Nurnberg

Tuesday 7 August

Half way through the trip & we are heading down the Main-Danube Canal which was constructed in 1992 or thereabouts. On the canal we will cross the Continental Divide, where the rivers flow the opposite way once crossed, also canal has the biggest locks with one of them having a 79 foot drop, unreal to be in & see the wall outside the window continuing to rise (or fall) for that long, ..... yes I know it is the boat rising or falling.

We arrived at Nurnberg & bussed in for traditional lunch of sausages & sauerkraut at the Bratwurst Roslein. The sausages are the size of fingers & this dates from the time that they were made small enough to pass the keyhole test, which food had to pass in order to be served after 10pm. 

We then had a walking tour with a young local guide - excellent. Nurnberg is a walled medieval town with a double town wall with a dry moat. Most impressive castle on the top of the hill, foundations of which are the rock itself.  Old part of town has many halftimbered houses & the oldest is 1338. Of course the town was flattened in WW2, but lots reconstructed as was. Placques can be seen on buildings around town which display the age of various parts of the building. Also the home of most delicious gingerbread which of course had to be sampled.

On the boat, the barman makes the most delicious latte, I have discovered that a latte is the coffee poured onto the hot milk, thus two-toned until stirred!

Speciality in Nurnberg are these little sausages, I only got halfway through

Nurnberg Cathedral

Nurnberg, very careful, walled & moated

The castle on top of hill, using the rock as foundation

Back to the boat which had moved on & while we were having cocktails on the sundeck, poor old Max was taken away in an ambulance, not too bad apparently, just a precaution, as he has had 7 bypasses. He is a lovely old boy, 89, on the trip with his wife. He was a pilot in the WW2 flying out of north England somewhere & has a wicked sense of humour. He has a walking stick & seems a bit frail but has done most of the excursions despite this. Hope he can rejoin tomorrow, as they did not let his wife go with him to the hospital.

Dinner usual cordon bleu extravaganza,  I tried to be good & had Captain Salad, then Sea Bass, served with wasabi hollandaise, glazed spring onions & balsamic lentil ragout, yum. It all fell in a heap with desert, something they called Bananas Foster, which was bananas panfried in caramel sauce with icecream......  S & I sat with George & Carol, an American twin brother and sister who always travel together & he shouts her!! Also an Indian chap- Cardiologist-  I have chatted to him in the gym previously -who also lives in the states but went by Belfast (from India, I mean), picking up his wife there, very strange to hear an Irish accent after all the yanks & aussies.

Heard later Max on warfarin & had a blister which burst & would not stop bleeding. Note to self, hit the gym in the AM.