September 2024 – Part 1 (1st to15th)
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Continuing our stay in Strasbourg, we decided to spend our second evening watching the light display on the exterior of the Cathedral, and, wow, it was fabulous. We spent a good hour watching, filming and generally enjoying the show before returning to the boat for the night. The architecture of the city was stunning with many ornate features.
The following day we left the dogs back on the boat, so that we could take a ride on the city tourist train to give us the chance to see much of the historic areas – lots of information to take in and plenty more old buildings to see.
The next day (2nd September, my 74th birthday) we were joined by Janos and Rachel, who had abandoned their own boat for a short while to come and join us for the next leg of our travels, that of the mighty 500 km Rhine. After settling in we all strolled into the town to have a meal and drinks, and to watch the cathedral light show again, before heading back for an early-ish night in readiness for our departure the next day.
Leaving just after 8.30 am made our way along the waterway to enter the Strasbourg-Nord ecluse some forty minutes later. This first lock allowed us to pass onto the Grand Canal d’Alsace/Rhine river – it turned out to be only a tiny 7cm drop so we felt a bit silly hanging onto a rope, but it did make for a speedy passage onto the main waterway.
From this point on to Iffezheim there were only two locks on the river; the flow was quite well controlled, and we anticipated making good time during the day, but after entering the very first lock of Ecluse Gamshein with a drop of ten metres, we ended up having to wait two hours before it was operated and we could leave. We never did find out why it took so long.
Almost two hours later we arrived at the second lock of the day – Ecluse Iffezheim – and again we had a long wait to enter and exit (although not quite so bad this time at just over an hour to be able to enter). This ecluse had a 20 meter drop, and as we waited our turn in the lock, I had a growing realisation that my initial target destination was not achievable, so with that in mind as we left the lock (reaching 18 kph with a fast flowing current in our favour) and headed towards the next available marina (CNAC at Beinheim) further along at a turning just along the left bank. To make the sharp left turn, we had to turn the boat into a downstream current and found ourselves now fighting the increasing downstream current, initially managing just 1kph upstream! We did eventually manage a bit more speed though and after a while we caught the welcome sight of an empty marina guest pontoon. By this point the current had slowed right down and Janos masterfully steered us onto the pontoon, when we all breathed a collective sigh of relief. Diago, one of the marina’s club members, came out to welcome us and to invite us for drinks later that evening ….. the rest of that evening was pretty much a blur for us but I think we all enjoyed ourselves. In our inebriated state, we met several other club members including Thierry and his wife, Alessandra, who are the club presidents, and they all insisted on giving us lots of advise on where to stop as we travelled forward, in particular to visit the town of Speyer.
After a much needed rest overnight, we prepared ourselves for the off and joined the Rhine river again, along with many large, fast moving commercial barges (some up to 200+ metres long, others even pushing two of these giants side by side) in the wide, fast flowing river. There were lots of variations to our direction of travel, and luckily Rachel was on the ball with the binoculars looking out for any blueboards being displayed which would send us over onto the wrong/left side of the channel. Janos and I took hourly turns at steering during the journey to give some relief and a chance to take regular breaks. And four and a half hours later we made it to the turning for the marina of Speyer, where there was a nice long pontoon ready and waiting for us in calm waters, despite the main river rushing past the nearby marina entrance.
Based on their recommendations, we headed into the port at Speyer and as it did seem like an interesting stop we decided to take a two night break and spend a full day exploring, but first it was a quick walk into town to find somewhere to eat and relax, which was at a nice hotel near the town’s cathedral.
Our plan for our first full day was to visit the Technik Museum, followed by Domhof brewery. What we hadn’t expected was the sheer size and extent of the first museum, and Janos and I spent the whole day like kids in a sweetshop – Rachel and Nicki spent quite some time there too, but with the heat and slightly less enthusiasm for the subject matter, they returned to the boat earlier than us. In the end there wasn’t time to visit the brewery, but we had such a good day we didn’t mind at all.
Our next day’s destination was Rhudesheim, and a quick call to the local yachthaven secured our next two night’s mooring, which was alongside the clubhouse, the large converted commercial ship, Dorotea. Yet again, we were made to feel extremely welcome by the club members, and we were once again invited over for a drink or two, along with a pizza delivery order.
