notamermaid

"The poem that saved a mountain" is the last clue which you do not need anymore really... You are right @Canal archive Lord Byron it is! The poet died 200 years ago today, far away from home in Greece. A few explanations to follow. notamermaid

It is a bit unusual even for April to jump so much in weather conditions. Still, the month is notorious for being unstable. "April, April, der macht was er will." is the saying, "April, April, it does want it wants to do". [at a whim] I put my winter jacket back on this morning and went shopping in driving rain. We have temperatures that are a little bit higher than in Bavaria right now, not a lot and the wind makes it feel really cold and unpleasant. notamermaid

Third clue: Ada the mathematician. notamermaid

Those projected images look amazing, albeit a strain on the senses potentially. You may actually find the Turner and Constable ones to be more approachable, i.e. you can get quite close, compared to the other paintings in the gallery. When I was in London - in winter, mind you - I found enough space at my Turner favourites to enjoy them. People crowd around Monet, etc. notamermaid

Second clue: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein#/media/File:Frankenstein_1818_edition_title_page.jpg notamermaid

Another short quiz just for fun. Looking for a man and his anniversary. Related to the Rhine of course. Revealing the solution tomorrow afternoon or evening (my local time). Clue one: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Lords#/media/Datei:House_of_Lords_Chamber.png notamermaid

To the present day. We have had some rain so the level at Kaub is rising again. Going into next week we will likely see figures close to 300cm. A good level. With temperatures rising again and drier weather the level will return close to the long-term mean a few days after that. notamermaid

To the present day. With the change in weather we have had snow return even to Rhineland-Palatinate. In Bavaria snow is still falling above 500m altitude. The temperatures will rise again soon. The rain has made Pfelling gauge rise to 411cm. That is a good buffer for spring days without rain. notamermaid

Hmm, looking at the list of ports in the thread "Beyond the standard ports" I notice Neuwied again. They are still no further with their plans from what I have heard as there are legal hurdles I did not know about. Those have been explained to me recently by a local. The details had not made it into the newspapers. So back to the statistics. Autumn is the most likely time to have low water on the Rhine, but it can happen from July onwards. For commercial traffic low water is declared when the level on Kaub gauge reaches 150cm. You may see articles in business papers reporting on it. That has no impact on sailing for river cruise ships as regards draft, which means other than perhaps going a bit more slowly and carefully and having the odd difficulty at a low landing stage things will be fine. Kaub gauge goes down further basically every year, sometimes a lot. I do not want to go into details but just in case someone says to you "I went on a river cruise in 2018, it was awful" I would like to explain this most abysmal year for river cruising (whoever says to you "awful" is right). 2018 has been the worst year ever in river cruising and commercial traffic had an awful year, too. Apart from the curiosity factor (no consolation) the year was bad for locals, too. We had the driest and hottest weather for a long, long time and in that autumn Kaub got a new historical record for low water. River cruising came almost to a standstill. No ship of 110m(!) length made it through the Rhine Gorge for days and the 135m ships, well, I do not remember details, but they did not sail for some time. No chance. The river being so low the shallow section extended further than Mainz. This is the year at Kaub, the second half of 2018 the figures were in double digits only for a long time: Just to explain again, these figures are the gauge, a marker at the side of the river. To get the depth of the navigation channel, captains "translate" this into the real figures. The record was declared by the authorities on 22 October 2018 to be 25cm. notamermaid

That's right, just ignore advice! Seriously, most of the time things go well and the comfort of the ships and the delight of seeing the Rhine Gorge is worth the risk. An adventure that will most likely be an amazing trip without interruption, especially as you are going in July. I hardly ever spotted the Crystal ships on the river so I guess it will not look too weird to see the ex-Crystal Bach on my river with her slightly changed livery. Luxury in store for you in July. If anyone is interested in the takeover: https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/Uniworld-charter-two-former-Crystal-river-ships The stop in Karlsruhe is unusual on your itinerary, one of those places I called "beyond the standard": https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2516698-rhine-beyond-the-standard-ports/ notamermaid

Pontac, you posted several wines of differing origin that you had with your meals. Were they part of your drinks package or the standard fare? Were you happy with them either way? notamermaid

To the length of the problem on the Rhine. The shallowest section is around Kaub so that there is in effect only a stretch of about 30km that needs bridging in a coach and with a ship swap. That is in the Rhine Gorge. But the nature of the river and it logistics makes it difficult just to do 30km. So you can use a landing stage at Rüdesheim and at Braubach or Lahnstein, which extends the process to something like 45km. You can look up the exact distances by looking at the Rhine kilometres. With so many ships needing docking locations that scenario will only work for a few ships at any one time. Next solution is Mainz to Koblenz when Rüdesheim is full or too shallow. The shallow part extends upstream first, then downstream. So most of the time Rüdesheim, Speyer, Mainz, etc. and then at the other end Koblenz will be your ports of call. It gets more complicated to organize with longer distances, so depending on excursion and company, the ship swap is not just 90 minutes by coach (the driving time through the Gorge) but up to six hours or a real day trip. How long can the situation last? The river being too shallow can be a time frame of 12 hours to one week (and more, like in 2018). It happens every year for commercial shipping, that means barges and tankers adjust their load. The impact on river cruising differs every year, there have been a few years when the level was good enough for all ships to sail through the Rhine Gorge. River cruise ships with a length of 105m or less can almost always sail without problems. notamermaid

To the OP. You will be on the Rhine but you have not actually stated from where to where I think, i.e. your itinerary with Avalon. I assume you will be sailing through the Rhine Gorge at one end of which Rüdesheim is situated. All in all I would say most cruisers that have reported back were happy with the excursions they took. Specifically as regards the option of either going into the Black Forest or going to Alsace (that is Colmar, etc.) I would say the Alsace one is coming across as being better/more enjoyable. In case you need to make choice. Of course, it will also depend on where your interests lie. notamermaid

@pontac You are perfectly right about my perspective. But added to that is my inclination to steer away from wine towns as such when they are crowded. For me Rüdesheim is just a small town with two streets to look at. I prefer the slightly less crowded Bernkastel-Kues and Eltville and Bacharach, etc. Just a different vibe. For view, the Niederwalddenkmal above Rüdesheim is great, I enjoyed it many years ago. notamermaid

Have had the problem with coffee in England in recent years. Me "I would like a coffee, please". Attendant "Americano?" Etc, etc. Me: " A normal coffee, please." (with impatient puzzled expression). I mean, when I go to a café I order coffee. What else?? Okay, could be a hot chocolate in winter. As regards the Rüdesheimer Kaffee. It is the same principle as Irish Coffee. Basically alcohol, sugar, coffee and cream. Not my cup of tea [pun intended]. I do not really like Rüdesheim. But the mechanical music machines museum does look interesting with the right person doing the explanation. From what I have read over the years and seen on land tours, other excursions are superior and other places more culturally interesting than Rüdesheim. Edit: For me, Bingen on the other side of the river at Rüdesheim is a more interesting place for various reasons. Rüdesheim is touristy old world charm with wine and merriment. With the Viking Rhine Getaway it seems that the long Black Forest excursion is the least favourite. End edit. notamermaid