notamermaid

And a good thing, too. But for your comfort the coach driver could have kept you all on board and taken another few rounds just driving you along (with air conditioning and all that). I think he should have offered that. Which sounds like "the huge Panama Canal, etc. etc., by the way here is one slight of the Canal you are going to be on" (added by me: this absolutely major engineering feat that for the first time ever has managed to connect the European continent by waterways to allow major transport and river cruising to happen). That is the way to do it. Be it lecture or guided tour. Would love to see Nuremberg, top of my list is the railway museum. notamermaid

Pfelling gauge dropped below 300cm early this morning. notamermaid

No real impact, it seems, on the river levels so far. Pfelling stands at 306cm. notamermaid

Yup! One comment. There are a few itineraries that have "sea days", i.e no daytime shore excursion, but so few that for the general argument I find they are negligible. Being in the UK, I agree with pontac, you tend to have better payment options. The continental European lines, also the ones that the brick and mortar travel agents in the UK are not so familiar with, have similar conditions to the UK, so do check the offers of CroisiEurope, Arosa and Amadeus online, if you think you will enjoy a French or German influence on your river cruise. notamermaid

One thought on that. You have included excursions in your cruise price so if do not go on these you are in a way paying for a service you are not getting (of your own choosing). You can book optional excursions for an additional price. You can be as active or inactive as you wish, but action at night you are unlikely to get and on shore there will be little opportunity at night as the ship usually does not do overnight stays in ports. If you want those check the itineraries very carefully. Some lines have evening concerts included or as an optional, in a castle or palace, have a look at those. A shorter cruise in terms of kilometres sailed compared to days spent on the ship can be an indicator of more immerse time in ports on the Danube and the Rhine but not so much necessarily on other rivers. Again, look at the itineraries carefully. If you want to be completely free of included excursions to wander off on your own you can choose one of the few lines that give you that option. notamermaid

A very useful and fun present for all those Rhine panoramas and Würzburg and Budapest - and Versailles! You know that Baroque idea was to be wide and impressive. Also Castle Howard in Yorkshire (what a dome!), but there the huge park helps with positioning the most humble of photographers, i.e. me. But back to the Main. Recently been to Aschaffenburg, that is a neat little (big-ish) palace they have on the waterfront, what a setting. I am sure that looks good in a photograph taken from the river. Speaking of the lesser known ports, while I agree with the "hop off here hop on there" logistics on the Main not being ideal on a river cruise, it is certainly right that on an Amsterdam to Budapest itinerary you need to avoid all the meanders and locks, I mean make good time on a coach, while the ship needs to follow the winding river. Or expand that itinerary by two to three days... notamermaid

Pfelling gauge stands at 307cm, i.e. is back on the downward trend but the rain promised for today has arrived in Bavaria and the temperatures have gone down quite a lot. What this does to the Danube in Bavaria when it has received the water from the upper reaches and the tributaries we will need to see this evening. notamermaid

Similar but different in that the Residenz is such a wide building that I could not fit it in from that street end angle. Better photographer and better camera would probably do the trick . notamermaid

I hope the weather improves for your tour today, but you are right, rain is needed. Grin. The rain hopefully comes at the right time to keep the Eistla well afloat in Bavaria on the Danube. The Main is certainly low but it is not a problem, thanks to the locks and deep navigation channel. The Canal will be fine as well. Thank you for all those photos. Much appreciated. notamermaid

That is nice. I understand what you mean about either having to stay on the ship and missing something or having to do the whole long tour while the ship is moving. It feels a bit regimented and takes some of the leisure aspect away. notamermaid

I see. The website gives you routes either via Trier/Luxembourg or via Saarbrücken. Validity map for the Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket: https://assets.static-bahn.de/dam/jcr:2f8310a0-3dbe-48b4-bec8-ab3366640873/203416-273548.pdf And for immersing yourself completely in the Saar-Lor-Lux-Ticket, looking to be valid on both regional trains via Saarbrücken and via Trier: https://www.cfl.lu/getmedia/61b45648-26b3-4641-8e2b-bbeec29630fe/SAAR-LOR-LUX-TICKET_22_06_01_inet.pdf.aspx I enjoyed going to Metz on the train. Return journey was on a different route from outward journey so I got a good look at the landscape of the Moselle and surrounding area. notamermaid

Merzig to Metz, yes, sounds more logical to book when you are in Germany. There is also the Saar-Lor-Lux-Ticket, but that is only valid at weekends so I reckon this does not help you? There is also the possibility of splitting into Merzig to Saarbrücken and then Saarbrücken to Metz. There is the slight chance that this is cheaper. There is the possibility of inquiring at a station and book at a ticket office, but they appear to usually ask for a booking fee of 2 euros. notamermaid

