Day 34 - Canal Cruising

---

If we could have spent another day (or two) in Nuremberg we would have but Istanbul waits for no-one. We had breakfast early, packed up and then did the relay down the 3 flights of stairs (53 steps) with our gear. It's almost become a joke when we turn up with all our gear, ask if there is a lift (usually no) and then see what floor our room is on. On the bright side, there were four floors of the Hotel Central City and we were only on 3!
It was a bit of a slow get away, Jeff went to lube his chain, then couldn't find it (the lube not the chain). A journey back up the 53 steps to see if it was left in the room and, alas, not. He did manage to find it at the end of the day though.
It took about 10kms to get to the canal and then it was hug the bank the whole way. What a glorious day for a ride. The predicted rain never showed, the wind was low to nothing and the temperature was about 21C, perfect for riding. We passed a number of the big locks. Barges float into a tunnel and a massive door closes behind them. The tunnel is then flooded and the barge rises to the height of the canal on the other side and then floats out (and the reverse if going in the opposite direction). Quite an engineering achievement.
The other significant aspect of today's ride was we have effectively passed over the high point of the canal, meaning we are now riding down hill along the rivers as opposed to the uphill we have been doing thus far.
The ride today was 67kms and all but the last 1km is on the canal. What we didn't realise was the last 1km was straight up a hill. Actually, it was closer to a cliff. Neither Jeff or I could manage to ride the whole way up the 15 degree gradient and walking the bikes up pushing 35kgs was no easy effort either.
The saving grace was the hotel is quite elegant and has a pool and sauna (and we have breakfast included). When I saw the manager I asked him if he knew his hotel was at the top of the hill, he smiled and said it was only a kilometer.
I made good use of the sauna but considered the pool a little too cold for my delicate disposition. At about 3:30pm the thunder storms that had been predicted rolled in and and we were very glad that our riding day had ended. And there was no way were were going in to town for dinner, not with that hill to climb back up. Oh, and we are in Beilngries tonight and will cross over to the Danube tomorrow, very exciting.
Distance travelled today: 67kms
Distance travelled so far: 1,920kms

---

Photos

This is how the locks work
Zoom in to see if you are interested.