Monday, August 3, 2015

Lock and load...

Just a brief break in the travelogue for an engineering lesson. (Except not really a "lesson" because I'm completely ignorant, but I did take some photos and maybe one of you can explain the engineering part!)

There are something like 27 "locks" along the Danube River (it's the second-longest River in Europe) and we'll be traveling through 15 or 16 of them on this cruise. The lock system makes the river navigable by raising or lowering the ship to the proper water level. (That's all I've got. I think that's how it works). 

They told us we'd be traveling through the largest lock around 11 last night (Sunday), so we stayed up for the show.

This is the view from our balcony as we approached the lock structure...


Pulling into the lock...


Watching the water rise...


...and rise....


And rise...


...until we reached the top and sailed over...


Then as we got close to Vienna this morning, we entered a smaller lock which we shared with a barge. To say it was a tight fit is an understatement...



That's close -- really close -- but on the other side?


Yikes! 


That's the wall and the side of our boat -- inches away! We rose again...




Then we cruised over the top! 

We're being told the river is so low up ahead that we'll actually have to swap ships with another cruise making this same trip from the opposite direction. The worst part of this is leaving the crew we've gotten so attached to. But I guess it's all part of the adventure when you're traveling along a waterway! 

Next post -- a few scenes from our day in lovely Vienna! 















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