People went to great lengths, traveling almost 9000 kilometers over more than 60 days, to deliver an essential, 200-ton component of the KATRIN neutrino experiment.
It traveled by water most of the way, down the Danube, through the Black Sea, Mediterranean, and Atlantic, to come back up the Rhein to its destination. I wonder why it didn’t just take the The Rhine–Main–Danube Canal? A quick look at the dimensions seems like it should fit. Maybe there’s a low bridge? But it’s a modern canal for commercial shipping (completed in 1992), so I’d be shocked if clearance for a bridge is less than 10 meters when the canal itself is typically 55 meters wide. The widest authorized boat is 11.45 meters, though, so maybe there was some other dimensional constraint.
It traveled by water most of the way, down the Danube, through the Black Sea, Mediterranean, and Atlantic, to come back up the Rhein to its destination. I wonder why it didn’t just take the The Rhine–Main–Danube Canal? A quick look at the dimensions seems like it should fit. Maybe there’s a low bridge? But it’s a modern canal for commercial shipping (completed in 1992), so I’d be shocked if clearance for a bridge is less than 10 meters when the canal itself is typically 55 meters wide. The widest authorized boat is 11.45 meters, though, so maybe there was some other dimensional constraint.