My first experience of a lock was on the Thames, near Marlow, Buckinghamshire, in 1997. That was on a smallish craft on which we were celebrating a family birthday, with friends.
In September, on the first night of our cruise from Basel (Switzerland) to Amsterdam (The Netherlands), we passed through locks before reaching Strasbourg (France).
Luckily, the first lock we reached was before bed time! Clearly, the 110m (361ft) long cruise ship is designed to fit neatly into the width of these locks.
All clear to proceed.
The ship was launched less than 5 months ago, so the Captain doesn’t want to scratch the paintwork!
Easy does it, Skipper!
All so calm and peaceful in the night light. We would later pass through several more locks, mostly at night. The thrill of the first still lingers.
Next morning, we toured Strasbourg, beginning on the canals. We had to be ‘lifted’ to enter the old town, through a lock, of course! Different scale, same degree of fun.
