River Cruise and Prague - 2025

And we're off to sail the rivers of Europe!   But first - a tasty Father's Day Sunday Brunch sendoff with Abbey and Whitsun at the Autumn.  Then on to Weymouth, for Father's Day again and a sort of early birthday for Gwen.  We got Randall a hat, but Gwen liked it a lot too. A nice visit, and then the next day, we took off for the Logan Express at Framingham (Randall and Lily would be away when we got back, so leaving our car at their house wouldn't work).  First stop - a fast charger in Braintree for our EV, so we could leave it in the parking garage fully charged.  When we got there, all four chargers were out of service.  Good start to the trip!  But the other person who pulled up to charge knew of another one nearby; that one worked and we were on our way. Of course, it wouldn't be a true adventure without one more problem.  Logan Express was not where the GPS said it was.  Long story short - the LE parking structure was being rebuilt...

A windmill window Wednesday, June 18 We went to bed shortly after sunset – in other words, the normal time, around 10:30, and jet lag woke me at around 3:00 AM.  I tried to get back to sleep, but couldn't, so was up and around by 4:00 AM.  It was just starting to get light, and we were moving – sailing on a river – and I didn't want to miss anything, especially the sunrise.  Catching sunrises on cruises has become sort of a tradition for me.  So I was glad I was up.  I made my way up the stairs to the roof deck to see what we had come all this way to see. It was dark, but light was filtering in from the east.  A cool breeze; I found a seat in the lee of a plexiglass panel; otherwise, the top deck was open air and the view was unobstructed.  We were in motion, but the only way to know that was to look over the side and see the water gliding by (I will use the world “glide” a lot, I think).  There was no sense of movement otherwise, and the ship did...

  Thursday, June 19 Much different this morning.  Still the moon, still the stars, still the birds.  The water is more turbulent; it has personality.  We sail rather than glide.  We're on the Rhine for sure, this morning, going upstream, slipping past Dussledorf and Neuss.  Bridges, lights.  The cities are just ahead of us; the banks are lined with trees for the most part, but it's clear that we are in an urban area.  Just now, big buildings – junior skyscrapers – in the distance ahead of us, their eastern sides just beginning to be lit up by the not-yet-risen sun.  The boat's engine seems louder this morning, but right now, I hear only it and the birds.  That may change. Again, jet lag woke me up at 3AM; I stayed in bed until 4AM, and here I am.  I found Google Maps' 'you are here' blue dot almost by accident, so at least I know where we are.  And the sun is rising where it should be rising:  we are headed south. More bri...

  Friday, June 20 After my first good sleep so far, I was up at around 5:30 and went up to find the sun just peeking over the hills in the east.  Hills!  What a concept.  The landscape actually looks a little like home.  I could see that I had just missed a little town on the river, disappearing behind us, but a little while later a pealing bell from about where the sun was rising turned into another very small riverside town, with tidy homes right on the water, crowded in with a church, which explained the bell.  It was 6:00, and, apparently, that bell rings at 6:00 every morning, waking the town whether they wanted it or not. Again, the birds and the ship.  I can hear the steady hum and feel the slight vibration that may be what is keeping Abbey awake, although she describes it as an uneven sound.   A tanker from the Unibarge company just passed us – almost silently, with just a bit of slicing-through-the-water sounds – and its name was the...

Say Their Names *  JUNE 21 – SUMMER SOLSTICE We turned left, and everything changed. After dinner last night, we went out onto the front deck, claimed the rocking chairs at the very front, and watched the last of the Rhine go by (the last of our part, anyway). It was wider than almost anywhere else, with inlets, bays and, maybe, tributaries. It was generally an industrial area. The day was bright and clear. Then, as had been promised during the daily update, we turned left. The Main (pronounced “Men”) is the largest tributary of the Rhine, and is the second of three rivers we'll be navigating. Perhaps to call it a river is being generous; it started out as a river, but by 1992 was straddled by 34 large locks, stopping its natural flow and creating calm sailing between the locks. We will, apparently, go through all 34 of those locks, and then turn right onto the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal, which will, with the help of sixteen more locks, bring us up and over the Swabian Alps (...