notamermaid

Welcome to Cruisecritic. Unfortunately what may likely stand in your way of getting to Frankfurt is that bridge in Passau. That is for now where I see the main problem. I will go with steamboats and say that right we cannot know what will happen on Saturday exactly. To some extent the volume of water coming from Regensburg can be controlled with the locks, the Isar river comes in at Deggendorf so that is a factor to consider as well, for the forecast. Does not look promising. Bad weather: Passau gauge is at 582cm, steamboats mentioned that it is down a bit on yesterday. Until tomorrow afternoon things look good but after that the high volume of water may prove too much for the river and there is a risk of the gauge going over 630cm during the evening. Note that passage under the bridge(s) will depend on the superstructure of your particular ship so any figure I give is only a guideline. The authorities in Bavaria have written it here. "some cruise ships": notamermaid

With the uncertainty in the graph I prefer not to look far into the weekend at Maxau gauge. I would say it looks a tiny bit better than this morning. As of now, very mild flooding will happen as a certainty. What can we expect? For now I will say that the situation will ease a little during the next 20 hours then going into Friday the level is very likely to rise relatively fast so that during the course of Saturday morning the figure will be 700cm. We will know more by tomorrow afternoon. notamermaid

Over in the Danube thread I have noted the change to a weather forecast that is anticipating heavy rain over Bavaria. For the Rhine as a quick interlude let us have a quick geography lesson to explain the uncertainty in forecasts and partly the fast changes in the computer modelling. Depending on how much rain falls we will of course see the figures change in real time and in the forecasts but it also depends on where the rail falls as we have two distinct divides in the South of Germany and the adjacent areas of France. Here is the map: This is the Southwest corner of Germany with Basel marking the Rhine knee or bend where the river turns north. First divide: The red interrupted line is the early alert for flooding of the Rhine. The red stripes indicate the area where there is also an alert. That water goes to the Rhine. Above in orange is the area that is on proper flood warning. Here we have the continental divide, i.e. the water shed, so that water goes into the Danube (thick line just above it). A small shift in clouds brings a major change potentially. Second divide: In the left of the screenshot the blue line is the Moselle source area, the blue line going out of the screenshot to the top is the Saar. Both rivers drain into the Rhine but much further North so that water will not go to the Upper Rhine valley but the Middle Rhine valley. A shift in the clouds over the Vosges mountains that separate the rivers from the Rhine (in your mind put those mountains in the grey area between the blue lines and Strasbourg) can cause a major change in the forecasts for the river levels. That's it. In short: quite some uncertainty in the forecast. notamermaid

Quite a bit of speculating, you are right. The graphs for the Rhine do not look good but keep changing a little by the hour. As of now Kelheim (before Regensburg) is showing a definite rise in the forecast on Saturday but how all that rain will translate into the gauge readings at Passau is guesswork. Viking is guessing the rise will be substantial, from what I read they could be right about that bridge. Other than that - "schaun wir mal". We will see. Hope the Isar will behave. Passau now is at 581cm so all good and likely to stay that way tomorrow. notamermaid

Welcome to Cruisecritic. Interesting - and good of Viking - that they announce the change in good time. The high water does not show on the gauges yet but can well be anticipated. On your itinerary it revolves around the fact that there is the low bridge at Passau which I reckon Viking is seeing as becoming impassable. Hence the fact that you will be embarking at Passau, i.e. the most likely explanation for the change. In order to still give you the experience of Regensburg they offer the coach tour. This has been mentioned on Cruisecritic before and from what I recall it was a loss of time in Passau. Should you not get an answer directly from a past cruiser the respective roll call may be helpful. Access it via https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/851-viking-river-roll-calls/ Have a great trip. notamermaid

We expect some flooding along the Rhine, but the rain clouds are also sweeping East quite fast. There is now a (pre)alert for heavy rain from Friday for most of Bavaria. River levels fine for now. We will know more on Friday. notamermaid

The tanker stranded at Cochem and occupying the Viking landing stage has finally left, equipped with emergency repairs and a rather odd-looking wheelhouse. We will see higher river levels due to the rain that has set in, but as of now the river is so low at Trier that the modelling shows no flooding in the next 48 hours. On the Rhine this looks a little different. notamermaid

Computer modelling has put the High Rhine on a pre-alert for flooding. That is from the mouth of the Aare river with the Rhine to Basel. The next river section, Basel to Strasbourg/Kehl has no such status yet. The modelling for Maxau gauge is a bit better than last night but it is clear that we will see flooding. The figure now is 649cm, flood vigilance kicks in at 650cm. While exact figures for tomorrow and Friday can only be tentative we can safely say that 700cm is a level we should expect by Saturday. Unfortunately, it may not stop there. Rainy weather has certainly set in and I can see heavy rain coming down over the Vosges mountains on the radar imaging. This water is feeding the Meurthe and the Moselle with the remaining reduced clouds raining over the Alsace side, meaning Strasbourg, etc., from where the rain feeds the Rhine. This morning it looks as if the bands of rain will "unload" mostly in the West and not give much rain to Bavaria. This of course may change tomorrow. Kaub gauge is likely to reach flood mark I on Monday or Tuesday. We will review the situation tonight. notamermaid

