The Ludwig Canal
The Ludwig Canal is the original canal that connected the Danube and the Main rivers on the 19th century now replaced for a wider modern connection, the Main-Donau-Canal.
Both old and new, start in Bamberg and cut the german mountains all the way to Kelheim, reaching the european summit point that divides the watersheds between the North and the Black Seas 400m above sea level.
The Ludwig is the canal taken by "Flame"on the book "Sailing Across Europe" that we read before starting our journey and inspired us on our journey. On the book, only one chapter is dedicated to this stretch of water, but the description is so fantastic, the pace is so slow, the landscape so beautiful, that we were curious to see how much of it was left, if any at all.
To our surprise, there is still about 60km left of the original channel, out of the 177km, some of the locks still work, but it is not navigable, and only possible to reach by bike.
While cruising down the new Main-Donau-Canal one can see parts of the original canal alongside. The lock-keepers houses are now being refurbished to serve as infrastructure to a new bike route that will take bikers along the old canal.
The original 177km length narrow canal had 101 locks, 100 bridges, 10 aqueducts, 63 lockkeeper's houses and 500.000 fruit trees planted at regular intervals, boats had to be towed part of the journey, but due to the lack of water and heavy damages suffered during WWII, it ended up being closed.
The new Main-Donau-canal has16 locks, the deepest one being 24m deep. Boats are not suppose to stop along the way, but we're slow and have to ask the lock-keepers permission to stop for the night close to the locks. They do complain a bit, but they always end up allowing is to stay.
Both old and new, start in Bamberg and cut the german mountains all the way to Kelheim, reaching the european summit point that divides the watersheds between the North and the Black Seas 400m above sea level.
The Ludwig is the canal taken by "Flame"on the book "Sailing Across Europe" that we read before starting our journey and inspired us on our journey. On the book, only one chapter is dedicated to this stretch of water, but the description is so fantastic, the pace is so slow, the landscape so beautiful, that we were curious to see how much of it was left, if any at all.
To our surprise, there is still about 60km left of the original channel, out of the 177km, some of the locks still work, but it is not navigable, and only possible to reach by bike.
While cruising down the new Main-Donau-Canal one can see parts of the original canal alongside. The lock-keepers houses are now being refurbished to serve as infrastructure to a new bike route that will take bikers along the old canal.
The original 177km length narrow canal had 101 locks, 100 bridges, 10 aqueducts, 63 lockkeeper's houses and 500.000 fruit trees planted at regular intervals, boats had to be towed part of the journey, but due to the lack of water and heavy damages suffered during WWII, it ended up being closed.
The new Main-Donau-canal has16 locks, the deepest one being 24m deep. Boats are not suppose to stop along the way, but we're slow and have to ask the lock-keepers permission to stop for the night close to the locks. They do complain a bit, but they always end up allowing is to stay.
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