River Cruising Water Cooler

[Coral]

13 hours ago, CPT Trips said:

As do most European’s at the mention of ”Black Friday” or “Cyber Monday” 

I was in Salzburg on Black Friday and there were a ton of "Friday Black" specials everywhere. I even took pictures of the signs.

 

I of course know of Boxing Day.

Edited January 15, 2022 by Coral

[CPT Trips]

15 hours ago, Coral said:

I was in Salzburg on Black Friday and there were a ton of "Friday Black" specials everywhere. I even took pictures of the signs.

 

That surprises me. 
We’re you able to get a Thanksgiving dinner the day before? 😉

[Coral]

22 minutes ago, CPT Trips said:

That surprises me. 
We’re you able to get a Thanksgiving dinner the day before? 😉

On the river cruise,  yes - they did serve a turkey meal with the trimmings for the Americans on Thanksgiving day. I was not the brightest to order it as it was also wiener schnitzel night. I did ask for a small portion of wiener schnitzel and it was amazing.

 

I tried to find the picture I was thinking of and couldn't but found this instead. It is Think! store in Salzburg and they had a Black Weekend special. I think that was their attempt of Black Friday. I do remember seeing a "Friday Black" sign somewhere.

 

 

Edited January 16, 2022 by Coral

[Canal archive]

I suspect this expression will be discontinued in the near future although it seems to be used across many countries.

Edited January 16, 2022 by Canal archive

[notamermaid]

When I first heard of Black Friday I had no idea what it was about and could not understand why people run into shops in the news footages. What confused me even further, was the fact that there were so many "black", i.e. dark-skinned people among them. That was a few years ago. Now all the electronics shops here seem to use it as a marketing tool. Some others, too. And the international online retailers we have, naturally. As we have no celebratory connection to it here in Germany, what may have been an original intention behind Black Friday is lost on almost all people. And I have heard people criticize it and say "What do we need this for??". It is more accepted among the "internet-generation" I feel.

 

notamermaid

 

[Coral]

4 hours ago, Canal archive said:

I suspect this expression will be discontinued in the near future although it seems to be used across many countries.

Why would it be discontinued? It seems to have finally crossed the pond and is being done in Europe. It is another day when stores have large sales and sell a lot. This benefits the stores. I think more people bought online the past 2 years for our Black Friday.

[Canal archive]

You would not believe the strange things happening here in surcharge of the correct political correctness or is it my imagination. I won’t go there any more. Although your right Black Friday has extended into at least a week and these days the offers of any worth are extremely few and far between.

[Daisi]

6 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

You would not believe the strange things happening here in surcharge of the correct political correctness or is it my imagination. I won’t go there any more. Although your right Black Friday has extended into at least a week and these days the offers of any worth are extremely few and far between.

 Yes, I see M & S have changed the name to Mini Gems for the small Jube-Jubes to be "correct".  You also rarely have a Zwarte Piet anymore. 

 

Here, I think the Black Friday sales started towards the first week of November, ran until almost Boxing Day, and then the Boxing Day sales started.  If you needed something, you got lucky, but it was a bit overdone.  I realise that stores have suffered with the lockdowns & limited capacity numbers, but since most sales were online, they didn't have to run them that long.

 

[Coral]

14 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

You would not believe the strange things happening here in surcharge of the correct political correctness or is it my imagination. I won’t go there any more. Although your right Black Friday has extended into at least a week and these days the offers of any worth are extremely few and far between.

While there are many definitions on how it became known as Black Friday, none of them have racist ties to my knowledge.

 

Most people believe today that Black Friday is a day when shops operate in the black (profit) vs being non profitable. You can google search on the different definitions of the term (and there are several).

 

Edited January 16, 2022 by Coral

[capriccio]

6 hours ago, Canal archive said:

I suspect this expression will be discontinued in the near future although it seems to be used across many countries.

 

2 hours ago, Coral said:

Why would it be discontinued? It seems to have finally crossed the pond and is being done in Europe. It is another day when stores have large sales and sell a lot. This benefits the stores. I think more people bought online the past 2 years for our Black Friday.

In grad school many, many decades ago (probably in an accounting class) our professor explained that for many retailers the sales on the day after Thanksgiving pushed their business revenue for the year into the 'black' (i.e., profit) as opposed to the "red" (loss).  The colors denote the traditional colors used in accounting statements. 

