notamermaid

Maxau gauge has peaked. notamermaid

Welcome to Cruisecritic. From what the authorities' website is saying all of Austria is good to go now and @dlf aust has just confirmed that traffic is moving to and from Engelhartszell. You are probably in Vienna by now. Just under four days to get to Regensburg. Hmm... Pfelling, Hofkirchen and Passau need to be under HSW (highest level permitted for river traffic). There is the assumption by the authorities that this may likely happen by Thursday. The figures as of now, and HSW: Pfelling 630cm , HSW 620cm Hofkirchen 507cm, HSW 480cm Passau (Danube) 759cm, HSW 780cm notamermaid

On the German Danube that is a waterway for commercial river traffic the authorities have two different masures that they apply at the moment, by that I mean one section is open for traffic, the other is not. The whole river is still high, but the level has gone done enough now. So we can look forward to having the whole river back soon. From Kelheim, where the Main Danube Canal connects to the Danube, to Jochenstein/Passau-Achleiten (border area), the river is a German federal waterway. Right now, as posted before, we have the section from Kelheim (km 2414.7) to above Straubing lock (km 2321.8) open to traffic with a vigilance warning for debris and displaced buoys: The Section from Straubing lock (km 2321.8) to Jochenstein (km 2201.8)/Passau-Achleiten (km 2223.21) is still closed and will be open again when the gauges at Pfelling, Hofkirchen and Passau fall below the highest level permitted level for river traffic (HSW). This sounds better than when I posted about that section not being fit for traffic. Sounds as if safety checks were favourable. Really promising. notamermaid

The level at Würzburg fell quickly and is now back down to normal: The whole wave left the Main late on the 8th. All looking good. We can return to the topic of floats and wood transport. And fun dancing. notamermaid

I see. It has been a lot to deal with for you. Hope you find calm and can look forward to happy travels in the near future. notamermaid

River doing well, forecast was quite correct. Rise minimal since this morning. notamermaid

This leaves part of the German Danube, but first to the level at Budapest: It did not rise further than what they call "Lower Quay", when apparently that embankment (section) is closed. I could not find out if this just applies to the road or also affects docking locations. So the river will stay high for a bit but the slow further decline is already showing in the forecast. notamermaid

Austria have updated the status of their Danube waterway in the last few hours. Now that looks lovely, green and free, previously there still had been closures among those entries: Note that all others are on green as well and have been for a while. I have just not copied them. notamermaid

Welcome to Cruisecritic. On the 17th of June you will leave on your ship on the Main Danube Canal. You are there on a man-made waterway, well-controlled. I could not find any problems mentioned on German news or other resources. You will get to Kelheim and onto the Danube presumably the same night as usually the first port of call is then Regensburg. The river is free to sail there now, so you will most likely be that in that splendid old city when you are scheduled to be. Sailing is a bit slower than usual but let that not worry you. It is just for vigilance. By the 17th that regulation may already have been removed. Things are improving a bit slowly as regards level but fast as regards actual river traffic recovery. Not to worry. Oh - and read on for more information coming up in my next post. notamermaid

Not sure, but generally it appears that the wave of water as it travels down the Danube has lost some of its severity. After Budapest it all depends on rain and the authorities' reactions in those countries. It is the 11th of June today and the crest of the wave is leaving Hungary. The level will stay high. I am not familiar with the river that far away so will need to leave it at that. As you can read from a current river cruiser, Budapest is coping with the level they have well. notamermaid

Welcome to Cruisecritic. The date is near for you, but river cruise companies can do a lot of adjusting during these coming days and the river looks in better shape that it did a few days ago. It looks as if "we" will get another stretch of river back soon. More info coming later. notamermaid

Not really, only three. Unless they have positioned the Maya well, the Isla will be on her own. Will address the announcements of the authorities in the evening. notamermaid

Back earlier than expected. Confirming that Maxau gauge has crossed the line. Now at 754cm and rising. Peak expected between 9pm and 10pm tonight. River traffic suspended: https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/baden-wuerttemberg/karlsruhe/schifffahrt-auf-rhein-bei-karlsruhe-eingestellt-100.html Lake Constance now at 509cm. Two centimetres more than yesterday is not much but at this point in time substantial for such a large body of water. It is glacial in origin and very deep. Read yesterday what is thought to be lying in the Lake. You know, body count and ship count. Fun fact, the Lake is 63km long which makes it just 2km shorter than the so-called Rhine Gorge where all the castles are. I mean, that is a long lake. And the sheer mass of it is impressive when you stand at the shore. It has its own micro-climate. This is how the Alpine Rhine flows controlled into Lake Constance, in the Lake it is called the "Seerhein", after it has flown out it is the High Rhine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Constance#/media/File:Aerial_image_of_the_mouth_of_the_Rhine_into_Lake_Constance.jpg All in all though, people around the Lake are still fairly relaxed about it. It has been higher when the impact was of course greater, like at Whitsuntide 1999. notamermaid