That is a neat design on the AmaMagna, great work of the engineers. Common rule remains that the elevator does not go to the sun deck due to the low bridges. Do check each individual ship if this is important to you. Rafting can be an issue, also the ramps/gangplanks, in low water. Low water can also change your docking space, meaning the prime spot is not available. The more flexible you can be and adapt to these situations the better for your convenience and enjoyment. notamermaid

While the Moselle is doing okay and the Saar is down to almost normal, the clearing up is still happening along the Saar river and some roads are still closed. The Saar river is navigable at this level but due to the debris the authorities have unexpectedly decided to keep the river traffic ban in place until Friday. A sonar ship is evaluating the navigation channel: https://www.sr.de/sr/home/nachrichten/panorama/saar_weiter_fuer_schiffsverkehr_gesperrt_100.html notamermaid

Maxau gauge is back on flood mark I, as expected and likely to reach the flood vigilance status late tomorrow. Basel as I mentioned on Sunday is expecting a high volume of water and the forecast appears to have worsened a bit, i.e. there may be more water coming down the Rhine than had been thought. This will happen in the second half of Thursday. Likewise, the modelling for Maxau shows that rise on Friday. As the modelling can change significantly within a few hours I will leave it at that and report back tomorrow. I am not an alarmist but I do admit that I do not like the graph and reports. Newspapers like dramatic headlines but I kind of share that nervous sentiment at this point at least. notamermaid

On the gravestone we see a globe, a bridge, a river and mathematical symbols in a book. Maths and water is engineering and hydrology in this case, but what is that scroll with what looks like ribbons on it? It shows the Rhine and its meanders, but with the straight line dominating, meaning running above and cutting through the other ribbons. The gravestone is that of Johann Gottfried Tulla who straightened the Upper Rhine and as they say "tamed" it. The Upper Rhine valley had been an ever changing river with no one bed as we know it today, but a series of channels that changed in flooding and drought as well as wide meanders. In 1809 Tulla presented his plan to straighten the Rhine after having worked on the regulation of the Swiss river Linth. Here is the Wikipedia page in German with the photo I have cropped in the previous post: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Gottfried_Tulla The English page is a little short: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Gottfried_Tulla Shipping as we know it today was not possible in the far Upper Rhine valley until fairly late and modern barges only reached Basel in 1904 - it was a successful trial run. This is how the Swiss reported on 100 years of modern shipping in 2004: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/banking-fintech/basel-s-shipping-industry-turns-100/68136 notamermaid

Ever wondered what the Rhine looked like at the time the Romantic movement brought the first proper tourists to the area? Okay, I should start from scratch. "Tourists" in that term have been around only since the 1770s and the Romantics flocked to the Middle Rhine valley - or lived there - from about 1790 and well into the 19th century, depending on whether you look at literature, paintings or music. I suppose one could argue that the heirs of that sentiment are still coming to the area... Well, with the hills and the castles that are still there (albeit a bit rebuilt and modernized for modern man who likes trains and roads) we can leave that area aside and have a look at the Lower Rhine valley - which I will skip as it has become industrial partly and has a more or less straight historic development - and the Upper Rhine valley. That is a part of the Rhine valley which may be almost unrecognizable to the early travellers of 1770. We will have a look at that in more detail. The years 1815 to 1850 have brought many changes to the Rhine valley geographically, economically and politically with the industrial revolution playing a huge part. But for the Upper Rhine valley one man can be said to have caused a revolution, not politically but for the Rhine river, a major slow but brutal change. I start at the end. Should you ever happen to walk past this gravestone in Paris you will after the next post know what the engravings are about (courtesy of a photographer, I will link to the page in the next post): notamermaid

And just to complete the picture, the Saar is down from a ridiculously high level to a more normal level: notamermaid

Just a brief mention - the river has much improved and looks to have quite a bit of room now for rain that may be coming next week. The gauges in France (Grand Est) are all on green so looking good there as well. This is the graph at Metz, much improved since that huge wave a good week ago: notamermaid

From what I can tell river cruises are running smoothly. Lots of ships about on the river and signalling on the tracker websites in all the standard ports. Again, details I cannot know but the river levels are okay as far as the authorities' regulations are concerned. I should mention that the river is divided into several sections which have their own specific levels at which the authorities issue a river traffic ban. M_II is that line on a graph, for the Rhine gauges. At Kaub this is clearly marked on the wall: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegel_Kaub#/media/Datei:PegelKaubRhein.JPG When that level is reached the ban is in the Rhine Gorge but not at Andernach for example. That is already another section with a different gauge as marker. notamermaid