Okay, this is what else I have been able to establish. There is the Quer-Durchs-Land-Ticket, as you mention, which you can use for the whole way and as far as I can establish also between Frankfurt and Mainz as you are leaving the regional sector around Frankfurt. There is also the Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket which you can use for the journey but it is not valid between Frankfurt and Mainz as there is no agreement between the two states for that part of public transport. A few busses are also excepted. Journeys and their respective ticket combinations may show up on your screen as not being available because as the DB attendant explained the prices are not fed into the system by Hesse regional public transport authorities. That is why you can see Mainz to Cochem for example but not Frankfurt to Cochem. This makes comparing prices a bit more difficult which matters for you for the prices for Quer-Durchs-Land-Ticket 49 euros for two Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket 31 euros for two So now for the missing part Frankfurt to Mainz: looks to be 5.60 euros per person. You can buy either ticket on the day or pre-book but I do not know if you can buy the ticket for the missing part in advance. It sounds a hassle to me. Here is the Verkehrsverbund in Frankfurt: https://www.rmv.de/auskunft/bin/jp/query.exe/en#focus In short, in theory (apart from the missing bit) you can buy the whole journey in advance as a standard ticket or you can "buy as you go along" on the day which makes a lot of sense for the regional trains as you do not reserve seats on those. For the fast trains on which the special saver tickets (the two above I mean) are not valid I generally speaking would reserve seats and buy in advance for convenience. Questions are: how much money are you willing to spend for the convenience? How much money would you like to save by buying on the day and doing away with the convenience (and potential stress if you do not make the fast train you booked in advance)? Hope this helps in playing around with the intricacies of Geman rail travel. notamermaid

The French have beautiful canals which some fascinating engineering for that time, i.e. the 18th and 19th centuries. Could not believe it when I first read that the idea of the Main Danube Canal goes back over a 1000 years. But it wasn't the Romans... It was Charlemagne, the Fossa Carolina is an archaeological remnant: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossa_Carolina#/media/Datei:Fossa-luft.jpg His dream was only realized in the 1990's. But enough nerdy stuff from me. 😁 Hope they hear all this on board. notamermaid

Yesterday's rain which I did not mention as it did not look substantial to me on the weather map has turned out to be enough to push the level at Pfelling to over 300cm. Just in case there may be an error in the gauge computer reading I checked the other stations. It is correct, they have all risen accordingly since last night. Really nice. A roller coaster depending on rain and no rain... So for now all good. Pfelling is at 310cm. notamermaid

That is a highly interesting alternative. I did not know about this. Knowing the confusing stations at Frankfurt airport, this is a good idea I think to get round that problem. As an aside: @CastleCritic is it always the industrial port for Uniworld or do they use Kehl in Germany as well? notamermaid

The Main river which StartrainDD are on now is a standard German highly engineered river, making it a federal waterway, but the Main Danube Canal is "two classes above" in engineering, basically connecting the continent, it should be compulsory teaching on any "Grand European". Some info at least and a bit more for the nerds and tech guys. Perhaps that will come at Bamberg or Nuremberg or when they cross the European watershed (there is a monument there I believe). notamermaid

Würzburg Residenz is well worth seeing. If you do not feel like going in proper, just take in the interior just behind the big doors (the ticket office is not at the entrance directly and you can sneak in for 30 seconds before an attendant arrives (this is what happened to us last year, but then we decided to tour it and enjoyed it). Not too worry if it does not work. I recommend the park to the right when you face the massively impressive facade, walk around the building and at its rear is the rose garden. Ten minute stroll through it, really good. From there we headed to the shops and the Main river. There are a couple of impressive churches along the way, etc. The Marienburg is impressive and you can take public transport up there. But I have not been in because one exhibition is closed (masks also required). Very much enjoyed the Würzburger Hofbräu Biergarten at its feet at the bottom of the hill (sort of, bad description of geography by me) a couple of weeks ago. From 2020: the square with market The Residence is a challenge to squeeze into a photo! Whatever you decide to do, enjoy. notamermaid

Sorry to read that. In 2018 I really felt it when I stood at the Rhine in disbelief, thinking "where has it gone", close to tears. Hope your river cruise on the lower Danube will not be affected, news does not reach me that much here as you know, about anything beyond Budapest really, so do not know details. Whatever happens, have a great time in Budapest, a fantastically interesting city. notamermaid

Not good. And you are right about Europe, the Po river in Italy is officially experiencing a drought, news says. Snapshot at Pfelling 5pm says 276cm, literally inching closer to official statistical low water level. Bavaria experiencing the highest temperatures in Germany today. Rain along the Danube forecast for Thursday. notamermaid

Have now been able to confirm with a helpful DB employee that on the day you travel (and probably on other days) there is construction work going on near Mainz so S8 or S9 are the options instead of the standard trains. Hence the fact that the connections are different and more complicated than when you first researched. Other info to follow. notamermaid

Nice to hear from you again and glad to read you had a nice cruise. Did you enjoy all the excursions? Have you got a favourite? Thank you. notamermaid

Remember now. It is regina river cruises and they, according to a river cruise blog, now are also back to normal without any restrictions. notamermaid

Before I get too busy this week with tourism (hooray the tourists are back!) and helping out at an event, a quick look at the river levels: Maxau 463cm, on a slight upward trend forecast to end tomorrow, followed by slow steady decline Kaub 143cm, unlikely to react much to Maxau, slow steady decline Koblenz 142cm, following Kaub trend quite closely as no river in the Rhine Gorge will add much water in this heat Cologne 206cm, has reached a plateau, as the Moselle is low I expect that stretch from Koblenz to Cologne to follow the trend of the Rhine Gorge Kaub falling below 100cm? Unlikely this week. The Danube in Bavaria? Struggling! notamermaid

The forecast was brutally right and the expected happened. Pfelling gauge dropped down to 286cm already early in the morning with a further decline to 280cm by lunchtime. notamermaid