notamermaid

Awaiting the peak at Maxau and then focussing on what is happening further downstream. The whole river in Germany has now been put on flood alert. notamermaid

Hmm, err, in inimitably British fashion "keep calm and carry on" then. The Deggendorf authorities have a live feed running informing the locals of all measures, including safety road blocks including to the Danube harbour called "Freihafen". The authorities expect flood level 4 with the 8.00 metres clearly spelt out in the live feed. It may not get this far but 20cm sounds very optimistic. Looks more like 40cm to 60cm to me: Perhaps it is helpful. notamermaid

Koblenz has put up its flood defences. Maxau gauge has gone to 827cm and is still rising. Peak expected this evening. notamermaid

Could you tell me please which ones you know about apart from Karlsruhe/Maxau? I reckon Kembs lock. It has not happened at Worms yet, but is likely to happen. notamermaid

Yes. The problem in flooding (and low water) is where to dock all the ships. Parking a ship is a bit tricky with the limit allowed places there are, docking a passenger ship with safe access to land can be a real pain. Barges need to have spaces so they can keep to their rest breaks stipulated in the safety regulations. But right now the problem is that they all wait. Barges, tankers and all the river cruise ships together amounts to a lot. For a ship going through the Canal with an itinerary downstream to Budapest it may be best to stop at Nuremberg right now. From what I see on marinetraffic the Avalon Impression has been docked at Kelheim since late last night. This is likely the furthest she will get: To add further annoyance to all this, I read reports of an accident on the Main river. River traffic was halted yesterday due to oil leaking into the water. I have no time to follow this up. Passau is on flood level 3 and the river is still rising albeit a bit more slowly this morning. notamermaid

They upped their game a few years ago and appeared to be doing quite a bit for tourism when I was there. A nice old town with a bit of history. The surrounding hills not so attractive. I tend to agree that being on land may cause more problems than being on a ship right now. Passau especially is not a good place to roam around the emergency services right now as they are putting up all the defences and sand bags. I also doubt that Deggendorf has room and facilities for a hundred extra people needing a bed. However, flooding at Deggendorf is a little different from Passau as the old town is away from the river, a bit higher up. I remember the slope down to the harbour. It should help the town. Still, not comforting to @Yorkieboy1972. And I reckon emergency services would not be happy to have to take passengers of a ship in addition to their standard tasks in flooding, it is enough to handle life for the locals. By the way, Deggendorf does have a tourist information (which is closed on Sundays). At this point in time it may be more important to know what the harbour is like: https://www.hafen-deggendorf.de/pegel/ Deggendorf is expecting level 4, the highest level for flooding. notamermaid

If you believe the headlines in late summer the Rhine river is drying up. 😉 All to be taken with a bit of healthy scepticism, you are right. As a bit of brain relief from all the river gauge checking, I checked on the young, fit and healthy men chasing a ball last night on some grass in London. In fan terms, this was the Champions League final in Wembley Dortmund vs. Barcelona. My, were they skilful. Not saying who won. I am off soon, away from the computer, so better have a look at what the rivers are doing. My sky here looks a "stay at home" grey, but I have to go out. notamermaid

Eeek! Sorry to hear that. I hope the crew are watching this and are confident that this is safe. I need to retire now and wish you a safe night. Hope all goes well. notamermaid

What dock is that at Deggendorf?? I thought this was a tourist town... I am seriously puzzled. Could this be the second docking area because the prime location is occupied perhaps? It does not look comforting at all, especially going into the night. Stay safe @Yorkieboy1972. notamermaid

With the Danube, the Neckar and the Rhine flooding it is time to check on the Main. Yes, the river's levels are rising. Würzburg gauge has jumped from around 160cm yesterday to 220cm tonight; that is well above the mean, but not classified as high. The area has been getting quite a bit of rain but most clouds moved on to the Neckar river and Upper Danube river catchment area. notamermaid

By the way, waiting on the other side of the bridge at Straubing in the Viking Idi. But when the authorities ban river traffic no ship will sail any where on the stretch with the infamous bridge. The Pfelling area has this figure set at 620cm. The gauge is showing 630cm. I have no confirmation of a ban, the actual situation will be known by those directly on the river from the notification for skippers and direct contact with the authorities. In Regensburg there is talk of calling a state of emergency. The situation has got worse in the last few hours. The famous "Wurstküchl" restaurant is affected. Near Regensburg the Autobahn A3 is impassable. Not looking good at all. notamermaid

So to read that. You managed the bridge at Passau but now have to dock at Deggendorf as I reckon it it the last suitable port for river cruise ships before the bridge at Bogen. Which is not far from you: Not that it is any consolation it is just easy to see what the problem is right now as right at the bridge the barge "Insomnia" has presumably got stranded with the new river cruise ship hull. Hopefully you can get to see the area by coach, i.e. a plan B. At least Regensburg and Nuremberg. notamermaid

To expand a little on the gauges map I posted above. Passau district has three markers, one for the Danube, one for the Ilz and one for the Inn. I have enlarged it as in the large map it can cause wrong interpretation: The Danube has jumped to red, Ilz(stadt) is also on red and Inn is still on green. Red is level 3 and that is high. The gauge of the Danube reached level 3 faster than the forecast had suggested at lunchtime. Inevitably we will see it rise during the next 24 hours. The range suggested for tomorrow is relatively wide. I prefer not to speculate about an exact figure or level 4 tonight. notamermaid

Clouds are still pushing into Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg from Thuringia and Saxony, increasing and unloading rain before hitting the Alps. So most of the rain is kept out of Rhineland-Palatinate - for now. It will continue to rain tomorrow but of course we cannot say exactly where. For now, the forecast at Maxau still stands for a peak between 820cm and 830cm. For context, Mannheim gauge: Expected level for tomorrow noon local time is 697cm. That is a really fast rise. notamermaid

