Is this ridiculous or a good idea?

I'd love to join in please.
Great idea.

I am thinking that those of us who would like to participate can choose the route, but I will not vote as I have suggested the idea. I can try to provide a (non-exclusive) list of possibilities.

There are at least five possibilities.

The Seine from Paris.

The Main from Mainz.

The Rhine.

The Rhône.

The Danube.

StarDreamer
So is the cruise for 10 days? In which case I would pick up the boat in Reims, cruise down to Nancy and pick up the Moselle river ( beautiful) from there.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reims

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesle

I don’t have a clue, but I will follow the Cruise with interest..

Not for me I get sea/river sick!! ??

StarDreamer, I was on a course at Lyons University about 15 years ago and all the river boats were tied up on the riverbank. I saw them every morning on my way to the course and would have loved to have done a trip on them.
However, as I can no longer get travel insurance, I will sign up too.

A cruise on either the Rheine or Rhône would appeal to me.

I don't mind as long as it's a trip away and there's ? and lovely scenery.

Who's steering?

That reminded me that Lyon was a centre of printing.

A lady wrote a novel.

writingren.blogspot.com/2008/03/renaissance-printing-press.html

writingren.blogspot.com/

thisislyon.fr/things-to-do/museums/museum-of-printing-and-graphic-communication/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCZQKHQRt_I

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NXXfp3q93s

The trouble is Stardreamer, I can't be doing with loads of references to other sites. Although I love travel and culture, I'm not sure I have time to read the links and I prefer posters' own views anyway.

PS I don't mean posters need to have actually visited, just digging out some interesting or appealing facts is enough.

I've actually done a river cruise, on the Danube, from Nuremberg to Budapest. Would love to do another one!

I would love to do one too.

I’ve done the Nile cruise. I’d do that again, but happy to tag along in Europe. Are we casting off soon?
Can we hand pick the crew and chef? Raymond Blanc for something fancy and James Martin for more basic, but still delicious.

Is this virtual cruise even technically a possibility? If so, I will jump aboard!

Sounds fun. No cabin tidying required!

Good idea.
I did a short half day cruise on the Danube once and would love to do a full one.

Joseanne

PS I don't mean posters need to have actually visited, just digging out some interesting or appealing facts is enough.

Yes, a good idea.

It could be like a short version of a book review in a newspaper or magazine.

Some writing by a participant with the link added at the end for those who choose to read the original text or watch the original video.

I’m off on one week after next on the Douro, it has been rescheduled from 2020 which was our 30 wedding anniversary. So looking forward to it, we did one from Nuremberg to Budapest 4 years ago and loved it.

Budapest is an amazing city.......I would like to see it again. Happy to join the cruise wherever it may sail though!

Luckygirl3

Is this virtual cruise even technically a possibility? If so, I will jump aboard!

It depends.

It is theoretically possible in general terms at various levels, though many of those levels simply cannot be done in a Gransnet thread.

Yet we can do what we can with what we have available.

For example, consider if someone is reading the novel Don Quixote.

There is no windmill, there is no inn, there is in reality just some pieces of paper with black marks upon them.

Those black marks providing meaning, the windmill, the inn, are all in the mind of the reader.

In the same way here - there is no purpose-built river cruise vessel, its dining room does not exist, yet if we suspend our disbelief we can, in our minds, be on that cruise vessel as it proceeds on its journey.

Much can be achoeved in communication using just text, yet a Gransnet thread can have more than just text, images, links, and many-way communication among people.

I think that there may be a conflict of interests here…

So now we need to choose which river we cruise upon, the start location and the destination and the stops along the way, and when the cruise will start.

I think that having one day for discussion of each stop would be good, focus on that place for the day, then move on. With on-going discussion of activity on the vessel itself.

Then there can be a new thread for the virtual cruise itsel, and the journey can proceed.

There are web sites for cruises, there are YouTube videos about cruises - some advertisements, some videos of people's experiences. We need to be careful and not provide what may seem like advertising links, just gather information of the places.