Last post I wrote about what we see afloat on the great rivers of Europe. Today I write about what we see on the banks of Europe’s great rivers. Mostly the terrain is relatively flat this far down stream.
Some of it is what you’d see from a train. Industrial plants and shipyards are common, water transport being a common thing here. There are also prosperous-looking towns and, less common, large cities.
Yesterday I saw something labeled “bunkeringstation” and as an old cruise hand, knew it was a “filling station” for riverboats. Bunkering is the term of art for filling a ship’s fuel tanks. It originated with the bunkers in which coal was stored to fire the old steam ships.
There are also recreation facilities along the banks, RV campsites, day use parks, festival grounds, an occasional sand beach. Farther upstream there will sometimes be a paved bike path along the bank, an updating of an old towpath once trod by horses pulling boats upstream.
Speaking of RVs, the European idea of “hookups” is electricity, which here is 220 volts. Water and sewer connections are uncommon and the caravans or trailers tend to be small and light enough to be pulled by a smallish car.
Many bridges cross the big rivers, and where one is needed but, for some reason not built, there will be a ferry boat taking people and cars across. Some of these bridges feature elegant designs while others are as utilitarian as a shovel. As I write this we are passing under heavy duty electric transmission lines which loop over the river.
Later … Rail lines often run alongside the river, especially where the terrain is not flat. Later today, for instance, we will run for hours along a Rhine stretch with low mountains on either side. In addition to castle fortresses on commanding heights, built to force toll payment on river users, there are train tracks along the riverbanks which provide a relatively level path through the hills.
Passenger trains here are common, running the same route several times a day. Many lines are “electrified” so that engines pick up power from overhead wires like streetcars, instead of burning diesel.
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On another subject entirely, internet usage is a bit odd here. The U.S.-based websites I consult regularly don’t update until Europe’s midafternoon, there being a 5-6 hour time difference. For a guy who has spent most of his life in the western half of the U.S., and therefore gets stuff early if it originates in the east coast Acela corridor, here is the exact opposite … everything is late.
The other internet oddity is that you get lots of warnings about how your internet usage generates info which is used by or sold to others. These warnings are mandated by the bureaucrats of the EU in Brussels. Different strokes, as they say.
