Bamberg Tuesday 28 December 2010
Well, Frank told us formally last
evening in his daily briefing that we were definitely going to have to change
ships. The high level locks on the Main-Danube
Canal are frozen and no
traffic is allowed. We have been pretty certain for days that this was what was
going to happen , and although it is a bit of a schlep so what? Quite a lot,
say the whiners. Thank goodness their chief one - Mona Lisa (Mona Lisa was one of the Grizzling Poms who complained about everything - nothing was right as far as they were concerned.) will be leaving us as we
leave the ship, although Lost Luggage John, The Ten Quid Pom, will alas be with
us all the way to Kuala Lumpur!
Rab wanted to attend Frank's
morning talk on the waterways we are traversing although I thought he had
covered the subject pretty well a couple of evenings ago. The talks and the
guides tend to be fairly repetitive - presumably all parties have learned about
the limited attention spans of travelling guests. We docked in Bamberg
late in the afternoon and could see from the last lock we went through and the
docks in Bamberg
just how much ice was building up. We crunched our way through like a mini- ice
breaker.
We had signed up for the
"Slow Walkers" tour of the town as the other groups were heading up
the hill to the Dom, described as 'quite a stiff climb' and whilst we like our exercise,
a stiff climb in minus 12C weather on snowy icy ground is something else. So of
we went, following our chirpy tour leader. But before long a message came from
the long extended back of the troupe that she was walking too fast. It was,
unsurprisingly, Mona Lisa and her husband. He seems to have had a stroke and
does indeed have great difficulty in walking. Our reaction was - if it is that
difficult, why walk? This view, expressed by Rab to me, was NOT to the liking
of another walker (The Cartoon Clown, so named because he has a face just like
a cartoon character and has a walking disability that sees him rocking from
side to side like a drunken sailor, bow legs and all.) I implied he might like
to wind his neck in or words to that effect and so he has completely ignored us
ever since!
Anyhow we crawled our way through
the town and the snow which had turned a little slushy by now. At the Market
Place we came across a stream of school kids dressed as Kings of The Orient etc
(many with BlackFace which the Politically Correct would have found abhorrent
in the US or even Australia). Not bothered by such niceties, they wound their
way onwards to the Dom where an annual ceremony was to take place. I must say I
am not quite certain about the precise nature of the ceremony as I had lost
some interest while looking for photographic subjects, but it entailed the
youngsters being briefed to carry The Word back to their parishes. I think.
There was a nice church on the
square but the Ace in the guide's pack was Die Alten Rathaus, built ( for some
reason I did not catch as I was photographing again) right in the middle of a
bridge, which caused at least two other parties to build two more bridges
and....and….and.....well, it was all a long time ago and our feet started
freezing as the temperature was somewhat lower above the freezing water. Saw
one of only two beggars spotted on the trip so far and I took what looks like a
good shot. I thought €2 might be a reasonable rate for a model doing that
particular job - but how the person (sex was indeterminate) sat there without
freezing solid, I don't know. Perhaps something that had been ingested helped?
On we trudged past some lovely
buildings which made good shots in the fading light - it was sunny for most of
the day and finally made it to our destination the Klosterbrau Brewery. But not
before Mona had a final shot saying she and Limp Along didn't want to a brewery
and was there a coffee shop around. How that guide didn't just say "Are
you blind?!?" or "Why did you come on a Brewery Tour?!?" but she
didn't, she just said that if they could wait there she would guide them to
such a place (not adding ..... amongst the several dozen of such establishments
we had passed ).
We had some dark beer and a light
beer to sample with a pretzel or two as sponges - I thought both were good but
Rab preferred the lighter beer. Then we headed back to the bus rendezvous -
with no guides! That set the cat among some of the pigeons I can tell you.
There was plenty of time and Rab managed to do a bit of shopping on the way. We
got to the meeting place about 4.45 as did many others and the Monaing Clique
were away with their complaints: the busses weren't there ( this despite having
been told that they would be there at 5.00 ): the pretzels were too salty :
didn't think much of the beer: pity it so cold....and so on....and so on - all
complaints being laid at the door of Scenic Tours as if they deliberately set
up the snowy cold weather! And what were these dickheads thinking that the
weather would be in the Rhine
Valley in mid-winter?
They make me a bit cross these whingers and might well stop me having another
similar trip. Most of them are Poms and
the core are leaving tomorrow, so we'll be able to break out the flags then.
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