Bavaria, Embla, and Lufthansa

Today (Monday) there was a lecture in the lounge about Bavaria. In Germany, there are 16 states, the largest and most well known of which is Bavaria. The largest part of Bavaria is Franconia. Beer is very popular here, and there are more breweries here than anywhere else in the world. After the war, Germany was divided up and different countries were given charge of different parts. The United States was given charge of Bavaria. The area covered by Bavaria is quite large. We've been in Bavaria since Miltenberg, and will be in it until Passau, located at the border of Germany and Austria. Nuremberg is also in Bavaria. We learned a little bit more about Nuremberg at this lecture. For example, the Nuremberg Trials represent the first time the leaders of a country were tried and judged by leaders of other countries. The countries included U.S., U. K., Russia, and France. This led to the establishment of the International Court of Justice. The international headquarters of BMW is located in Bavaria; BMW stands for Bavarian Motor Works. Their blue and white logo comes from their official flag, which is blue and white. On another note, we were given official notice today that we will definitely be changing ships. The water level between Regensburg and Passau is simply too low for ships to get through. In fact, a barge tried to go through yesterday and now is stuck, blocking other river traffic from getting through. Tomorrow morning we have to place our luggage in the hallway. Then we will be boarding busses for a one hour fifteen minute drive to Passau. Our luggage will be taken directly to the new ship, the Viking Embla. When we arrive in Passau, we will proceed with our regularly planned tour, and then will be taken to the new ship to resume life as normal - or perhaps I should say to resume vacation as normal. This is certainly not normal life. They are trying to make it as seamless and painless as possible. They did tell us that because it has been such a dry summer, they have had to do this with 80% of their ships this season. Well at least they have experience doing this sort of thing. Oh, and they gave us one more bit of news. Lufthansa, the airline company we are booked to fly home on, is on strike. The strike is supposed to end on Friday, but the Viking people are skeptical about that actually happening. Stay tuned - things are getting interesting.