notamermaid

So both ships are now in position. Ready to sail! Hope it will be a good season. And the Sans Souci? She has a few more "days off". Her season starts with the first sailing on 17 March, which will take her not onto the Elbe but East to the Oder and upstream as far as Breslau. I still think it is a pity that Plantours has no bi-lingual itineraries. That is the company the Sans Souci sails for. But it may be possible to do something like that outside of the charter agreement with Plantours. I will get to that another time. notamermaid

Storm warning for the Southwest of Germany This included Basel, Kehl for Strasbourg, and Breisach earlier but is easing. The Black Forest on storm warning level 3 is not a recommended place for walks. Other areas are on levels 1 and 2. The highest level we can have is 4. You can look this up here: https://www.dwd.de/DE/wetter/warnungen_landkreise/warnWetter_node.html It looks as if this is getting better as the morning progresses. notamermaid

The Wilhelm Tell has got a problem, she cannot return home. This beautiful old vessel, a steam ship, has been decommissioned, if that is the word, and is no longer allowed to sail under its own steam, i.e. engine. It has been a restaurant ship on the Vierwaldstättersee - Lake Lucerne - for decades but went into a shipyard for overhaul. As the ship can no longer sail another boat needs to push it across the lake. A storm warning prevented the procedure yesterday and this morning after initial preparations they stopped with it. Here is the MS Wilhelm Tell ready to leave, but now she has to stay in the shipyard till tomorrow: https://www.luzernerzeitung.ch/zentralschweiz/stadt-region-luzern/vierwaldstaettersee-raddampfer-wilhelm-tell-rueckfahrt-musste-abgebrochen-werden-ld.2427486 It is quite windy down there in the South of Germany and in Switzerland. Lake Constance by the way is so big that it has its own storm warning "gauge" as it reacts much more than the Rhine itself. I love those steamships in Switzerland and on Lake Constance. Sadly we have no real steamers left on the Rhine. The "MS Goethe" is a paddle wheeler without steam. notamermaid

I suggested going from Basel on the Rhine to the young Danube. You may think this is a bit of an unusual suggestion - it is - seeing that the Danube is quite a distance from the Rhine - it is not. I have marked it on the map, the town I chose is Donaueschingen, the name says it, is already the Danube: Konstanz with Lake Constance - highly recommended - is to the right of the photo, I have cut off nearly half of it. From Stuttgart on the Neckar you get there even faster as a motorway is conveniently close by. notamermaid

The level at Pfelling did indeed stay stable overnight, The rise started a bit earlier than forecast. It is now at 340cm and anticipated to rise to 400cm and above during tomorrow. notamermaid

Danube water level graphs are now showing the rises in the forecast. Tomorrow afternoon we will see a significant jump in figures, not just along the upper reaches but also at Kelheim, Regensburg and Straubing. Pfelling is getting a little low, now at 312cm and likely to remain stable for the next few hours, meaning not a significant further decline. Rise to follow in due course after Regensburg and Straubing so probably tomorrow evening. notamermaid

The forecast was almost spot on, very good computer modelling. Monday gave the lowest figure at Kaub as 92cm, the actual level dipped very briefly to 91cm (two 15-minute readings were 90cm, basically negligible) and is now around 100cm. Next few days will see that fast rise I mentioned but it looks as if it will not be as high as had been suggested on Monday. Maxau may well stay under 520cm, Kaub may well stay under 300cm. So no flooding. Right, back to Nickenich. notamermaid

The Riverside Mozart is ready to sail! Binnenschifferforum ship spotter reports that the name is now on the hull, both painted on and screwed on: https://www.binnenschifferforum.de/showthread.php?112293-Riverside-Mozart-KFGS-04805980&p=454721#post454721 notamermaid

Yes, it was too dry here as well. All change. The puddles are massive today. I saw footage of Alnwick Castle in snow. Lovely. When I was Nickenich it was a warm spell and I actually saw a butterfly (photo coming up in the Rhine thread). Nothing flying today, not even the magpies, but I did hear birds, the ones that do not leave us in winter. While the temperatures are set to rise, it may only be an interlude. Spring not yet in the vicinity. During the afternoon I happened to spot the Excellence Coral in the Koblenz webcam. She sails for a Swiss company. Ships are definitely out and about now, one after the other leaving Cologne Niehl harbour sailing to their embarkation ports. notamermaid

