Photo above: The European Watershed
Today seems like a spectacularly significant day in terms of reaching the Danube, which is our short-term goal. We crossed the European Watershed at kilometer 102 on the Main-Donau-Kanal (M-D-K). That is the point where the water flows towards the Rhein on the north-west side and towards the Danube on the south-east side.
Two mighty locks took us up 25 meters each, but from now on, the locking will all be in the opposite direction, i.e. we will drive in high and be locked down to a lower altitude. Time to mention also that we reached our highest point today, at Hilpoltstein lock, all of 416 meters above sea level.
We're looking forward to our next lock, Bachhausen, which will be the first of this journey to take us down, excepting two on the Rhein. 17 meters lower and then we'll drive along to our resting place for the night, the marina at the idyllic medieval town of Berching.
We also reached (and went beyond) kilometer 100 on the M-D-K, so we have travelled 700 kilometers altogether from Straßburg to here! 200 km down the Rhein, 400 km up the Main and a hundred along the Kanal. That means less than a hundred kilometers more and we will be on the Danube at last!