EUROPE DAY 16: CRUISING DOWN THE RIVER

We are now cruising on the Main River, turning onto the Rhine tomorrow.

Life on this boat is hard to beat. We have a bit of champagne with breakfast every morning with a dizzying array of breakfast choices. Although lunch is a buffet, they offer a large variety of hot and cold choices, which can make for a very substantial meal, all accompanied by complimentary wines. Tea time brings little sandwiches, delicate pastries, and Alexander at the grand piano playing soothing music. And then there is dinner. It starts at 7:30 and ends around 10:00 and normally consists of 5 courses except for the one 7-course extravaganza at the end. The last course is always a selection of really good chocolates.

Dinner is a fixed menu, usually French style, with very poshy food--we have already had courses with scallops, crayfish tails, venison, duck, lamb, foie gras, and caviar. Today, for example, we had roast suckling pig for lunch (and I shouldn't forget the tomato soup with juniper foam, lobster bisque, medallions of beef with truffles, and so on, but I digress). And each course is paired with complimentary wines. The mini bar in our stateroom is stocked with complimentary juices, soda, and water. There is staff everywhere at the ready to help in any way--I can't even carry my own tea cup to a chair in the lounge. I may just move in permanently.

Very few passengers are English-speaking although quite a few of them have been having fun practicing their English with us (Norwegians, Germans, Austrians). They all speak English a thousand times better than I speak their language. All the passengers are clearly senior citizens so my sister and I fit in quite well. I would venture to guess that the senior citizen population provides the main financial support for the travel industry in low season, throughout the world.

For the last 2 or 3 days we have been having a snow storm of sorts--the cottonwood trees have been sending their cottony fluff into the air and it really looks like snow there is so much of it. Some parts of the river are totally covered with a blanket of white fluff. Oh, and we are seeing lots of swans and fluffy swan babies along the canal. They are such regal birds, and BIG. I think I've seen more swans in the last 3 days then I've seen in my lifetime.

We sit on the top deck in cushioned lounge chairs, or in the air conditioned lounge one deck below, or in the comfy chairs in our cabin, and watch quaint villages roll by, one after the other, separated by a kilometer or two of green trees and grassy vegetation, and lock or two. Honestly, it looks like everyone lives in a postcard or a travel brochure. At times it almost feels like I am on an elaborate amusement park ride watching a travelogue pass by sideways.

Germans are enjoying the first hot weekend of the summer by camping out along the canal, so we have seen many people in bathing suits, all pasty white and all playing in the full sun. I imagine there will be a lot of people returning to work with painful sunburns.