Off the Rhine and Locked into the Main

The Avalon Impression pulls away from Miltonberg

After leaving Rudesheim, we traveled about 3 hours before arriving at the confluence of the Rhine and the Main Rivers.  We unfortunately were unable to visit the great city of Mainz where the Guttenheimer Bible resides; that visit will have to wait for a trip downstream on the Rhine.  But it's at Mainz that the boat turned East and entered the Main river.  Our entire trip will encompass over 1600 kilometers, 68 locks, three rivers, and one cana.  The route between Amsterdam and Budapest can be driven in a little over a day, but will spend 12 days on the rivers. Over half of the locks we must pass will be on the Main. The Main meanders to the north and south as it heads east.  Its water level does not vary much like that of the Rhine and the Danube. We'll be headed upstream and the locks will take us up over 400m above sea level to the continental divide where we will drop down to the Danube to travel downstream for the first time.

The Pis Mannequin times three

But first we have to stop at the quaint German village of Miltenburg which Walt Disney put there for us to visit (sorry...I'm at that point in a trip where things begin to run together.)  The boat left us at Miltenberg to continue through several locks and pick us up at Wertheim.  Dwight had some problems with the cobblestone streets, but we managed to find our way to a warm pub in Miltenberg.  We waited there until we could catch the bus for Werteaim where we would rejoin the boat and continue on our way.