Modern tourism industry

[exile]

Incidentally @RobertArthur you picture looks far too warm to really appreciate Glühwein.

It should be below, preferably quite below zero. I don't know why, but the taste does seem to be different when the weather is just chilly rather than properly cold

[RobertArthur]

@ Exile, there were inland waterway skippers who did a roaring trade precisely during those periods of low water levels. Namely, those who, because their vessels were 55 metres or slightly less in length, were still permitted under the statutory rules to operate as a one-man show, with no second crew member on the payroll. Small vessels – nowadays regarded by economists as almost unprofitable by definition – are capable of transporting substantial cargo at competitive rates even along narrow and shallow waterways, road freight simply cannot compete with that. And this applies in particular to bulk transport, animal feed and so on – ideally delivered as far inland as possible.

Someone I know used to sail as the owner of the Flora, which was still fitted with technology from the late 1960s – the sort that’s still understandable and can be maintained to some extent. I had the honour of repairing the depth sounder that had given up the ghost and which, according to the trade, was ‘damaged beyond repair’ – ‘just buy a new one’. I took it apart, laid it out on the workbench, and after thinking, measuring and virtual retro-engineering replaced several parts, and then it worked again.

[Hotrodder]

Ugh! Stuck on a boat for days, cruises are my idea of hell

There are loads of commercials on TV at the moment advertising river cruises on these long skinny floating blocks of flats. They seem to be full of people trying to look rich and posh deleriously happy (or drunk) always at a bar or in the restaurant. Not for me I'm afraid. I'd rather be on something much smaller, under sail, with enough weather to make things interesting.

[Polly]

We went on a Nile cruise to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary; there was a problem with low river levels on the Nile then, which it turned out wasn’t a new problem. We had a pleasant time and loved visiting caves, tombs etc, particularly Tutankhamun’so tomb, but haven’t wished to go on another cruise such as those mentioned by Hotrodder.