A Day of a Boat

Today was a day of sailing (and parking up… but more on that later), there were no ports or excursions scheduled. We would just sail south towards Breisach. There was no particular imperative to get up and about, and after yesterday’s travel day, a lie-in seemed like a sensible idea. Yeah! Like that worked. I was awake before 7:00 and up soon after.

The first order of the day was to get yesterday’s blog post written. That is easy enough as I need no Internet connection to do the writing. I do, however, need a connection to include photos and publish. Getting an internet connection on this section of the route has been a significant challenge, and holding the connection has been a further challenge. Eventually, I managed to get connected but it was a very slow connection. This was not unique to the early morning. This poor connectivity has been a theme throughout the day, not just for us, but even the crew.

We went down for breakfast. It was the usual buffet of delights with an omelette station for those who wanted their eggs other than scrambled. I stuck with some smoked salmon and mackerel with some salad and bacon. Jane and Trevor soon joined us, and Carole and Ian turned up a while later. We sat and chatted for a while before retiring to the lounge where there was a briefing about the excursions for the rest of the week. After that dispersed, the gang headed for the top deck to sit in the sun, while I stayed put for a session called “Snapchat” explaining how to get the best out of the camera on your phone. I must say that people around me seemed to learn a great deal. I didn’t. It was interesting and well explained but I didn’t really learn anything new.

I went up on deck and sat with the others watching Germany sweep by as the boat ploughed onwards. We read we chatted, and we maintained our levels of hydration courtesy of a pop-up bar on deck. When we realised that it had been more than a few minutes since breakfast, we went back to the restaurant for lunch, then returned to the top deck for an afternoon in the sun (and shade). The temperature was in the high 20s, and it was delightful. The boat came to a halt in front of one of the big locks. It would appear that there was a boat stuck in the lock and we would have to wait. We waited. More boats joined the queue behind us. Nothing appeared to be happening. We sat and waited, and waited some more. After about 3 or 4 hours, the lock opened and we were finally on the move again.

By this point, the river was forming the border between Germany and France. On the starboard side, we had France, and on the port side, Germany. This section of the river seemed to be running through a more industrial area but it was not the most scenic or interesting of views. 

We went to a briefing on tomorrow’s excursion to Freiburg and then went to dinner. Diane chose the steak, and I selected an Indian lentil curry. After dinner, we sat and chatted until it was time for bed.

I had tried throughout the early evening to phone Zoe so we could speak with Ellie, but just couldn’t get an adequate connection to get through. We will have to try again tomorrow.