Schnee!! 😊 The afternoon rain turned into snow during the night, I saw a tiny glimpse of it. Enough to make me happy even it is all gone already. A couple of river cruise ships that are sailing to their embarkation ports now may have even had some flakes dropping onto the sun deck during the night. Above 300m it is still cold today so the snow may be staying there for a bit. Overall the ground is too warm in the valleys in the west of Germany though. My tourism board for Rhineland-Palatinate is busy at the ITB in Berlin. Saw the footage on telly. Nice stalls. Yes, we want more tourists to come! Who wouldn't? 😉 They bring money. But for me it is also time to speak some more English again, I am a bit starved of interesting conversations in person. My last British tourist that I met in a business capacity was from Scotland, some time in November I think. Talking of tourists: I was a bit surprised to hear Dutch quite a bit in Cochem on the Moselle. Even in the winter on grey days they come to the Moselle apparently. I can understand it, for me the river always has appeal. Not necessarily Cochem but in general certainly. Oh, and Piesport was the focus of the report from the ITB. That is a wine village close to Traben-Trarbach. Must have a look at that place on a nice sunny day this year. notamermaid

Would love to see that, especially the castle there, love it. I fell in love with the green pastures and sheep of the lowlands when I was ten through photos in a school project, went to England for the first time in my teens but only managed to get to Scotland for the first time in my thirties. notamermaid

I mentioned Ingolstadt in my last post. This town, administratively classified as a city, is in Bavaria, the region is Oberbayern. Before the Danube becomes an international waterway it has already run through Germany for 500km. Ingolstadt is one of several towns along that stretch. It is somewhat a pity that river cruisers hardly ever get to see anything of the "young" Danube. Would people be interested in exploring the region I wonder? You could actually fly into Basel or Stuttgart and take a coach to the Danube. However, all exploration would have to be on land as there is no boat with an engine allowed on the Danube up to Kelheim. With a tiny exception. But that is for another time. This is Ingolstadt as described in an English brochure: https://newcityplatform.de/wp-content/uploads/ingolstadt-tourismus-historic-city-tour-online.pdf Quite a bit to see. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, ring a bell? Yes, the doctor studied in Ingolstadt in her novel. This is the place, now the German Museum of Medical History: https://www.dmm-ingolstadt.de/ One could offer a pre-cruise to Ulm, Ingolstadt and Kelheim and then board a river cruise ship in Regensburg. notamermaid

Well, we did have Moby Dick on holiday in 1966. And, yes, the ones reporting the sighting to the police had to take a blood alcohol test: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_Dick_(Rhine) Some original footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFBGhB-APMs I reckon there will be quite a bit of playing the film music to "Das Boot" during the television coverage of this transport. notamermaid

Save the date! Actually, I do not know the exact date yet, but have just seen the announcement that a U-Boot, a genuine submarine, is coming up the Rhine. It will be in April and I will try and find out more details that are hopefully not full of cookies or behind a paywall, to post in the Rhine thread. The submarine is going to the Technik Museum in Speyer. So this is a pre-warning, if you are on your river cruise ship and see a submarine, it is not the result of any drinks you may have had. 😁 notamermaid

Both Viking Astrild and Viking Beyla have left the Tangermünde winter harbour and have sailed today along the Elbe. So I guess they will soon be in position to receive the first passengers of the season. Well, the guests arriving on Wednesday in Berlin may encounter snow! Whereas other regions of Germany will see the temperatures rise after a short cold spell with snow, the weather will persist longer in the East and the roads may stay white for more than a few hours. Wrap up warm and have your cameras ready! By the way, the smaller German vessel Sans Souci, which can dock in Berlin, is here, if you happen to get to Spandau you may spot her: notamermaid

