Nuremberg
and the Main-Danube Canal

When we left Bamberg, we started our long journey through the man-made Main-Danube canal, completed in 1991. Along with the Main, the canal connects the North Sea through the Rhine and Main rivers to the Black Sea in the Southeast of Europe. I’ll have more to say about that below.

Our one stop along the way was Nuremberg, and being there was perhaps the most sobering experience I had on this trip. It was so intense that I made only two photographs.

Traveling along the canal was a lot of fun! We had attended a presentation about its construction before we entered, so we knew some of the basic facts at the start. It was still amazing to realize that at a couple of points the ship was sailing along an aqueduct, essentially taking a water bridge over the countryside below. We even crossed over one highway. And we crossed the European continental divide! “Uphill” on one side, downhill on the other. On top of that Ellen and I are both sort of freaks about locks, and the canal gave us plenty of chances to indulge in our obsession, around 30 or so.

But in all of those locks, sailing under bridges, over highways, crossing through a lot of Germany, did I take photographs? Only one, made near sundown as we crossed the continental divide. I also made several videos, and below the photo you can watch from my standpoint as the ship passed under a low bridge.