Hmm, improve from now, no I would not say so. The river is let us say undulating at a high level in the Upper Rhine valley. Just plain high without causing trouble - unless some one reports on changing ports or a problem at Basel for example. Those are details I can never know. The river is running comparatively high for May but it is not a big deal as such from what I can tell here. The Middle Rhine valley is high but fine. It is going to be cloudy with some rain during the week, hence the undulating graph(s) of the river level. The Moselle has much improved meaning we can expect continued high but favourable levels beyond the mouth of the Moselle with the Rhine at Koblenz. These two graphs together may help to illustrate what I mean. First, Maxau is staying high: Second, Andernach not far beyond Koblenz is not seeing that: It is difficult to say how much influence the Main and Moselle have day on day but it always eases the situation when the two large tributaries are at relatively normal levels. Before those two there is the Neckar river which can of course also flood. It reaches the Rhine at Mannheim which is downstream from Maxau gauge. That river is still running a little high but has gone down alright since last week. I think "vigilance" is indeed the right word for the Upper Rhine valley now. Basel is doing okay but forecast to rise. That gauge is a bit more difficult to interpret so I cannot put it into perspective, I just read that the authorities expect a higher volume of water in that stretch over the next week, i.e. the area will see rain in varying amounts. notamermaid

A bit more on the docking at Koblenz on the Moselle. There is another area where river cruise ships can anchor, it is at Rauental. From what I recall seeing this is not exactly what I regard as a prime location or even just an attractive area of the city. But it has been a long time since I was in the vicinity. On marinetraffic.com it looks like this: The MS Elegant Lady is there tonight. On the right in the photo you can see the lock and dam. I have seen river cruise ships dock there on occasion in the past, but I have no idea why they do not dock close to the standard area at Balduinbrücke. On the left bank of the Moselle is the marina, quite a nice spot, with a small restaurant and hotel. On the right is the home of the Koblenzer Ruderclub Rhenania, i.e. close to where the MS Elegant Lady is docked. I think I should consider this spot for a cup of coffee next time I am in the vicinity... notamermaid

A bit of speculation around the hull BN 213, intriguing. It has arrived in Werkendam in the Netherlands apparently, for outfitting. That is where the Concordia Damen shipyard is. The info I found on the website says that this will be a hybrid propulsion ship and 135m long, with especially low draft. The shipyard built the Arosa Sena with her innovative propulsion. The Arosa Sena is the largest river cruise ship on the Rhine. notamermaid

Here she is: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:330328/mmsi:269057333/imo:0/vessel:KATHARINA_VON_BORA As I write she is in Hennigsdorf/Heiligensee whereabouts. That looks to be the Eastern itinerary away from Berlin. Here destination is given as Barth in the Bodden landscape near Stralsund. Never knew that you could sail around there. Not sure that the Katharina von Bora will sail right to that port inland, but there are excursion boats around there. I found this beauty which looks a little out of place in Germany, somewhat American, the River Star, sailing from Zingst to Zingst today: https://reederei-poschke.de/schiffe/river-star She was built in Poland(!) in 2003. I love that paddle wheel. @RDVIK2016 thank you for the photos. The Spree in Berlin does have a lot of excursion boat traffic and its waters reach the Elbe via the Havel of course. I am not sure that the Spree has the ability to take river cruise ships for much of its course but a lot of its water splashes around the ships that dock at Spandau when in Berlin. That is close to the mouth of the Spree with the Havel. Incidentally, both the Frederic Chopin and the Johannes Brahms are in greater Berlin right now and sailing as I write. notamermaid

The Bavarian Forest is a beautiful region with some high mountains. I went to Cham many years ago. It is a pity that it is not visited really from river cruise ships. I guess people do travel via that road on the way to Prague occasionally, not sure. It is not spectacular but a really nice contrast to the valley. It is just under an hour away from Regensburg. notamermaid

As expected, Maxau gauge has gone to flood vigilance but it is not a big deal. It is already past the peak.Next week will see continued high levels with the gauge going in and out of the threshold for flood vigilance. Kaub gauge will stay high but most likely do not go over 400cm. All good. Interesting sight today on the Rhine - I have read. I did not see it myself. Another hull transport of a river cruise ship is happening. You may be able to spot the double barge Johanna pulling the BN 213 hull alongside between Düsseldorf and Duisburg tonight. I do not know which river cruise ship the hull will become. notamermaid

Interesting sightseeing boats and water sports about. On the Rhine we have the typical excursion boats. Talking of boats and ships. On Lake Constance you still get the great old steam ships and one that was deliberately sunk a group of enthusiasts is trying to raise from the lake bed. That body of water is DEEP... The ship is called the "Säntis". Basically, the Lake is one giant dumping ground/graveyard for ships and boats of many shapes and sizes. https://www.iamexpat.ch/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/130-year-old-swiss-steamship-be-raised-bottom-lake-constance notamermaid

Exciting! Have a great time on the river. This is a bridge which should not cause any water level problems, it is at Esztergom. I think not many river cruises with the North-American lines stop at Esztergom. My German cruise stopped there and I remember it well, an enjoyable morning: notamermaid

Quick update on the river in Germany. Pfelling gauge is fairly high, but the river can take it. Passau gauge is forecast to stay below 600cm today and tomorrow. notamermaid