Your leaking thatched hut during the restoration of a pre-Enlightenment state.

 

Hello, my name is Judas Gutenberg and this is my blaag (pronounced as you would the vomit noise "hyroop-bleuach").

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Like my brownhouse:
   the way I like to cruise
Sunday, November 9 2025

location: Cabin 102, MS Grace, Rhine River, near Bingen, Germany

I'd been a little disappointed with this cruise in that all our sailing (or whatever it is called on a diesel-powered boat) has been taking place at night when there is nothing much to see. I prefer sailing in the day when one can watch the world float past. I also like watching the technical wizardry of being raised or lowered in a lock. On this cruise, it's been like we have been in a building with hyperspace capabilities. Every morning we'd wake up in some new place where we would spend the day. Today, though, the cruise was more the way I like it, with us cruising down the Rhine in the full light of day through beautiful (and unexpected) landscapes. I'd assumed we'd left the mountains completely when as we headed north from Switzerland. You could see some ridges off in the distance, but they'd dwindled away to nothing. I fully expected Europe to be as flat as Ohio from central Germany all the way to the Netherlands. But no, this morning we cruised through something of a gorge, with beautiful postcard villages crammed in between steep slopes and the river. Often there would be castles in the mix, sometimes perched high on the slope above the river.
After breakfast, we were encouraged to go up on deck to watch the landlandscape pass as we approached Lorelei Rock, a prominent (and supposedly romantic) outcrop on the east bank.
Later in the day, Gretchen started watching movies in our cabin as I continued working on various parts of my ESP8266 Remote Control code on the raised platform near the window. At some point Gretchen got sick of me being around, apparently wanting some alone time. So I took my laptop out to the upstairs lounge to continue my work while sipping gin from a tea cup. Neither Gretchen nor I left the boat at all today.


As breakfast came to an end, everyone started taking pictures of the beautiful scenery going by. Gretchen is the second from the left. "The Swissies" are behind her, with Clement directly behind her and facing his wife Celia. The woman to Celia's right is from their hometown in Switzerland and is someone they met on this cruise who only speaks French. Click to enlarge.


Even the tunnels came with mini-castles in the Rhine gorge. Click to enlarge.


A big church in the Rhine gorge. Click to enlarge.


Some village in the Rhine gorge. Click to enlarge.


They love half-timbered construction in the Rhine gorge. Click to enlarge.


A castle high above the Rhine gorge. Click to enlarge.


A building with lovely turrets perched high above the Rhine gorge. Click to enlarge.


A castle-hotel in the Rhine gorge. Click to enlarge.


A castle low down near the river in the Rhine gorge. Click to enlarge.


They like quasi-onion-domes in this part of Germany. Click to enlarge.


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