottle of Schnapps in the freezer a hangover (no pun intended) from my husband working for a German company and far to many visits there without me.

There used to be a race every year to see who could get a bottle of Beaujolais Nuevo back to the U.K. from France.

Ah my favorite Thanksgiving wine!!!

[ural guy]

JP-  Yes, I have been able to visit a few times, it is an interesting area.  Better yet, these were spots I visited on my motorcycle trips, and this time was able to share them with spouse.  Comment from Rock City, 'so this is why you go on about the place', yeppers, dear.

 

Very surprising that the Kinzua Sky Walk, which incorporates the portion of the bridge that didn't collapse, is a free attraction.  From their web site "The Kinzua Sky Walk extends out 624 feet into the Kinzua Gorge offering panoramic views. The skywalk features a walkway with a set of railroad tracks leading to the end of the overlook which has a partial glass floor. At a stunning height of 225 feet above the valley floor, visiting the Kinzua Sky Walk is an exciting opportunity to “Walk the Tracks across the Sky.”"

 

 

and the fallen down part.

 

 

 

 

 

[Wings55]

On 9/28/2021 at 12:44 PM, notamermaid said:

Yes, that bottle is taking centre stage, as good drink should. @Wings55 nice to hear that is a good schnaps. From a small town called Ernst, I can see. The place does not have an English website, but does mention having the peaches growing there. The flowers look lovely - and that peach: https://www.ernst-mosel.de/urlaub-und-wein/themen/weinbergspfirsich/

 

I think I will put another peach liqueur bottle on my Christmas wish list.

 

Talking of Christmas: Can I have that chimney breast in the background, please? Or one like it. Really nice. Every year come Christmas I long to have a mantle piece that I can put my cards on. Having a very efficient modern central heating system in an apartment building has its drawbacks. I sometimes think of buying a cheap decorative one just so I can stack things on it and decorate it for winter.

 

notamermaid

 

@notamermaid Thank you for the link. I was able to use a translator to read it in English. I see Ernst is very close to Cochem so I'm sure that's where the bottle was purchased. 

I'm glad you enjoy the fireplace mantle. We like it too but I wish it was a wood burning fireplace rather than one with fake logs and a natural gas flame. It's convenient but I miss a real, crackling fire.  🤷‍♂️

Paul

[notamermaid]

39 minutes ago, Wings55 said:

It's convenient but I miss a real, crackling fire.  🤷‍♂️

Oh, yes a crackling fire is great. But convenience is good, too. It is actually not such a big tradition here, this mantle piece type fire surround. Before central heating, like many other people, we had closed stoves/hearths. We had a gas cooker (very modern in my youth) and a coal-fired tiled stove for heating, while my grandparents had a coal-fired stove for cooking and heating the rooms. Previously people also used cast-iron stoves for small rooms. In my humble surroundings I did not encounter the big Victorian mantle piece in normal housing before I went to Britain for the first time. Fell in love and for a few years now I have put the background videos that you can download on my computer or the television during winter.

 

Talking of Britain: Today is the last day that my ID card is accepted in Britain, from tomorrow I will need a passport. I had completely forgotten about it and will go to the authorities to have one issued - just in case I do embark on the adventure to get there. Right now the Channel seems a massive ocean wide to me. If you watch the news you get the feeling that you need to bring your own petrol in a canister. I am sure it is exaggerated (have not talked to my dear people in Kent yet) but it is not reassuring for my travel companions and me. The longing for chipolota sausages isn't here yet, so I am still fine.

 

I have been doing some day trips recently and have revisited some places as well, so I will come back to one in another post.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Australian border to reopen for first time in pandemic https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-58757888
 

Realy hope this works Australia it will be good to see you all back in greater Europe.

[Canal archive]

The best one was the cars following what they thought was a petrol tanker, which even to my eyes it obviously was not and telling the driver that he should have stopped to tell them he wasn’t carrying petrol. Dahhhh! Utterly and completely stupid there are far more serious problems in this world. Evidently we’re not the only country with a shortage of lorry drivers several countries on the continent of Europe have serious HGV driver shortages we all need to do some serious training or maybe even pay them a decent wage.

