We are tied up alongside in Amsterdam. The pax have gone ashore bundled up as the weather is maybe 48 ℉ ashore, and the skies are gray. We are staying aboard, having enjoyed another room service breakfast and looking towards an after breakfast nap.
As we ate we pulled back the curtain and watched the riverine barge traffic for which the region is noted. A whole subculture of riverine craft ply the waters of the interconnected Rhine, Main, Mosel, and Danube Rivers.
Unlike on the Mississippi River, family-owned motorized barges are the norm here. Each with a dwelling/pilot house including parking spot for the family car at the stern, and some of the larger barges have a forecastle for a hired hand in the bow. Specialized barges are the norm here, they either carry bulk cargo like grain or gravel, or they carry containers, or in some cases are miniature oil tankers carrying fluid cargo.
With the interconnected rivers, you could actually ship stuff from Bucharest to Bruges on river craft. I have spent the afternoon looking out our stateroom floor to ceiling window at the river traffic going past.
It is the Rhine’s usual mix of purpose-built river powered barges and river cruisers, work boats of various descriptions, and pleasure craft ranging from outboard-powered row boats to inboard skiffs to cabin cruisers to sailing yachts with inboard power to tour boats to whatever will float. I don’t see any jet skis.
My turn to do the laundry. Tomorrow being a sea day the launderette will be crowded all day long so I’m doing it today when the laundry is only moderately busy. Viking supplies the machines and the soap, all we need bring is dirty clothes and those we’ve got.
