Yesterday I spent the afternoon wandering around the town of Straubing after sorting the Banana out and stopping blood coming out of my finger.  I caught up on some sleep and did a bit of tourism and some filming of the town.  There is a huge car park, free to all which is also used for the towns festivals.  I decided not to park there for the night as the local hot rods use it as a race track, driving around without an exhaust to attract young women who are not interested in idols posing in a resprayed banger with Abba blasting from open windows.

Although here it is more like Porches that are making the racket with real engines one board.  I found a quiet car park near a holiday park and had a good night’s sleep for a change.

Continue reading “The Journey – Day 56 – May 26th” →

The day started about four hours too early this morning.  I was awake most of the night listening and surveying the idiots who got out of the rain to practice laughing at nothing at all, running around throwing beer at each other and attempting to grow a hangover.  I went down the bank to the Banana and found it in good order.  There were two main things to do.  One launch it, the other get it around the pillar of the bridge which came down almost directly into the lock wall.

The ‘hydrofoil’ was hooked on the stones and partly on a step , so it could not easily be pushed out into the lock.  This was a good plan which worked well, except I needed to push it into the lock and take it to the waiting ship.  Surprisingly my idea to leaver it into the water with the paddles I have worked first time, no problem at all.  I pulled the Banana around towards the bank and towed it along towards the bridge.

Continue reading “The Journey – Day 55 – May 25th” →

The book will be full of details about the trip along the Main Danube canal, but time to write it here is not available.  I simply have to sort domestic things out like shopping and getting washing done.

The voyage along the canal was full of locks and aqueducts, river bank views of life ashore with occasional glimpse into the river cruise ships with their uniformed waiters standing to attention waiting for any command from guests.  They in turn were seemingly dying to wave at anyone who would wave back, which I was happy to do for them.

Continue reading “The Journey Day 47 ’till 50” →

Up, showered and dressed before the first cruise ship came through the lock.  I had stood bare foot on the transformer which reminded me that all my equipment needed charging, most of it needing 240v which I now no longer had.  I went back to the town and went to the bar.  They had no internet (available for me) and suggested going to the restaurant; which I did.

Their internet was limited, so I used my tablet to send some basic messages, drank my coffee and went to the snack bar.  They were watching a Chinese soap whilst cleaning and preparing for customers that didn’t come.  I ordered chicken and chips for breakfast and set up a multi socket full of little transformers to charge my phones, razor, camera battery and all.  Conversation with then was almost impossible.

Continue reading “The Journey Day 46, May 16th” →