Google Maps: Anomaly in floating directions

[ChrisGreaves]

(see also "Google Maps: Anomaly in driving directions")
Not that I am one to complain, but after my friend from 1990, Sandy, wrote me "I am going on A Rhine Viking River Cruise Aug 26...could not resist as flight and cruise all in is only $2450" I hied me to Google Maps to check it out.

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According to Google maps one cannot cruise up the Rhine, nor down it, either (I tried switching the start and end points).

To make things worse, I reached page 215 of Charles Neider's book "The selected letters of Mark Twain" earlier this rain-swept day, and (attached) Mark Twain writes (Sep 28, 1891) that they got lost going DOWN the Rhine. As I understand it the Rhine is a glacial valley, steep sides. How can you get lost? The old pilot of the Mississippi with its currents, shifting sandbars, oxbow lakes and so on sailed down the wrong side of an island and so saw none of the beautiful towns on the other side.

If anyone here has an email for the captain of this Rhine River cruise, please PM me. He ought to be warned ahead of time.

Me, I'd recommend she stay in Amsterdam and meet up with my friend Hans. HE provides all-day tram tickets for free. Only downside is he might not remember where we had coffee the last time we met, so that Sandy could reclaim my little notebook that I left on the bench outside, dazzled, as I was, by the canals.

Today is blustery, rainy, and chilly. The time is 1500 and the temperature is 14c. I am wearing a long-sleeved shirt and sweater. It is warmer by one degree in Perth WA right now, but there it is 1 a.m. in mid-winter!

Back to bed, me, under the covers with a good book and a grilled-cheese sandwich!
Cheers, Chris

[HansV]

Just one different vowel and you end up in Avignon instead of in Basel...

It's rainy and 14°C here too, by the way. It has rained all day, over 40 mm (1.6 inch) in total. At least, I do not need to water the plants outside.

[BobH]

Wanna make a trade?

It's 100°F (38°C) outside my door today and dryer than a pan in the middle of Saharan sun. Our water supply lake has dropped below 60% capacity. This is the worst drought I've witnessed in my 30 years in Texas.

Send rain and I'll send sunshine.

[ChrisGreaves]

Just one different vowel and you end up in Avignon instead of in Basel...

Good Point, Hans!
Could even be a children's song in there "On the point about Avignon"

It's rainy and 14°C here too, by the way. It has rained all day, over 40 mm (1.6 inch) in total. At least, I do not need to water the plants outside.

Nor, I'm thinking, do the canals need a quick refill. As if the Rhine wasn't doing its job already.

Thank you. It cheers me no end to know that somewhere else someone I know, like me, is considering frenched fries for supper ...

Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

Wanna make a trade?

yes! Yes!! YES!!!
YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!

It's 100°F (38°C) outside my door today and dryer than a pan in the middle of Saharan sun. Our water supply lake has dropped below 60% capacity. This is the worst drought I've witnessed in my 30 years in Texas. Send rain and I'll send sunshine.

Have you considered drinking less water and drinking more beer? Water conservation is a lively topic nowadays. Jump on the band wagon ....

Especially for you, Bob!
Your loving nephew, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

(Trying to stay within a one-year resurrection of posts to a thread ...)
Turns out that if you travel by train in Google Maps, you can't add a destination.

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Although it may be that this is a unique facet of travelling from Sydney to Dubbo by XPT.
Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

(Trying to stay within a one-year resurrection of posts to a thread ...)
Turns out that if you travel by train in Google Maps, you can't add a destination.
Untitled.pngUntitled2.pngAlthough it may be that this is a unique facet of travelling from Sydney to Dubbo by XPT.
Cheers, Chris
(later) heh-heh!

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[stuck]

...According to Google maps one cannot cruise up the Rhine, nor down it, either (I tried switching the start and end points)...

Wow! Impressive You've actually found something that Google does not know about! You certainly can cruise up and down the Rhine. I know this because, somehow, my address is in a river cruise company's marketing database so we get sent brochures at regular intervals.

Ken

[ChrisGreaves]

... You certainly can cruise up and down the Rhine. I know this because, somehow, my address is in a river cruise company's marketing database so we get sent brochures at regular intervals.

Well Ken, OK. Next time you get a brochure, look for Sandy. I don't know whether she'll be on an upwardly mobile boat, or one going downhill. She is an attractive lady, ...
Cheers, Chris

[stuck]

...Next time you get a brochure...

Better still, sign up yourself
https://www.vikingrivercruises.co.uk/br ... _type=link

Ken

[ChrisGreaves]

CC_Longships_Wurzburg_Marienberg_TALL_731x904.jpg

Better still, sign up yourself

Nah!
I'd go berserk, trapped on a boat in the middle of a river with a thousand strangers and very few readable books.
Day after day gliding past small rural villages with no chance to stroll the streets chatting with the locals, practicing my French, German, or Spanish (the closest I can get to Rhenish).
Then nighttime, for me bed time, surrounded by nightclubbing Raucasians⁽¹⁾ and shops with expensive baubles, one-of-a-kind, manufactured in China.

I still have about 900 books to read through from this year's haul of Discards from the Clarenville library

⁽¹⁾ People who practice raucousness

Cheers, Chris

[stuck]

...trapped on a boat...

These boats do stop en-route so you can disembark and stroll round some of the towns on the riverside. However doing that means you have to suffer an annoyance not included in your tirade. Namely, the stench of diesel exhaust fumes on the quayside as you wait to embark after your stroll around a town.

Which reminds me, there's other annoyance you didn't list, the constant background drone of the engines.

Hope this helps,

Ken

[ChrisGreaves]

... you can disembark and stroll round some of the towns on the riverside.

Ah yes! I have fond memories of Prince Rupert and of Ketchikan, where three thousand funnily-dressed people descend on the town and flood the main street for three hours, annoying everyone except the local owners of trinket shops.
Then in the blink of an eye, the shops close up, the streets are quiet, and the huge wall at the end of the street has glided away.

Which reminds me, there's other annoyance you didn't list, the constant background drone of the engines.

Oh that would be OK. I'd close my eyes and dream I was back in Bonavista with the sound of my neighbours' chain-saws garnering the harvest for us winter fires!
Cheers, Chris