You are coming to Germany? Then cancel your Rhein or Main river cruise, bring your skates, make sure your rental car has an adequate heater, and carry a hip flask of Schnaps with you.

Well, here are several examples to help illustrate the extent of this current phantom polar season.

*Icebreakers are busy on the Main River. The Main is an important passage way and icebreakers are continuously working the 30-cm (12 inches) ice layer. There are some ports where the icebreaker has to go through three times in order to crush the ice into smaller bits (imagine it as crushing ice for a cocktail) to keep it from freezing back together again.
Closing parts of the river is being discussed right now.
You can watch more on video.

*Geese and swans freeze to the water’s surface and have to be rescued by the fire department. Some birds are smart enough to keep swimming in the fairly “warm” water,  while others stay on the ice too long and eventually get stuck to it. While trying to break loose, some also hurt themselves.
More on this video.

* Cars’ windshields are frozen. Of course, you say. Well, they are frozen on the inside and it takes about 10 minutes to defrost. Sitting in a frozen car provides you with a rare chance to see Eisblumen. Due to improved housing insulation, Eisblumen (picturesque word, isn’t it?) are becoming extinct…

*Pens don’t write anymore. Come rain or shine, I sit outside on the balcony and write my journal. During this cold spell, my pen gives out at least once a minute and I have to use a heating pad to make it work again. Can you recommend a coldproof pen?

If you have any unusual cold-related news to relate, then please share them below under “comments”.

Tags: bitter cold, cold wave in Germany, fire deparment and iced victims, frozen birds, frozen Main river, icebreaker

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 12:13 pm and is filed under General, Travel Log. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.