 

No queuing in the wilds of Wiltshire. 

Edited October 2, 2021 by Canal archive

[notamermaid]

@KBs mum good to hear. Kent/London are always busy places and the M40/M6 motorways I can imagine might feel it first in a shortage. I tend to avoid going North via Birmingham and take the M11/A1(M) then cutting across via the A66 or through the Peak District, so am not familiar with the very busy M6 (would like to see Spaghetti Junction sometime). Us human beings are a weird bunch and overexcited journalism does not help us in such times...

 

notamermaid 

 

 

[Canal archive]

Notamermaid you are so right about so called reporters. We sailed through spaghetti junction this year on our way north but you are the first person I have ever heard express a wish to do it deliberately. Good luck!

 

The junction is actually built over a much older transport route that is still in use. The Grand Union Canal.

Edited October 2, 2021 by Canal archive

[CPT Trips]

I’ll see your Spaghetti Junction

 

and raise you a Mixing Bowl (just south of Washington DC)

 

Edited October 3, 2021 by CPT Trips

[capriccio]

38 minutes ago, CPT Trips said:

I’ll see your Spaghetti Junction

 

and raise you a Mixing Bowl (just south of Washington DC)

 

Our son now lives north of the mixing bowl (off the road in the top left corner) and our daughter to the west (off the road in the bottom left corner) and we avoid this at all costs even though after living there for 50 years we know the area.   I feel for anyone without local knowledge trying to figure it out while driving 55 - 65 miles per hour.   It has only gotten worse with the confusion added by the High Occupancy Toll Lanes.

 

[Canal archive]

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-the-magic-roundabout-swindon-39686047.html
okay work this one out it’s known as ‘the magic roundabout’ it’s in Swindon, Wiltshire of course and to say the least it’s a real pig. 
 

The only river section I’ve seen with just a bit of a query is one where the direction turns back on itself.

 

Although a friend moors his boat slightly north of Amsterdam and his stories of the waterways there are just a tad hairy!

[Coral]

12 hours ago, CPT Trips said:

I’ll see your Spaghetti Junction

 

and raise you a Mixing Bowl (just south of Washington DC)

 

Head spinning!

[notamermaid]

On 10/2/2021 at 6:32 PM, Canal archive said:

Notamermaid you are so right about so called reporters. We sailed through spaghetti junction this year on our way north but you are the first person I have ever heard express a wish to do it deliberately. Good luck!

 

The junction is actually built over a much older transport route that is still in use. The Grand Union Canal.

Well, I would only be the passenger . Driving on the left is not for me. But I am willing to be told off for sending the driver into the wrong lane somewhere in those roundabouts.

 

That mixing bowl is quite a thing. I cannot think of a place in Germany that is quite so intricate, but there are naturally some busy junctions. The "Frankfurter Kreuz" has this infamous air about it, at least for those trying to get through it on a regular basis. It is built according to the four-leaved clover design, with some later bits and a connection part added later. Not too difficult to figure out in its basics as such but sooo busy which makes concentrating harder. The latest count I could find from a few years ago was around 310,000 vehicle movements a day which makes it the busiest motorway junction in Germany, but it will be more by now. Part of the reason is also what is right next to the motorway A3 (which meets the A5 here): Frankfurt airport. In 2019 it was the fourth busiest European airport in passenger count. If you do not get lost on the motorway, you may get lost within the airport...

 

This is the view from a plane (the extension with the B43 is not visible): https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurter_Kreuz#/media/Datei:Frankfurter_Kreuz_Luftaufnahme.jpg

 

@Canal archive I think the Netherlands must be one of the few countries in Europe in which you actually need a "road" map to find the right river, let alone the right canal. Around where I am it is easy. Turn off right to Neckar, or much later turn off left to Moselle, but when you get to the Netherlands, I believe it is at this post if I have learnt it correctly from @Renmar that the word Rhine "disappears" and becomes a river and a canal, but somewhere is also the Meuse, but take the wrong fork and you end up in another canal, or further along the Oude Maas and if you have read the map well you get to Rotterdam on the Rhine. Or is it the Nieuwe Maas?! ((Confused))

 

notamermaid

 

[jpalbny]

2 hours ago, notamermaid said:

If you do not get lost on the motorway, you may get lost within the airport...

