Our second river cruise. We were blessed by fine weather - as the pics illustrate.

Overnight at Amsterdam and then to Cologne

Next stop Koblenz

The first castle we pass - there will be many more!

From Koblenz to Rudesheim - past Lorelei.

And so we arrive at Rudesheim and ride the cable car to the monument to victory and peace. It commemorates the last time Germany won a war - 1760 against the French

Back on the the water - to Frankfurt

To the lovely old and undamaged town of Miltenberg. Frankfurt was underwhelming but in most places we don't have enough time and that especially applies to Miltenberg

Off again - this time to Würzburg

Not allowed to take pics inside the Residenz. We have some on board who are into fine arts and they complain about the restoration but it looks fine to us - on our second visit. And now to Bamberg

Nuremberg was chilling as we toured the Nazi parade grounds and drove into the Collesium. We could look but there was no dismounting for camera work. The Guide said she was ashamed and that she and her peers look everywhere for peace. Guess they were also very sad about Brexit, tearing Europe to pieces. Our turn to be thankful for peace and our turn to be ashamed.

We've been on lots of excursions so perhaps it is now time for an excursus instead. A look into the locks. Not the variety we saw in Cologne (remember the wedlocks?) but the canal type. One hundred and sixteen locks from Amsterdam to Budapest with thirty nine on the Main and the part of the Danube we travel. Not only locks but - see the last pic - very low bridges. The first and second lock have gates that open electronically - not the variety that can be pushed open by a narrow boat user - and the third a rather large lump of concrete that is raised and lowered. The Rhine-Main-Danube canal - crossing the Europe watershed and joining the sea at Amsterdam to the Black sea - rises to 1332ft above sea level, the highest point on earth that can be reached by commercial boats from the sea. The Danube end of the canal is 352ft above the Main end via 16 locks with lifting heights upto 82ft - more than 4 times the height of our house. 13 locks reserve the water which drains and replenishes the locks and some transfer via turbines to provide electricity for the locks.

On to Regensburg from which we will take a boat ride - coals to Newcastle they used to say - to the Benedictine Weltenberg Abbey through the Danube Gorge.