As promised here is my little report on a trip to the Eifel region in Rhineland-Palatinate with a surprising find - Roman antiquities "in the middle of nowhere". A trip to Nickenich village in the volcanic Eifel part 1 On Monday before Carnival I went to the area for a specific purpose but left myself enough time for a leisurely stroll to see a place I had not been to for many years. It turned out not to be the best day of the week for this but I will explain that later in my report. I went to the area not so long ago, but Nickenich has been only a vague memory from teenage years. This is deep German geography so I will give you an idea of what to expect. If you live in the forests of Canada with the next building five miles away you will find this place relatively populous, if you are visiting from Cologne this is countryside. On the map this is a 12 minute drive to west from Andernach and a 20 minute drive from Koblenz to the Northwest, right next to the "eye" - Laach lake. The volcanic lakes are nicknamed the "Eyes of the Eifel" and there are quite a few of them. We parked the car at the town hall and looked for a big town map display. Could not find one but found the plaque describing the impressive town hall building in German, English and French (!). A first surprise in such a small place. Either they get many tourists or they have a bit of money to just do it anyway... The town hall which turned out to have been built by Koblenz architect Johann Claudius von Lassaulx: The plaque: Turns out Nickenich has quite a few plaques and the next one is just a few metres up the road at the even more impressive Catholic Church Sankt Arnulf, which as you can read is another work of Lassaulx: As the plaque says, the church tower is Romanesque, very old and the main church is from the 19th century. For a place that only had just over a thousand inhabitants when the church was built, this struck me as an expensive undertaking and a famous architect on top of that. And then the possible explanation came to me: the stone! This area is full of building material that can be quarried and you can tell that many houses, the town hall and the church are made of relatively local material or even the Eifel volcanic rocks. Quarries "just down the road"? Perfect! This is not a poor agricultural village. And it turns out a place inhabited for quite a bit more than the 950 years the town website says the village has celebrated to be in existence. To be continued... notamermaid

You could have a look at youtube videos as well to give you an idea of what it looks like. Although in German, I find this video comprehensive, lots of details. Ask me if you would like to know anything the gentleman says (i.e. give me the time stamp). Just a couple of things, this is cabin number 315 on the Amakristina when she sailed under special German charter. The foldable chair can be transformed into a small bed for a child. The computer is also the television. The cabin also has an American socket that he points out. The Amakristina is now deployed on the Rhone: On another website it says that this category is 210 sq ft in size. I cannot link to such sites as they are online agents as well. Google Amakristina cabin size 315, or similar for another ship. May get you the info you would like. notamermaid

Kaub is now at 98cm, so the forecast scenario has been very close to what the river is actually doing. The lowest level suggested is now 92cm, from there we should see the river rise late on Thursday. Maxau in the Upper Rhine valley is a very good indicator of things to come. The tentative forecast suggests a sharp rise on the 12th with the peak on the 13th and it indicates that mild flooding status may be reached. This does not automatically translate into flooding at Kaub or further downstream but the rise will be substantial. In figures: Maxau is at 378cm and may well get to 620cm and a bit further. Which does not necessitate a ban on shipping, it is unlikely to get that high. Still, it is staying interesting. Especially as there may be late winter snow in the hills at an altitude as low as 200m.. notamermaid

If my experience and from what I have learnt on this board are enough to judge this I would say that Germans are less chatty than American cruisers, meaning will not automatically engage as much with others. But as you said, you were fine with it. notamermaid

It is cold in Germany, but we have a weather situation you may not expect, although it is not that uncommon an occurrence. While the West and North are cold, Southern Bavaria actually sees little snow compared to the rest of Germany and Munich's temperatures are set to rise possibly into the double digits. After snow and much rain, this warmer weather will get to other regions of Germany, too. And we can expect the Danube to rise quite a bit, the forecast for the upper Danube before Ingolstadt is already showing this. notamermaid

A quick look to see if anything has changed to what I posted on Friday. No, it basically still stands. We should get through that little low fine, current level is 102cm, drop to somewhere between 95cm and 85cm on 7/8 March, then a fast rise on the 10th. And that could be substantial, up to 300cm is likely and maybe further on the 13th. Which is a fast rise for the river but we have seen this kind of situation in previous years in winter. notamermaid