Over the course of the evening, we heard about an interesting round tour from Rhudesheim that we decided would be a good experience for the next day. A short walk in the morning took us into the small town, and we duly caught a cable car up to the Neiderwald monument at its top, passing over the local vineyards and stunning views all round. Arriving over the area, a 3 km walk through forest, followed by a descent via a chair lift to the next town of Assmannshausen.
From there we could pick up a passenger cruise ship back to Rhudesheim, with a short walk back to the boat at the end of the day. Exhausting and hot as this round trip turned out to be, it was a lovely day out with many spectacular panoramic views. Arriving back to await the final boat cruise and with almost an hour to wait, we took off to a nearby bar – an experience in itself, as the following photos show. The interior was filled with so many interesting features in it’s various nooks and crannies, not to mention the toilets!
After such a busy day, we ate out on the stern of Shensi before finally hitting our beds and sleep took over.
Moving on in the morning we made a five hour journey along the river, dodging the various other heavy river traffic. We were hoping to stop at Kmmkoblenz. We phoned in advance but they didn’t have space for us so we traveled a bit further until we reached the little marina of NYC Neiweid. Our nights mooring here was at the very end of its long pontoon, with nearby commercial businesses lining one side and a beach bar/restaurant on the other. Despite this, it was a nice quiet mooring and a welcome relief after the days traveling.
On our final couple of days travelling with Janos and Rachel, we turned out of the marina on a gloomy, wet morning into the Rhine to join the big boys already traversing the river, and made our way to Köln/Koel /Cologne (take your pick). The weather had turned as we burned along and the bimini had to be collapsed due to heavy rain and wind. Luckily we had managed to contact the Harbourmaster in Köln to reserve a space for the next three nights, so we were reasonably relaxed about the journey until we noticed another AIS signal for an 18 meter barge heading in the same direction. Then it became slightly less relaxing in case the marina gave our reservation away, as we hadn’t actually given them our ship’s name to know who was turning up. As it turned out though, everything was in place when we arrived and we could breathe a sigh of relief.
Arriving and settling in place, we all took a short walk along to an Italian bar/restaurant at the end of the quay, just for a drink, but that turned into a shared pizza, followed by another three pizzas once we realised we were in fact hungry and the food was good. Dinner that evening would be snacky. On leaving Rachel and Janos made a quick visit to nearby the Lindt chocolate museum, and then we headed back to Shensi for the night.
The following day we took a walk into the town in the morning, making a stop at the Cathedral and strolling round the main shopping streets, before grabbing lunch close to the quayside. Returning to our mooring, Janos and Rachel collected all their bits together ready for their departure back to Czarvargo. They had been great company on our trip, and exceedingly useful along the way, so we were going to miss them.
Following their departure, we began getting everything ready for Alec arriving at about 12 midnight the next evening (11th), but because of flight delays he didn’t actually get to us until 2.30am on the morning of the 12th! Pip and Casper were very excited to see him again after all this time. We were all very tired and quickly got to bed so that we were sufficiently ready for a 9.30 departure in the direction of Düsseldorf, which we reached some four hours later.
After one night’s stopover in Düsseldorf, we headed off in the morning with no fixed mooring in mind, and turned onto the Rhein-Herne Kanaal, Alec helping out as we went.
Just four hours of travelling then found us tying up at a canalside quay between bridges with fast moving commercial ships regularly passing by, and a railway line behind us. Alec decided to take a swim in the canal, and Pip had a great time joining him for a while.
In the morning we moved on again, this time joining the Dortmund-Ems Kanaal and cruising to a reserved mooring at the Henrichenburg yachthaven, in front of an historic boat lift and museum. As we arrived at 4pm, by the time we were third up and registered with the havenmeister, there was limited time to visit the lift which closed at 6pm. Still, Nicki and I took a chance and we lucky enough to be allowed in at such a late time (5.30ish) and to not be charged for the privilege. Whilst we wandered around this amazing piece of history – not just the lift, but some original vessels from that period were kept there too – Alec took the dogs for a nice long walk in the surrounding area.
Some interesting details about the lift – it’s trough rests on air-filled floats which are 13m high and 8m wide steel cylinders that float in water-filled shafts 33.5m deep. The buoyancy of the floats pushes the trough upwards. In order to move it, the amount of water could be changed. When water was drained off, it became lighter and rose. When water was added it became heavier and sank.
Yet again, Alec started his day with a swim around the harbour, so he was refreshed and ready to start his next day of travelling, which today would take us to the town of Munster.
