Last Sunday I posted about "MS Seestern", an 80-metre-long bulkcarrier that plies the length and breadth of West Germany, up and down the Rhine River, the Mosel, Neckar, Danube, and all the canals and locks in between - see here.
(I wrote it in German but if you are a longtime follower of this blog, you should've picked up a fair smattering of the language by sheer osmosis).
It's now 7 o'clock in the morning at "Riverbend" and 9 o'clock at night in Germany. "MS Seestern" has docked at Neuss, and will begin discharge at first light which is ten hours away in cold and wintry Germany. The skipper, Franz Schramm, emailed that they will load animal feedstock before going down the Mosel again. Franz is the "owner-driver" of "MS Seestern". His is a 14-hours-a-day 7-days-a-week 365-days-a-year job. It's a relentless chasing of freight against stiff competition, and Franz can't afford to sit idle as a ship that doesn't move, doesn't earn money.
To add to the kitty, they take a maximum of two paying passengers in two cosy cabins at the front of the ship far away from the engine noise.
What better way to see the country than from the comfort of a ship that moves along Germany's most scenic rivers at a leisurely six knots?
Unfortunately, advancing age has reduced me to a mental traveller, but I regularly check on the whereabouts of "MS Seestern" by clicking here.
Gute Fahrt, Franz, und "immer eine Handbreit Wasser unter dem Kiel"!