And now for something completely different - the river Ems. To put it into context, i.e. on the European map for you, here is the blown up course of this waterway in Northern Germany: On the map on the right find Münster, sail north, turn left into the Ems, to the right is the Mittellandkanal. The Ems comes from East of Münster, shown is only the navigable part. In this area you are in the Northern Plains of Germany, so virtually no hills. Very different from the Rhine South of Düsseldorf. That is where I cut off the map, Cologne is just off the map at the bottom. Why am I mentioning this? The Ems is sailed by river cruise ships but normally is not the focus of any itinerary. However, in this article is described a short river cruise that sails on the Ems, starting in Amsterdam and then following the German river up to the town of Lingen. The North German television channel follows this special itinerary, to be broadcast on 29/30 March: https://www.ndr.de/fernsehen/sendungen/die_nordreportage/Mini-Kreuzfahrt-auf-der-Ems,sendung1338294.html The ship Johannes Brahms takes the Northern route via Groningen and Emden, then sails up the river via Papenburg. Papenburg is home to the huge shipyard that builds ocean cruise ships. So this is all in German and not feasible for you most likely but you can see Papenburg on a river cruise - I have mentioned Viva Cruises and the Swiss Ruby. But CroisiEurope also again offers the Amsterdam to Berlin route this year, which gives you Papenburg and a stretch of the Ems. notamermaid

That should be fine, definitely in (mild) low water as you are not going into the stretch from Straubing to Vilshofen. There is of course a risk of flooding which does not look too likely right now. But April is a long way away yet for the weather conditions and river levels. As a side note for river cruisers: during official flooding the authorities stop river traffic (in Germany) so no chance of company or captain doing anything about that. I am not familiar with the other countries' regulations. When the river rises a notorious bridge in Passau can stop your ship from sailing, passage may be difficult to impossible before there is an actual ban on traffic. I have not heard of Emmersdorf as a port before, it appears it will be used on your Amadeus itinerary for access to Melk and its magnificent abbey. Went there on my cruise at the beginning of April 2013. Amazing place. I enjoyed almost everything about my Passau return cruise, I did more or less your itinerary. The company I went with is defunct, but the MS Belvedere stills sail on the Danube and sometimes the Main. Passau return trip is typical with German river cruise companies. One of the great things was seeing winter turn into early spring within that week. Falling asleep in a deck chair wrapped in a blanket in early spring sunshine one afternoon. Bliss. Have a great cruise. notamermaid

Quite a lot is happening in the tourism industry and river cruising among this, several interesting news items have come up in my searches and next week there is obviously the ITB again, the famous tourism fair in Berlin. I will not be going, too far. Closer to home tourism is also picking up. All promising for this year. Unfortunately, my plan for a short river cruise has not worked out. My travel companion had access to a special deal for a specific date which made the whole adventure cheaper, but it just so happens that I have to work within that short four day river cruise. No chance changing work schedule on this occasion. Which has left me a wee bit disappointed. Perhaps another time... notamermaid

It is March and time to look at what the river did at Kaub in February. Here is the graph: The month started with a pleasant, slightly low for this time of year, level and rain brought the figures up to just above the mean. A steady, relatively fast, decline followed promptly but stabled itself when reaching 125cm. The end of the month saw a further drop which has now resulted in a low level that should not be ignored in these now dry weather conditions. The cold keeps snow in the high mountains but further falling of the water level is also slow in the cold. However, without enough precipitation we need to anticipate levels that get the river to a low that could potentially affect river cruise ships - an unusual occurrence in March. Looking ahead from the current level of 106cm into tomorrow and Sunday we see a further reduction in numbers but still keeping above 100cm. That is a little better than the chart had suggested 48 hours ago. This trend is expected to continue Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday into Wednesday are still considered to be the days with the lowest levels and the probability tells us that the figures are most likely to be below 97cm but keeping very likely quite a bit above 85cm. All in all this is a bit better than was suggested four days ago when the second week of March came closer into view in the computer calculations. That was a longer close look at Kaub. In short, the first sailings are now a little less likely to experience any affect from the low water situation, especially as a fast return to levels above 100cm could happen on 10 March. notamermaid