Day 6 - Up and Down

I have just been on the slowest roller coaster in the world. All day we have been going through the locks on the river Main. It started last night during dinner and it hasn't stopped all day. There are 68 locks that we will be going through before we reach the end of the trip. I think we are in our late 20 or early 30 count. So every hour or so we sail into the closed lock, the gate closes behind us and we sit there like a cow ready to be branded. Then the water starts to churn and slowly we raise up from a tunnel to open air. Then we wait for the gate to unlock and we slowly sail out of the gates, 15 feet higher than we just were 15 min. before.

Entering a lock

Moving down the shoot

Water filling up the lock

I'm taking a picture out our balcony, inside the lock, looking towards the front of the ship. There is only 4 inches, on both sides, from the ship to the lock walls.

Gates open and we are on to the next level of the river.

It really is amazing but boy does it take a long time. We are not the only ship on the high seas out here, every ship along the Main River must pass through the locks to go upstream or downstream. So we stop and wait in line until it's our turn to go in and that takes time, alot of time. Guess what we did most of the day, yep, slow-mo roller coaster.

Around 4p our time, we were finally to our destination, late, Miltenberg. A small town along the Main we got off and were assigned to a group, guided by a local, our guide was a school teacher. She walked us around the town showing us some of the town center, the Rathaus, the churches and some of the older buildings. Most of the houses are older, some date in the 14th and 15th century. The town during WWII had no strategic advantage to the germans or allies so it was left alone and the castle and town still exist.

Miltenberg from the castle

Like most towns along the Main River, each had one if not several buildings that had markers on them indicating what year and where the flood level reached within the town. Most dates were before the 1800's, but went as far back as1400-1500's, most of these floods were 10 ft or more. But the lock system was put into place and they now rarely have floods to numerous and damaging as in earlier times.

Oldest building in town, 680 yrs old (1300's)

Garden shed built right onto the old fortress walls

We caught a bus while our boat floated down through another lock or two, to Wertheim, another local tour guide quickly showed us the highlights of the town. Unfortunately our boat was expected at the port and we had to end it quickly to return to the boat and our much delayed dinner. A note about Wertheim, it had a house dating to the 1300's and it was still standing and a family was living in it. The local castle was housing three families in it, not sure how that worked. Maybe they were cousins or something.

Grandpa and I look forward to tomorrow as we have most of the day in Wurzburg where Uncle D spent part of his mission.

Only building in town using blue trim, used only by the most wealthy because of the cost.

Castle in Wertheim that houses 3 families

Yep in the middle of Wertheim is a British phone box, and yes it has a working phone in it.