Question 1

Along the Banks

Accepted Answer

The canal's banks are used as much as its water. Its service paths double as cycling and walking routes, and every July a long-distance triathlon holds its swim in the canal. Cycle routes: The canal is part of two long-distance cycle routes, the Fünf-Flüsse-Radweg and the Altmühltalradweg. The triathlon: The Challenge Roth triathlon, held each July, includes a 3.8 km swim in the canal at Hilpoltstein, and shipping stops while the race is on. A sculpture on the watershed: Near the summit, a large sculpture by Hannsjörg Voth called Scheitelhaltung marks the European watershed. One of its walls runs about 144 meters down to the south bank and ends in a point 14 meters high beside the service path. A monument in Beilngries: A canal monument by the sculptor Raphael Graf stands in Beilngries. It was put up in 2002 for the tenth anniversary of the canal's completion. The old canal alongside: About 60 km of the older Ludwig Canal survives between Nuremberg and Berching, some of its locks still work, and part of its towpath is now a cycle track. Near Pollanten the old and new canals run side by side.

Question 2

A Brief History

Accepted Answer

People tried to join the Rhine and Danube basins by water for more than a thousand years before the present canal was completed in 1992. Charlemagne began the first attempt in 793, and a narrow 19th-century canal served for about a century before it was abandoned. Charlemagne's ditch, 793: Charlemagne ordered a canal, the Fossa Carolina, to link the Swabian Rezat with the Altmühl near Treuchtlingen, where only about 2 km of fairly level ground separates the two river basins. The Ludwig Canal, 1836 to 1846: Named for King Ludwig I of Bavaria, it ran between Bamberg and Kelheim with a narrow channel and many locks, and its summit section was short of water. With railways spreading fast, it soon became uneconomical. Abandoned, 1950: The Ludwig Canal was abandoned in 1950. A waterway for big ships, 1917 to 1921: In 1917 Bavaria's parliament called for a shipping route that could carry the 1,200-ton ships used on the Rhine. In 1921 Bavaria and the German Reich agreed to build it, and the company Rhein-Main-Donau AG was founded on 30 December 1921 to do the work. Step by step: The Main was made navigable as far as Bamberg by 1962, and in 1966 Bavaria and the federal government agreed how to pay for the rest. The Altmühl dispute: The last section, between Nuremberg and Kelheim, was fought over in the 1970s and 1980s, mainly because of its 34 km course through the Altmühl valley. In 1978 a farmer from Riedenburg founded a citizens' group to save the valley. The Katzwang dam break, 1979: On 26 March 1979 an embankment burst on a flooded but unfinished stretch at Katzwang, a district of Nuremberg. About 350,000 cubic meters of water poured out and one child was killed, and afterward the whole line was checked and strengthened. Completed, 1992: The canal was finished on 25 September 1992. Building it from 1960 to 1992 cost the equivalent of about 2.3 billion euros, almost 20 percent of it spent on environmental measures.

Question 3

The Main-Danube Canal with Children

Accepted Answer

A canal day works best as a game of watching the locks, so ask the crew when the next one is due and be on deck for it. Each age group can look for something different. Younger children: Watch the gates close behind the ship and the water rise or fall in the lock chamber. At the three highest locks the ship moves almost 25 meters up or down. School age: Keep count of the 16 locks and spot the moment the ship crosses the summit, the top of the climb between the Rhine and Danube basins. Teenagers: Look out for the walls of the Scheitelhaltung sculpture near the summit, and find out how the locks save water: 13 of them store part of each lockful in side basins and reuse it on the next cycle.

Main-Danube Canal

Good to know

A Day on the Canal

Along the Banks

A Brief History

The Main-Danube Canal with Children

Port crowds

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