Still one relatively short leg out of the Amsterdam to Budapest itineraries (or vice versa) missing. That is not much longer than the river kilometres that would need to be bridged if there was low water around Pfelling. Apart from the lock issues in Austria that is... So, a coach ride is still necessary in between. Any ship docked in Nuremberg or Regensburg now will not be in Passau by tomorrow. Rhine flooding by the way unlikely to affect the itinerary as the Main confluence with the Rhine is accessible. notamermaid

It appears that there is also a lock closure in Austria again: notamermaid

Welcome to Cruisecritic. The ship is still tied up in Kelheim and although allowed to sail from there is unable to make it to Budapest or even leave Germany. A small section of the river is still banned for traffic. Not sure when that will be free and she can actually try to get to Hungary. notamermaid

Maxau gauge now at 731cm. No change to forecast. Will be back to report tomorrow afternoon or evening. notamermaid

That Mclaren I mentioned earlier. I happened to be in town the other day when there was some party with a stand to promote themselves for the election yesterday. The scene: A few people stand around talking, then this car drives up to the stall, parks near a "normal" car. Sudden busy running around of party members gathering for photos. I hear excited comments about the Mclaren (did not know it was one) with one man saying "absolutely great car, just gets too hot and then you have to stop for a bit to let it cool down". Heads turn, even one woman who happens to be passing takes a photo. Photos taken, guy drives out of the parking lot and with a big mechanical roar the black car is gone. Several men spend seconds with longing eyes and more comments just standing there as if they have just seen the most beautiful woman in the world or the toy they want for Christmas. Really brought a smile to my face. But as a car I would say the 60ies Mercedes I saw the same day caught my eye more. notamermaid

Good question actually because one may assume that there is something artificial about the Lake. While the inlet of the Rhine is controlled with regulatory embankments and groynes, for want of a more professional explanation, but not a lock; the outlet of the Lake, i.e. the Rhine has no dam and no lock. There is no way to control the water flow there. Wikipedia page of the Bodensee in German: "Die Pegel sind starken witterungsbedingten (Winddrift) und jahreszeitlichen Schwankungen ausgesetzt. Der Bodensee hat keinen Damm und keine Schleuse am Abfluss, daher ist eine künstliche Regulierung des Wasserstands nicht möglich." The Lake actually consists of three lakes that are connected to each other. At Lake Constance all that can happen at a river can happen there too. Roads along the shore flooded, cellars flooded, ferries not running, bridge too dangerous or overflowing as well as not enough headroom under it. Or docking locations become inaccessible. In addition to that there is regular boat service as part of public transport on the Lake. I read that there are a few disruptions to that now. This is the bridge that has too little headroom for the local boats, so the local authority is informing the citizens in this article about the disruptions to service: https://www.konstanz-info.com/news/brueckensperrung-in-konstanz-schiffsverkehr-zwischen-kreuzlingen-und-gottlieben-faellt-aus notamermaid

Yes, I saw they were both together in Kelheim last night. notamermaid

As a side note: I read in the roll calls that even Viking has cancelled river cruises. The disruption has just been too much. German river cruise companies have of course also cancelled cruises or rerouted them. Passau is the main embarkation port for the German cruise lines, together with Engelhartszell. When these ports are not accessible, the companies take passengers from Passau to the next available port for embarkation. Almost all German river cruises on the Danube are round trips. On the Rhine the logistics are different and embarkation ports vary a lot more. notamermaid

Inn and Danube have risen again so that the small town of Schärding on the Inn river has put is flood defenses back up: https://ooe.orf.at/stories/3260552/ What does this mean in figures? It does not show much in the graph but at this point in time it is crucial that both rivers do not rise again: You can see the tiny rise, it is not much but it means that rather than going further down into the range of flood level 2, the river level has risen and is staying on flood level 3. Note that the long-term mean water level at Passau has been set at 490cm. notamermaid

What make is that and what are puddle lights? Like it. notamermaid

Errrhmm: drizzly, cool, grey, boring. To be more precise. Sunlight is already reduced quite a bit. It can rain a lot, but generally is is just grey sky with the occasional rain. Anything from one hour to three days in a row for hours. I find it cool, temperatures range from zero Celsius at night to 16 Celsius during the day. Depending on grey sky, etc. Some volunteers' places are closed (museums, etc.), beer gardens often close at the end of October. No Christmas markets before 15 November (with the rare outlier insisting on opening early). notamermaid

Lake Constance is at 507cm. Its rise is still to a small extent fed by snow melt. The climb at Maxau gauge is happening. Figure now is 726cm. Forecast 735cm by midnight. 750cm around 10am. notamermaid