A few days ago I wrote: “I’m in Nürnberg. Nice city.”

Same usual mayhem of every city, for those who come from the healthy and simple life on the river. Poverty and richness, comfort and uneasiness walk together. Happily, sometimes.

I expected worse: I heard many people speaking ill about Nürnberg. It’s got a strong soul and a tiny bit of madness.

It was burned to the ground during WW2: You can feel that there was lots of suffering. Many industries, sweat, Dürer, beautiful bridges, St Lawrence’s Church with its statue crowded gate, glass, hi-tech, led and a breast fountain (I know another one in Treviso, close to Venice!).

The best (driverless!!) metro and transport network that I’ve ever seen and used. I unintentionally found myself in the red light district, surrounded by women who’re quite smart yet outrageous, not for their fault but because of a society that’s sick of indecency. A Seduction (“se-ducere” from latin, “attracting to us”) that we all use somehow, although with different styles and tones.

Est modus in rebus, there’s a way to do everything. And manners are important.

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If you believe this is Venice, then think again.

That’s Bamberg, where my old friend Wolfgang left me in very good hands: I thank him once again for it. Bernhard arranged a fantastic welcome for us, and Jürgen Hoh offered me a bed in his nice house, very close to the Sailing Club.

In the meantime, Clodia was quietly put to rest under the octagonal shelter, waiting for minor reparations and symbologically protected by the number 2 and 4 (see Kabbalah).

After all, what’s the most common shape used to build baptisteries?

We spend the first night in Bamberg sleeping in the locker room of the Kanoe Club, with a deluge raining down outside.
In the morning we’re invited for breakfast at Jürgen’s place: The first one of many breakfasts that he’ll offer to our growing crew in the next few days. What a luxury!

We’re now going to meet the true Bamberg’s beer (so smoked that it smells liked ham) to be strictly served at room-temperature or better still cellar- temperature. How terrible, where not even dangerous, is instead the habit of serving iced beer!

American friends please forgive me, you know I keep you in my heart, but this is really a bad way to drink beer, costing us lots of energy. In the Schlenkerla brewery we rejoin with Bernhard, as many as two Jürgen and other local friends.

The atmosphere is typically Franconian: The building we’re in used to be a monastery where the monks brewed their precious beer. We eat a lot and drink even more. Very well indeed.

Jürgen Hoh quickly takes me to buy a Franconian flag, the Bavarian one that I’ve raised is not appropriate. We’re in Bavaria but first and overall we’re in Franconia. No jokes about that!

I also meet the mayor (Bürgermeister), a nice man in his bike outfit: In front of a good beer, natürlich!

We arrange a meeting for the next morning at 11 o’clock in the tourism office. In the afternoon… A big surprise: Time for a “Gondola tour” in Bamberg!

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We reluctantly leave Schweinfurt, greeting our great and generous newfound friends Domenico and Raffaele.

Today a strong tailwind pushes me, so I set off from the marina raising the sails. The weather should have been bad, however it changes its mind, bringing us a beautiful day.

I can sail for at least half of the time, passing big and small locks (getting in and out by sail too). Then, the wind fades, making room for a bright sun and a nasty heat.

The Main is now going downhill (however the current is still opposite…) and I’m heading south-east, toward Istanbul, more or less!

After 22 km of nice forests (crossing the usual vineyards, sheeps, cows and lovely villages) I eventually reach Haßfurt.

I’m overlooked by a tower, surrounded by walls and by well groomed houses that transfer a feeling of peace.

Entering Haßfurt’s harbour, under a huge mill, the little boat with Fine and Massimo aboard comes close. I turn back for a second and I hear a splash: Massimo has fallen into the water. No harm done: The river here is very clean.

In the evening we unwind in a nice Biergarten on the Main, after having undertaken minor fixing on Clodia, whose shell is showing the sign of a few little skirmishes.

The night is quite rainy and the next morning I feel sick. I’m numb, tired and aching: Maybe an intoxication? Or just sheer weariness?

I just can’t get up and a strong headache forces me to lay down aboard Clodia all day. I eat very little food.

