notamermaid

It is a bit colder here today, you can feel the little chill on the wind, but overall it is sunny and mild. Spring started meteorologically yesterday and the small varieties of narcissus are blooming in sheltered places in gardens. I live in a warm area of Germany of course so bloom is a little earlier than in the high hills, or the North. I have reduced hours at work, using up holiday from last year. A quiet time for tourism, it will get busier for me in two weeks time. And river cruising starts again then as well on a larger scale. Must admit that while the water lilies are nice I prefer other impressionist paintings and painters. Had a great time in Paris with my art class, really would not mind seeing the paintings again in a kind of "dash in, see 'em, dash out of Paris again quickly" fashion. I have been told that Giverny is interesting but so full that one cannot properly appreciate it. And if that person says something like that to me then I know I would not like it. notamermaid

You are in Scotland, so you will know about the British conversation topics "weather and the state of the roads". In all earnest, I find that topics like those everyone can relate to and they rarely get you into unhappy or embarrassing situations. Weather should not drift into climate change of course, I agree about avoiding that. Politics only ever if it relates to the country you are currently in and it may affect you or be of some historic importance. Religion, probably not a good idea either. At my table we started off by figuring out where we came from - mixed German and English speakers but not native English - and talking about how we got to the river cruise - train or car - and looking at the landscape outside our window (do you live near a river or the sea?), etc. Once you have cruised for a day you can of course relate to the day's events. notamermaid

Thank you. Here is an article from travelweekly uk: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tour-operators/apt-to-launch-two-new-ships-in-europe-next-spring The vessels change but it seems that two signature events - both are exclusive to APT I believe - will be the same. Namedy Castle is a great place to have such an event. notamermaid

The flooding of 1784 affected so many lives. Looking briefly at Bonn again, the day of 27 February saw a family in the old town moving their belongings up one floor, the mother having been used to flooding from her childhood home in Koblenz-Ehrenbreitstein. But as the day progressed it became clear that this was not going to be enough. With water and ice approaching the family escaped through the second floor windows with the help of a ladder and through the back yard reached safety. The story only came to light much later when it was published by the owner of the building in Rheingasse 7. The 13-year-old boy who had the lucky escape in 1784 had never talked about it himself. He would have had plenty of listeners as he got around in the world, at that young age already well-known but soon rising to lasting musical fame. The boy's name is Ludwig van Beethoven. notamermaid

Not an easy decision. I agree that a direct comparison from someone who has sailed both lines would be best. I have sailed on neither so just a couple of quick thoughts from me. Daylight between your two dates is not a consideration, they are so close, and daylight saving time only ends on the last Sunday in October. Sunday closure of shops or Monday closure of museums may be a consideration if you are looking at a specific experience/excursion. You have already had responses as regards river levels. Last point from me: autumn foliage. That is more pronounced at the later date. Have fun planning. notamermaid

Oh that really is early. A bit on the cold side but a fantastic experience, I am sure. Of course it is too early to say in detail what the river will do in a week's time and I have no idea what the weather is like past Vienna. Still, weather patterns are often similar further downstream. And there is little rain forecast in Germany, so not much water coming to Hungary. Recap of February coming up. notamermaid

Great stops on this very unusual itinerary as regards the route. I like this one a lot. It would be great if this was on the River Queen, she is one of my favourite ships on the rivers, I mean the design. But I am sure your ship will be great, too. Frankfurt and Trier are so very different from each other, two German cities that one could reach within just a few hours by train, but quite apart in history and feel (and architecture). If you listen carefully to the locals you will also notice the difference in dialect. Enjoy your cruise. notamermaid

Good to read you will be coming to my realm, West Germany. Magnificent Moselle I suppose means that there will be a focus on that river. But you are sailing the Rhine Gorge as well? Sounds good, how long is the itinerary? Any place that you are especially looking forward to? notamermaid

