Our first Danube Lock

Monday June 22, 2015   (evening)

 

Right about on time we saw some lights across the river up ahead.  I was reminded of our going through the Panama Canal since we did that entirely at night.   It was a bit breezy out on the top deck, but that was where the action was, so we toughed it out.  Otherwise the only difference from Panama was that there the ships are pulled through by little "pigs" and here everyone is moving under their own power. 

We approach the locks

Ship is lined up to enter

The doors open and a downstrem ship begins to move out 

We begin to pull into the lock chamber

Sliding in

Steering is transferred to a side auxiliary wheelhouse for real precision.

We are in the lock and shortly we will be rising toward the top as water is pumped in.

Occasionally the operation needs an extra push from a passenger.  

At this point we are about half way up.

We are now at the top and can see two boats in the downstream lock positioning themselves before being lowered down to where we came from.

We took our leave of Lock #1 as some of the ship's stewards circulated among the topside stalwarts to offer little cups of Schnapps to cut the chill.   There will be some daylight locks to pass through and we will revisit the process again at that time.   Bedtime now.