The heavy rainfall is showing its effect now up to Bratislava. All of Austria is showing rising levels and at Bratislava the small rise compared to yesterday is substantial enough to indicate things to come. Depending on lock action and precipitation in Austria the rise will not be exactly the same as in Germany. I cannot interpret this for you as regards river traffic but to give you an idea here is the graph for Korneuburg in Austria: https://www.noel.gv.at/wasserstand/#/de/Messstellen/Details/207241/WasserstandPrognose/48Stunden While the river is rising substantially, the actual volume of water right now coming through is not indicating major flood scenarios in Austria. So much water is still to come from the Upper Danube that the river will keep reacting for several days, so this may change. @Izengolf Quite the dramatic sky. Interesting that you have a bell warning. Church or fire brigade tower? notamermaid

Rising really fast! The authorities in Austria do not issue a river traffic ban as fast as it happens in Germany, but yes I agree that it looks as if there will be issues of some sort coming for the other states downstream from Germany. It really is major. Good to read that things are not too bad at the Isar right now. It is kind of weird, we just have a bit of rain and grey skies here. If you saw the river at Koblenz yesterday, did not read the news and came back to the river tomorrow you would be puzzled and wonder why it is rising so fast. All the brutal stuff is happening South and Southeast of Mannheim. The Moselle is up a bit but not even worth mentioning at this point. Apparently a Low over Italy is responsible for all this. notamermaid

A slight difference in reporting can happen depending on when the respective website is updated. Just saying so that folks are not confused. notamermaid

Passau gauge has shot up to 755cm. Pfelling gauge is at 612cm. Excursion boats at Kelheim do not sail. I dare not say but the scenario is eerily similar and it gave me an ominous feeling day before yesterday... Towns and villages are preparing for bad flooding. Regensburg expects flood level 2 and 3 on Sunday according to a Bavarian online newspaper. Here is a map of the gauges and their current state: The Stuttgart area is the Neckar - that goes to the Rhine. Follow the line at Ingolstadt to the left - that is the upper Danube and its right tributaries in a bad state of red and purple. notamermaid

River traffic ban confirmed around Maxau in the Upper Rhine valley. It is still raining far too much for comfort. Right now you can see the rain drifting into Germany from the opposite direction of what is normal, i.e. the West. So the vast majority of that water is coming down over the Danube catchment area: https://www.wettergefahren.de/wetter/deutschland/aktuell/radarfilm.html A small drift and more will come to the Rhine, which at this point in time we should be happy to take away from the hills if we could - it is hardly raining in the Middle Rhine valley. notamermaid

The figure is high enough for that but I have not seen it confirmed. Worms is expecting flooding and of course the river is rising all over that section now. The additional problem for them is the Neckar which joins at Mannheim. These are the respective gauges with green being normal and yellow higher than normal, orange worse, red bad and purple really, really bad. You can see the Neckar and its tributaries around Stuttgart being in a bit of a state: As Sunday progresses we may seem more river traffic bans. All gauges up to Bonn now show rising levels with Cologne to start soon. For the Rhine authorities call it flooding that happens every two years to every ten years. Where the dots are purple it is up to a 100 year flood. notamermaid

It can be fun and relaxing being among the few river cruise tourists coming to the Rhine. Remember that also European ships are hardly sailing. As a local I will say that I would find it too cold and boring but the excursions I have read about that others did in winter sound good and the castles are all there anyway. Bad weather actually adds to the dramatic scene but you can get annoying fog. Also note that daylight is less than in March for example, a big difference. There will be very few Christmassy lights left as they are taken down normally on 6 January. Past cruisers have already reported, I will just add the article of cruisecritic. The lady went on Viking in January: https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/articles/a-viking-rhine-river-cruise-in-winter My tip: see when Carnival is along the Rhine and if you can and like this merriment adjust your plans accordingly. notamermaid

Well, this not being my realm (Florida and the US as such) I googled Pollyanna. Happy optimistic child, right? I tentatively join and say that the river in contrast to the Danube may just about avoid flooding this time round. We will see how it goes next week as the river needs to take up what the Vltava, Otava and Berounka are bringing. And I fully admit that I had never read of the latter two before this year. Geography learning as a side effect of watching the river levels. notamermaid

Back from work, where to begin? Best here I think: The forecast computer was spot on. The gauge went to 750cm at 16:45 local time and is time stamp 17:30 at 754cm. It is not clear yet where we will be tomorrow but a rise to over 800cm looks certain. The peak looks to be tomorrow between 820cm and 830cm. Hopefully, the river will go down again at 10pm tomorrow. When I say hope it is with a sad note as that means that even more water is going to the Danube basin where they are having an abysmal time. SWR news confirms that the river traffic ban is in place. The Neckar river has a traffic ban also. Maxau gauge responsible for the ban around Karlsruhe is here, at Rhine kilometre 362.33: notamermaid

Uiii, sweet. The month has ended on a high for the Elbe, high water that is not flooding as we see it in other places. I will post the month of May another day. Dresden gauge is now at 217cm and the river needs to get to around 400cm before the officials call it flooding. You can see that the warnings are for the tributaries and its areas but not for the river Elbe itself: notamermaid

Well... I was just thinking the small bottles would fit better in a suitcase and be more convenient when flying. Of course, the OP can fill a suitcase with goodies to the brim if they like. Talking of wine, the Edelzwicker can be really good in Alsace and I am a fan of Gewürztraminer. In the touristy places they may be happy for the OP to select bottles and ship them. Not just in Alsace. notamermaid