Meissen, Germany: We sit here on the Elbe tied up alongside. This is a more narrow river than many others in Europe. So we have a smaller ship/boat/whatever. There is commercial river traffic but much less of it than on the Rhine, more like the level we saw on the Seine or perhaps the Moselle.
This is the town of the famous two crossed blue swords on the china or porcelain. We have a rainy day so the tourists took umbrellas. I'm not doing much of anything, just hanging out in the lounge, staying dry and warm.
Yesterday we did a substantial amount of daylight cruising, and I was amazed at how flat the land along the Elbe turns out to be. That would have to be the case since the river has effectively no locks.
This is very unlike the Rhine which is "managed" from one end to the other, Rhine cruising is mostly navigating a series of lakes created by low-level dams and locks. The Elbe was probably the first navigated river in Europe, ready to go as-is without the creation of dams and locks.
River cruising is the smoothest, quietest, most pleasant cruising there is, it beats ocean cruising since there is always something onshore to see. And if there is ever a problem, the captain has only to drive the prow into the bank so we can walk ashore.
Yes, there are life jackets or flotation devices as they're called in this era of lawsuits. We even tried them on, not sure why. Oh, well, it didn't hurt.