Edited January 16, 2022 by capriccio

[notamermaid]

8 minutes ago, Coral said:

Most people believe today that Black Friday is a day when shops operate in the black (profit) vs being non profitable. You can google search on the different definitions of the term (and there are several).

 

That is interesting. I thought it may have something to do with blackening old labels and writing a lower price on. But that would more done in red ink probably. So I am quite likely wrong but it would tend to think also that it has something to do with the shops and finance and goes back quite a few years. that political correctness thing is ... oh my. Better not talk about it. Not too bad in my country yet but it is coming, coming fast.

 

Something completely different. Not meaning to distract, but I was so happy yesterday. Saw in the news that the historic railway carriages of the famous "Rheingold Express" that got stranded as both lines from the depot to the main lines on the Rhine and Moselle were damaged and bridges destroyed in July last year, were towed yesterday along the emergency reenacted third (branch) line. The carriages had suffered flood damage and cannot be repaired on site. I think they are going to Cologne. Many excited people young and old lined the route to see their "old" line being used, if only once. I am so glad for the private travel operator that they can now finally get down to business and have their flagship train repaired. It is this one: https://www.ake-eisenbahntouristik.de/ake-rheingold/

 

notamermaid

 

[Coral]

Just now, capriccio said:

 

In grad school many, many decades ago (probably in an accounting class) our professor explained that for many retailers the sales on the day after Thanksgiving pushed their business revenue for the year into the 'black' (i.e., profit) as opposed to the "red" loss.  The colors denote the traditional colors used in accounting statements. 

Exactly. Not racist at all.

 

Origins from before then can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping) 

[gnome12]

This is true, but many phrases that don't have racist origins are being "retired" in the name of political correctness just in case someone might think that they were inappropriate.

[Canal archive]

That’s exactly what I mean gnome 12.

There was a super programme this week about the Harz Mountains railway, really interesting it’s now on my list of things that must be done.

[notamermaid]

The famous narrow gauge railways in the Harz mountains, I would love to see those. Never been to that area. So much to explore in my country still. The mountain range is quite a distance from any river cruise so not really doable like that. Best visited as a special trip I would say, perhaps incorporating a larger town nearby. The Man in Seat 61 has made a very good article on the railways, complete with two videos: https://www.seat61.com/places-of-interest/by-harz-railway-to-the-brocken.htm

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

The man in seat 61, I wish I’d thought of that as a job fantastic. He’s been very useful to us as we’ve done quite a few train journeys in the past. The programme about the Harz Mountain Railway was on the Yesterday channel.

[notamermaid]

I would also like to do more rail travel. Being able to make money from it would be even better - I will think about that sponsored vlog idea of mine again...

 

Every time I am in England I watch the Yesterday channel. I just find few things that are worth watching on BBC these days. I mix watching all four standard channels but every year more I switch to watching Yesterday and similar channels. I just love history and travel, even it is just enjoying armchair travelling most of the time. But as I have mentioned before, I do get around locally. So here it is, yes, no escaping folks, the next day trip report. That was actually last year in Autumn and took me to the Eifel region. As that place is accessible from both the Rhine and Moselle, and is unlikely to become a river cruise excursion, I present it here in a two part story.

 

A day trip to Mayen part 1

Mayen is a town of nearly 20,000 inhabitants and has been a regional centre for trade since Roman times. Famous are the millstones that were carved in the area and shipped via the Rhine around Europe. I myself went to a mill in the south of England some years ago and learned that it had a millstone from Niedermendig near Mayen. The small river Nette runs through the town and meets the Rhine near Andernach. This is where you find Mayen: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayen#/media/Datei:Mayen_Koblenz.jpg

Notice in the map what it says at Mayen? Genovevaburg. Yup, it has got a castle (yawn!, I know, you could have guessed ). It also retains quite a bit of the old town wall. This is the small parking lot near the gate that leads to the church:

 

You can walk on parts of the ramparts (excuse finger please):

 

The church:

 

The dark stone and alternating light and dark stone as ornamentation are typical for the area. The black basalt is the volcanic stone from nearby. The extinct volcanoes are very near, look up Laach lake (Laacher See), if you are interested.

 

Walking through the streets of the town that retains Medieval buildings but had suffered heavy damage during WWII is pleasant but not spectacular. The most important point of interest is the castle on the hill so we headed there, this is how it peeped through the gap between the buildings:

 

Along the way, we met Genevieve at the taxi stand:

This is the statue of Genoveva, a modern sculpture made of sandstone and this here is the lady's legend: https://www.elzerland.de/en/legends-and-myths/the-genoveva-legend

 

If you read the text of the legend you will find out what is underneath the castle, otherwise just stay in suspense till I reveal it (no, it is not gruesome).

