LOCK DOWN!

Since there is a large elevation difference, it is necessary to go through locks as you travel down the river.  We slept through two of them, but did get to see this one the first day.  As you can tell from the sky, it wasn't a quick zip through.  Interesting experience...now to talk Walt into taking me through the Panama Canal so I can see how a big one works.  Grab a glass of wine and settle in...here we go.

 

Don't listen to the 'experts' that tell you not to look back....I would have missed this if I had listened to them.

Traveling through the Ruhr Valley (the little we got to see since we did most of it during sleep time) was interesting.  I really wish we had been able to see more.  There were smokestacks belching, barges lined up waiting to load or unload, trucks and various other vehicles moving around on shore...this curious cat wanted to know all there was to know about what was going on.

Isn't this a marvelous bridge?  There weren't a whole lot of them along the route.  We probably would have put three per city, they put 1 for 10 cities.  Sure makes for a pretty river.

Loved the God's rays.  Trish loves them and everytime I see some I think of her. 

Saw a similar set up of buildings that had a "No Parking" sign by the water.  I do hope they were talking about boats...

Hmmmm, a lookout?  A concrete tree house?  A mini tower of London?  Whatever it is I would love to be able to sit and look out those windows at the boat traffic while sipping a glass of wine or a good German beer.

Some of the industrial views.  Sorry about the dark shots, it was evening and getting dusky quite quickly.

Cologne is going to take longer than I want to add to this post, so will save it for next time.  Sleep tight....