04 March 2010

Walking Frannie - Signs of Spring

Mother Nature is trying hard to draw me in and get me to start thinking about spring. We've had a few nice sunny days in a row now. And we haven't seen snow for a couple of weeks. On top of that, the snow drops and crocus are blooming. And we are hearing more and more birds singing.

But the big tip off for Frannie is that our walk along the Rhine became a walk in the Rhine. Snow melts at the higher elevations had caused the Rhine to rise out of it's banks in Wallersheim, covering some of the trail. At points, the water made the trail impassable. At other point, it was less than an inch deep. This gave us the appearance of "walking on water" during our morning walk. It also surprised a few ducks that though they were safely surrounded by water and away from the riverbank before we walked up to them.

It is fun to watch the barges when the water level on the Rhine rises and the the current becomes stronger. The boats heading upstream (south) have to work so hard, yet are barely able to travel faster than our walking pace. Meanwhile the boats heading downstream are just flying by.

Going downstream like that might be fun here at Koblenz. but getting around the Loreley a bit south of here might be a different story. The Loreley is rock formation on the eastern bank of the Rhine that causes a sharp bend in the river. According to mythology, many captains have wrecked their boat after being detracted by the song of a young maiden there.

As nice as the weather has been the last couple of weeks, I'm not buying this spring thing quite yet. There is still plenty of time for Mother Nature to pull another trick or two. Maybe this time next month, I'll start to believe, but not just yet.

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