Now that is an image that I will not be able to ban easily from my mind. Grin. Never heard that word, sounds like a slightly misheard thing that made its way into the lingo. Leave it in the streets for a while and wait for Brussels (to) sprout(s). Okay, just to get away from that for a minute, the ITB is happening again, if you are interested: https://www.itb.com/en/ Also, new announcements by river cruise companies coming in almost every day. New solo cruises, waivers, special offers, new itineraries, ship christenings coming up. Difficult to keep up posting them. Really some interesting stuff on offer for this year and next. notamermaid

update to part 3 - Karlsruhe A few more river cruise ships, also internationally, have found their way to Karlsruhe since then but one big name was unlikely to include the city. Now they are doing so. Viking is stopping in Karlsruhe! This is the new itinerary called "Rhine and Main Explorer" sailing in 2025: https://www.vikingrivercruises.com/cruise-destinations/europe/rhine-and-main-explorer/2024-nuremberg-antwerp-basel/index.html If you are looking for something different from the standard Rhine cruise this is a good one to consider. They also have a short stop in Worms (see part #2) on an excursion. And no Rhine Gorge low water issues on this route. Here is to variety in itineraries! Well done in my opinion. 👏 notamermaid

Indeed, that is why it is so practical to end cruises in those two towns. Vilshofen has profited so much from realizing this and - whether it was for that reason or not - investing a lot of money into the river embankment and facilities. Straubing upstream from Bogen lost out a bit despite investing (I do not know how much) and trying to attract river cruise ships. About flooding. The terrible year of 1784 was bad along the Danube as well but it is not as remarkable as on the Rhine. You can see that it is not marked on the tower in Passau and does not rank among the top ten of all time, whereas on the Main and Rhine it is among the top five usually. In Passau the ice caused damage as well though, the Danube bridge and part of the bridge over the river Inn were destroyed. https://www.niederbayern-wiki.de/wiki/Hochwasser_(Passau) To the present: The situation along the Danube is very agreeable and there is a high chance for a good start to the river cruising season. notamermaid

It was on 28 February, 29 February or 1 March that the Rhine reached its highest level at many places along the river in the winter of 1784. You can find markings in towns and cities that record the event on walls of buildings. Some are not spectacular because the context is not clear any more, for example in Mainz where the street level has changed at the tower in this photo and the buildings and flood protection measures have changed the surrounding streets: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegel_Mainz#/media/Datei:Mainz_Holzturm.jpg Others are more striking, guess which year is the top one, you will find out when you zoom in: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Hochwasser_Linz_am_Rhein.jpg This one is from Neuwied, it so high above one's head that you cannot touch it with your arm (at least I cannot): People desperately tried to blast the ice and push it away from buildings using poles. Many settlements along the river from Koblenz to Cologne suffered heavy damage, houses were swept away, near Bonn a church was severely damaged. In Mülheim, then an independent village but now a district of Cologne, was partly destroyed. Another part of modern-day Cologne called Riehl was also inundated. The flooding changed many lives. The French publisher Louis-Francois Mettra lost his printing workshop in that village for example. He set up his business again in 1785 in Neuwied and became even more successful, editing, printing and distributing journals and books mostly in French language. A church door in Cologne carries this marking with text: https://altes-koeln.de/wiki/Datei:HochwassermarkeMariaLyskirchen-1784.jpg notamermaid

Würzburg gauge over the last four weeks: Well, compared to some other years this is nothing. Let us look back at a different leap year - 1784. In most of Europe - something you can spot in many old river towns that you visit - it was a terrible winter of flooding. Markings on buildings, either old or as a modern reconstruction of the event, tell of a natural disaster ingrained in European history. On 27 February in that year, the Tauber bridge at Wertheim was destroyed. On 28 February the old bridge in Würzburg was severely damaged. Here is a modern gauge to illustrate what the level was: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalenenhochwasser_1342#/media/Datei:Pegel,_Würzburg.PNG This article from 2022 has the headline "Wertheim: A town full of water". It has graphs in a photo depicting the heights of floods over the centuries. At the end of the article there is a photo showing the markings of two floods on a building: https://www.main-echo.de/sonderthemen/feste-events/wertheimerzeitung/wertheim-eine-stadt-voller-wasser-art-7513651 The flood of 1784 is an anomaly which is attributed to a volcanic eruption in Iceland the previous year. I have written about that in the thread of the Rhine here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2984992-rhine-water-levels-2024-and-similar-topics/page/4/#comments notamermaid

