I arrived in Viereth by 1.30 Franz a member of the club and married to a Dutch lady took me into Bamberg to check on the laptops. Both are toast. But I can only buy a new one here with a German keyboard and that is a not an oiption for me. So, I´ll go shop on line and see if it can be sent post restante/general delivery to Vienna or possibly Passau.

I am now in an internet cafe and it takes a lot of money to sort my photos and write my blogs on internet cafe time.

Bamberg is truly a uniquely beautiful city. But I was a bit disappointed in the interior of the heralded Dom church. Very stark- I liked the Sankt Michaels better. It is a 12 k.m. bike ride from the boat to downtown Bamberg, so, I may opt for the local Viereth parish church for Sunday service. I took a nasty spill on the bike when I was trying to keep up my speed on a downhill section with a following uphill to the St. Michaels Kirche. I hit a curb and cut my face just above my right eye. And a few other scratches. Maybe a helmet is not such a bad idea after all. I´ve done without for 65 years and many thousands of bicycle miles.

Only 14 k.m. left to go on the Main to Bamberg where the Main-Donau canal begins. The scenery on the Main was breathtaking but I often wondered what I had begun with the 34 locks and the 384 k.m. at the snail’s pace against the current. Each k.m. is marked along the river bank and at times the current slowed me down to 14 minutes per k.m. That is just slightly more than 4 k.m/hour… Pedestrians were passing me.

Friday the 13th brought me another setback. My trusty back up laptop, the Acer I bought in Capetown, three years ago, has given the spirit as well. It has been difficult to shut down and it stayed on all Thursday night and even thought the green light came back on after recharging it for hours it will not start up at all. So now what to do? I may need to buy a new laptop. But if I were ever to try and spend the money to recover the lost data on the HP laptop I might be better of trying to get it fixed, with the apparent broken  video card. I also happen to have an extra large battery for it that has come in handy at sea. Any digitally gifted readers that have a suggestion?

In my last blog I asked for your prayers for Martin and his mom on the “Roedel See*. It worked again. Danke Schoen! When I left the harbor in Wuerzburg they were casting off as well and I saw this proud skipper in the wheel house pass me on his way to Kitzingen to load for Rotterdam. They had been stuck in Wuerzburg since November without any income other than the 535 Euro monthly state pension of the mother.

The harbor fees in Wuerzburg were very expensive nearly 20 euroes. But the next Wednesday night I stayed for free along the river quay in Marktbreit at k.m. 277. This is a gorgeous old town with a river running through it into the Main. But I arrived late and too dark for photos. Thursday morning it rained hard. That evening I again had free moorage on the city front of Schweinfurth at k.m. 332.  Two local cops showed up in the locks before Schweinfurth and I was sure they came to check my papers but they were just interested in what I was doing and where I was going. One of them, Adie. showed up, changed into civilian clothes when I was mooring in S-furth and he told me that he had told a friend who is a reporter for the Main Post about me. He showed up a few minutes later. The article is to show in today´s issue. He promised to send me a digital copy and I will let the German readers know when I get it. The journalist took me for a Heffenweizen beer next door from my parking spot. S-furth was practically totally destroyed in the 2nd WW. It is the home for the worlds three biggest roller bearing factories. It has been rebuilt but many cities in Germany have done a better job in rebuilding in the historic styles.

Bamberg will be a sight to see. And I plan to go to mass tomorrow at the old Kaiser Heinrich dome church.

A club member at the Y.C. where I am parked now lets me use his computer in the local Ford agency. He has given me lots of good information on the Main Donau canal that I sorely needed.  The heavy mist after last nights showers is starting to lift now and I shall be be on my way.