Wine and locks

There are a lot of vineyards along the Moselle River in Germany, and most of them are planted in vertical rows. This allows cool air to flow downward, protecting the grapes from early frosts. Another reason for the vertical rows is to make it easier to move harvesting equipment up the steep hills to the tops of the vineyards. Over eighty percent of the vineyards along the river are harvested by hand.

These are the grapes that make the best Riesling wines. Check it out: buy a bottle of Riesling wine that was produced in Germany.
There are also a lot of locks on the Rhine. We’re going down. You can see the water line just above Ted’s arm.
The boat builders know exactly how wide the locks are. You can see the tiny strip of glistening water between the white of our veranda deck and the dark color of the lock wall.
Swans are everywhere in Europe. We saw only a few ducks and no geese, but where there’s water, there are swans.

This was the longest day of travel for the cruise. After a long bus ride from Paris to Trier, Germany, we had a full dinner onboard the ship. Unfortunately, the after-dinner entertainment featured a father-son duo on violin and piano. They were very skilled musicians, but it would have been a challenge for anyone to entertain a group of 100+ tired people who just finished a big meal. The two men played very slow songs, and not even Strauss’s “Blue Danube” made us want to sway in our seats. I counted eight people near me sleeping through the music. Zzzzzzzzzzz. . . .