On the boat!

Our group arrived at our boat this afternoon.  We’re embarking from Vienna instead of Passau, Germany because of the record-breaking floods.  The locks between Vienna and Passau were severely damaged, with 900,000 cubic meters of sediment scoured out from beneath the locks.  The high water and the subsequent destabilizing of the locks meant they were closed for almost three weeks, and when they reopened, over 150 boats were backed up waiting to pass through.  At the moment only one of the locks is functioning.  So we will set off tomorrow morning from Vienna, heading downstream to our first stop in Bratislava.

Today, with a free afternoon, nine of us set off for a bike trip onto Danube Island, a narrow man-made island in the stretching for 13 miles along the riverfront of Vienna created to protect Vienna from floods.  On this beautiful Sunday afternoon, the island was full of bike riders, inline skaters, walkers, Frisbee players, kite flyers… Viennese out enjoying their wonderful riverfront.  We watched slacklining (like loose tightropes, stretched between trees), sailing and lots of barge traffic on the river.  The recent floods covered much of Danube Island, but it functioned as designed, protecting the main part of the city from the swollen floodwaters.

Tomorrow, Bratislava!