Fine kindly tries to feed me from the entrance of the tent, but I just can’t make it!

What an awful day. It rains, thunders, gets cold then very hot, then cold once again and windy. But I get through and the next morning, still weak, I set off. Rowing is quite tough. I face a strong headwind, but at least the sun has popped out.

After 15 km I’m whacked, my body missing food and water. At Limbach’ lock I stop for a rest, drinking the Main’s water thanks to our Life Straw filter. Excellent!

In an hour or so, I feel better and I row up to Eltmann where we have arranged a meeting with a journalist from the Fränkische Tag, Bamberg’s local newspaper. He comes with a photographer who takes some shots: In the meantime Fine asks to three guys, aboard a Jet Ski, to retrieve for her a few paper sheet that have dropped in the river. Charmed, they overdo the task, losing their balance and falling in the water alltogether.

Karsten Becker, the journalist, is rather young. He seems truly interested and asks to come aboard: I’m glad to share, so he rows with me for a few kilometres.

He’s never really rowed, but he’s good at it. Despite the headwind, Clodia slides fast. After a while, I see a kayak coming from the opposite direction that turns back and comes toward us: “You must be Giacomo!”. “Ja”, I answer. Jürgen Hoh teaches geography and english in a school about 30 km far from Bamberg and he’s a new angel on the list.

He’s kayaked for 17 km to see me, he thought I was much closer to Bamberg

He looks like 25 but I get to know that he’s 43 years old. Extremely fit, he jumps aboard Clodia to row with Karsten to replace poor old Giacomo, his canoe being towed by Serena.

I was done for and take a good rest, eating a little. Let’s go: Bamberg is still 15km away and I was doubting to make it.

Thanks to this relief of over 4 km I quickly recover and I take my place aboard from the heroic Karsten (whose hand are covered with galls) with Jürgen: Our pace is really fast.

The sky’s menacing thunderstorms and, on the last lock on the Main before Vereith, it rains. The lock quickly opens for us, while Jürgen and me drink a cappuccino. He’s a quite strong and good rower.

We hang in, reaching km 384 on the Main: This river, for us, ends here. We enter the Main-Donau-Kanal (Main-Danube canal), running for 171 km from Bamberg to Kelheim where it flows into the Danube. Also known as Ludwig canal, Europa canal or simply New Canal by the locals, it bears an interesting story.

The first who wanted to connect the Main to the Danube was none else than Charlemagne who, according to recent studies, in 793 led off the excavations for the Fossa Carolina (Karlsgraben), that was later abandoned due to heavy rains and geological problems. Today, only 5oo metres of the original oeuvre are still visible.

To see things moving once again, we have to wait the first half of the 19th century, when king Ludwig I of Bavaria (who gave his name to the canal) commissioned to the architect Von Pechmann the extension of the works, completed in 1846 and resulting in a navigable connection between Bamberg and Kelheim.

However, the channel was far too narrow and the rise of railways at first and road transport later on, made it outdated, leading to a progressive decrease in traffic, up to its definitive abandonment in 1950, despite many plans of revitalisation and huge, punctually aborted, projects. In 1960 the Federal Republic of Germany and Bavaria redevelop the construction of the canal and the works tiredly begin.

After as long as 32 years of activity and many interruptions due to both political and environmental issues, on September 25th, 1992, the official opening ceremony takes place.

It’s been 1199 years since the first diggings!

We keep going in the dark, guided by my dear storm lamp, getting to Bamberg around half past nine in the evening.

We’re hosted in the Bamberg Faltboot Club of Jürgen.

We place Clodia over a trolley and, helped by everyone including Bernhard, met in Volkach, we take it under an octagonal shelter for a few fixing that I still have to undertake.

Then we have dinner with bread, ham, salami and beer, in a city that up to the 19th century used to house 65 breweries and where, not so long ago, the beer intake per-person was 440 litres yearly. Water wasn’t for drinking. A wonderful hospitality to begin four wonderful days in a wonderful city. But Bamberg deserves a chapter on its own.

See you soon.

Giacomo