Day 7 - Saturday, June 23 - Viviers

Yet another beautiful sunny morning. Our tour guide yesterday said that we fortunate to have good weather as it had been very unusually rainy for the previous two months and had just stopped raining.

Our ship, the Viking Heimdal.

In the morning we had a tour of Viviers which has had a bishopric on the top of the mountain overlooking the Rhone River since 445AD and a cathedral that dates back to the 12th century. The town has many narrow roads and passageways with houses dating back to the same time period. Sadly, quite a few of the buildings including the old town hall are in a terrible state of disrepair as it is exceptionally expensive to maintain them without changing any historic aspects.

View of Viviers from the cathedral

Typical alleyway

Soon after returning, this ship departed upstream for Tournon.

This afternoon there was a fascinating talk by the 2nd captain about the ship. The propulsion is hybrid - there are 4 generators that produce 3MW of electricity that are used to drive electric motors for propulsion. The propellers can be turned 360 degrees to move the ship in any direction. The electric engines explain why this ship is so much quieter than the one we were in on the Danube last year. The ships are designed to fit the locks - there is only 9" of space between the side of the ship and the side of the lock - it is quite a feat to steer this long ship in and it is done manually by one of the captains!

Afterwards we were invited up the the wheelhouse and the captain spent 45 minutes explaining the operation of the ship. The ship is controlled like a video game with small handles to control the direction and speed of the propellers. Because some of the bridges are so low, the entire wheelhouse can be retracted down into the ship - the captain brought it down while we were inside. There is a little trap door in the ceiling that can be opened and there is just enough space for the captain to stick his head up to peer over the top. The captain said that yesterday the wind was up to 65mph; while we were up there, the wind was up to 40mph.

In the wheelhouse with the captain

Entering the lock, seen from the wheelhouse

2nd captain steering the ship into the lock using side controls