 

Till then.

 

notamermaid

 

Edited January 18, 2022 by notamermaid
grammar

[CPT Trips]

On 1/17/2022 at 6:32 AM, notamermaid said:

The famous narrow gauge railways in the Harz mountains, I would love to see those. Never been to that area. So much to explore in my country still. The mountain range is quite a distance from any river cruise so not really doable like that. Best visited as a special trip I would say, perhaps incorporating a larger town nearby. The Man in Seat 61 has made a very good article on the railways, complete with two videos: https://www.seat61.com/places-of-interest/by-harz-railway-to-the-brocken.htm

 

notamermaid

 

The Harz Mountains are dear to my heart. At least the portion that was in the former British Zone. I did not recall any narrow gauge railroad operating in that area some 50 years ago, so I took a look around on line. Apparently, this line is in Saxony-Anhalt (part of the former DDR).

The US Army had a radio relay site at the summit of Bocksberg, operated by my unit in Helmstedt. The site was closing and I spent a considerable amount of time in Goslar managing the mothballing. 

[notamermaid]

Thank you for sharing those memories. Indeed, the Harz Mountains is a border region. The US Forces will have wanted to listen to what was going on across the border.

6 hours ago, CPT Trips said:

The site was closing and I spent a considerable amount of time in Goslar managing the mothballing. 

There are certainly worse places to spend time in managing mothballing . Goslar is very interesting, I enjoyed my few days there greatly.

https://www.goslar.de/home-en

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

On 1/14/2022 at 7:05 PM, TheKingD said:

We usually get a lot of ice mixed with the snow, so make sure he is prepared to lose power and have treacherous driving for a day or so.

Hello to you, how has the snow been? Send a message to my friend, who is actually American by the way but had a job in Germany for some years,  and he said his power lines are overhead but he had not lost power (yet). Normally happens once a year at least to him, he said. I live urban, I cannot even remember the last time I had no power (apart from a light flicker). Touch wood, etc., etc.

 

Thank you for sharing the story about your stepmother. So moving.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[CPT Trips]

Indeed, the US did have a solid network of listening stations along the border. Our site at Bocksberg wasn’t one. It was a radio relay station for communication between Berlin and Frankfurt and Heidelberg into the early 70s.

 

You might find this article interesting. It’s a site near Helmstedt. 

 

translation - http://www.asalives.org/ASAONLINE/edrail01.htm
 

There was also this beast, or should I say Devil. Teufelsberg in Berlin.

 

When operational

 

 

Years after reunification 

 

 

[TheKingD]

I'm glad to hear that your friend did not have any adverse effects from the snow and ice over the weekend, @notamermaid.  We were OK too, thank goodness.  I live in an older part of the city where we are surrounded by huge old trees, and when we have a lot of ice mixed in with the snow and especially if there is a lot of wind, some of the trees lose large branches or even topple over.  The power lines in our immediate area are buried, but plenty of lines are still above ground, so we can lose power if something happens up the line from us.  Our weather forecast is calling for more snow the end of this week, but the prediction is for only a small amount and only snow without the ice threat.

 

Thank you to the posters here for providing interesting stories and a nice diversion in these crazy days.

 

[notamermaid]

Just watched the BBC. Quite a bit going on the green benches. Better news is certainly the fact that - elsewhere, not the BBC - I have read that international experts appear to agree that Britain is over the peak of Omicron. And the health minister is planning to get rid of restrictions very soon. England here I come!!! Shopping without certificate, masks only if I want to. Sheer bliss. I want to flee this miserable dowdy place of mine immediately.

 

Brief news about Bavaria going in the thread on Germany.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Canal archive]

We’re all working towards it and keeping our fingers crossed 🤞 let’s hope it’s right.

 

Have just read that Crystals parent company has filed for insolvency is it true?

[lyndarra]

1 hour ago, Canal archive said:

We’re all working towards it and keeping our fingers crossed 🤞 let’s hope it’s right.

 

Have just read that Crystals parent company has filed for insolvency is it true?

From what I have read it is the Hong Kong based Genting parent company. I believe Genting is owned by a Malaysian businessman but no word yet if other related companies are in trouble.