Boomsmas in Europe 10

Nuremberg today and we separated: David to learn about WW2 and me to a cooking school Cookionista to learn to make the local gingerbread, Elisenlebkuchen. 

Here is my cooking partner Don chopping the crystallised citrus peel while his wife Christine keeps an eye on his technique. It's quite a different recipe from ours consisting of finely chopped nuts, peel and crystallised ginger mixed with spices, sugar and eggs - no flour or powdered ginger. 

Here is the delicious fiinished product which we took back to the ship on request from the crew who know their yumminess. 

Meanwhile David was standing in 35' sun being told about WW2 and by the fourth block of 15 minutes he was over it and after a look at the museum was happy to return to the ship. 

My guide (another history student) had some interesting facts: one that in Bavaria the unemployment rate is less than 3%.  You can see it in the city of Nuremberg - lots of building going on, lots of cars, the people look happy and we haven't seen any slums or refugees. 

I liked the dry moat around the castle: people can rent plots like an allotment and they build little cottages and plant shrubs and flowers and go there just to hang out. 

I went on to the Cathedral square (ABC) which was dotted with stalls selling wonderful fresh produce. I bought a kilo of cherries and then cursed having to carry them. 

Note the cobblestones are reasonably flat. 

This was the day they get the school children - in their last week before summer holidays - to count the cars in and out of the city so there were kids everywhere having fun, not doing much counting that I could see. 

At 10 pm there was a party on the sundeck (the roof) to celebrate passing through the biggest lock on the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal, 25 metres deep. There is a 3 cm clearance each side for a large boat like this one so it's quite a feat for the captain to judge it correctly. Blue champagne in hand we waited with bated breath as the ship slowed right down and waited for the green light. 

It changed from red to green just in time and in we went without the slightest whisper of a touch - into a huge deep lock with Ravel's Bolero playing loudly on the speakers. 

A surreal experience and an anticlimax when the water quickly carried the boat up to the top and we went on as usual.