 

Absolutely! 

 

I've tried returning rental cars there... It is very hard to navigate! We got very lost in 2013 but I blamed all of the construction going on at the time...

 

It's much easier to arrive via the U-Bahn!

[KBs mum]

On 10/2/2021 at 5:21 PM, notamermaid said:

@KBs mum good to hear. Kent/London are always busy places and the M40/M6 motorways I can imagine might feel it first in a shortage. I tend to avoid going North via Birmingham and take the M11/A1(M) then cutting across via the A66 or through the Peak District, so am not familiar with the very busy M6 (would like to see Spaghetti Junction sometime). Us human beings are a weird bunch and overexcited journalism does not help us in such times...

 

notamermaid 

 

 

Latest on the UK fuel situation, the army are helping restock in the South East and parts of the Southern motorway network, the rest of the country is nearly back to normal, the further north you go the better, Northern England and Scotland have very few closed fuel stations

[notamermaid]

This morning I woke up to a Rhine valley shrouded in mist. I cannot see a castle or palace from my windows to judge it but I reckon castle viewing is a bit difficult on the river this morning. The drawback of autumn. On the plus side the leaves are changing visibly to the golden/amber/orange/red palette.

 

And I have a busy tourism weekend with involvement in the events side of tourism for the first time this year ahead of me. Life feels more normal than three months ago.

 

News is coming in of Christmas markets happening (always with the caveat etc.) in quite a few places. Lovely.

 

Rivers are "behaving", weather is autumn, but not extreme.

 

So I am off to do some shopping and hopefully much friendly talking to regional tourists. And my post about my second visit to Grenzau this year will have to wait.

 

Have a good weekend everyone.

 

notamermaid

 

[Wings55]

6 hours ago, notamermaid said:

@notamermaid......

Have a good weekend everyone.

 

notamermaid

 

And to you too! Enjoy!

Paul

[Coral]

I am in Colorado Springs today! We will take off and head into the mountains. Today will be in Salida, CO and then the next 2 days will be in Vail, Breckenridge, Aspen and Glenwood Springs.

 

Weather looks great.

[Wings55]

8 hours ago, Coral said:

I am in Colorado Springs today! We will take off and head into the mountains. Today will be in Salida, CO and then the next 2 days will be in Vail, Breckenridge, Aspen and Glenwood Springs.

 

Ahhhh... we love Colorado! Spent our honeymoon there several (ahem..😉) years ago. 

Enjoy!

 

Paul

[Coral]

5 hours ago, Wings55 said:

Ahhhh... we love Colorado! Spent our honeymoon there several (ahem..😉) years ago. 

Enjoy!

 

Paul

Here is a picture from today - perfect weather:

 

[capriccio]

3 minutes ago, Coral said:

Here is a picture from today - perfect weather:

 

What a stunning photo!

[Ritabob]

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians!

[Coral]

Here are some random pics from the past 2 days:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 12, 2021 by Coral

[Coral]

A few more. We were in Salida, Buena Vista, Aspen, Crested Butte, Carbondale, Glenwood Springs, Carbondale and Gunnison area.

 

 

Edited October 12, 2021 by Coral

[notamermaid]

Oh my goodness, Coral. With such scenery "nearby" I cannot imagine why anyone would still come to see autumn in Western Europe! Just plain beautiful.

 

Now which one should I use as a screen saver? Or perhaps a printout for the office wall?

 

Well, I do not own any rights to the photos so I will not do that, but you get my point.

 

Enjoy your time there, it looks so good for the soul.

 

notamermaid