That is a good question. To be honest, I am not familiar with the Netherlands. They have locks, sluices and an admirable system of water control all round - as we know they rely on sophisticated solutions for their low-lying lands. Flooding does happen and they certainly had problems in December and January to the point of being almost non-manageable. The system of recording water levels is a bit different in the gauges so a bit more difficult for me to follow. At Emmerich, Germany's last gauge, you can check the levels and after that is Lobith beyond the border. I show you want I mean. This is the page from the German authorities, the caption says that the data for Lobith and Pannerdense Kop comes unchecked from the Dutch authorities: https://www.elwis.de/DE/dynamisch/gewaesserkunde/wasserstaende/index.php?target=2&gw=RHEIN The Dutch page for Lobith is this one: https://waterinfo.rws.nl/#/publiek/waterhoogte/Lobith(LOBI)/details?parameters=Waterhoogte___20Oppervlaktewater___20t.o.v.___20Normaal___20Amsterdams___20Peil___20in___20cm I cannot say how the authorities react to flooding, i.e. if there is a ban or not at a certain level. notamermaid

Love that motorbike, Daisi. They do here to take the caravans away from camp sites along the rivers that are in danger of being flooded. notamermaid

Ah, yes. Have not mentioned yet that Turner came to the Rhine and Moselle twice. You can see the style evolve between those two visits. Here is a news reel from British Pathé about one of the last times that ships got stuck on the Rhine. Along the banks, for example in a slow moving arm of the Rhine between bank and island, you could go onto the river. This is from 1962: https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/247365/ notamermaid

The winters tended to be colder in Europe for a long time and within living memory we have had ice on the Rhine. Without the involvement of a volcano. But with 1814, which may have been without the "help" of a volcano, you are close to what happened in 1815, the eruption of the Tamburo, causing the "year without summer" in 1816 - and the cultural achievements of the British in 1816/17, that is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein written in Switzerland, Lord Byron's travels along the Rhine and William Turner's paintings of the river. Just after the Second World War the Rhine froze "properly" for the last time. The current is now too strong, the water too warm, the winters are too warm and the ships too plentiful to create a scenario in which we may see more that a few little thin sheets of ice close to the river banks. Close to locks where the water is more stagnant the chances of ice are of course higher. We have had a bit of that on the Moselle, some years back, when there was a bit more ice floating. notamermaid

Back to an event I mentioned a few days ago. Remember that volcano in Iceland that caused disruptions in air travel several years ago? Ever heard of the Mississippi River freezing over a very long stretch? Read about parties on the frozen Rhine river? These phenomenons are somewhat connected. That almost unpronounceable volcano in Iceland is not the first one to have caused trouble. 1783 and then the winter months in early 1784 became a "little ice age" due to the extended eruption of a volcano, which was more like gas seeping out of holes in the ground for months. All this was taken into the atmosphere and distributed widely over countries and whole continents. After hot, misty days, a very cold winter and much precipitation, the weather changed in February 1784. On the Rhine the ice cracked, melting and floating down the river in huge blocks. We will get to that again. First, here is a very good description of what happened during those months. A lot of detail but a highly interesting read I find: https://www.marinersmuseum.org/2023/01/iceland-and-the-european-floods-of-1783-1784/ notamermaid

That is one of the scariest things that has happened to me on roads in England. We in the family car went round a corner on a narrow country lane in Kent and this huge, enormous tractor appeared in front of us. It literally filled the whole lane. I sometimes think about that when I see a similar model here in Germany. notamermaid

They are so practical for this aren't, they? The modern ones are often massive here now. I love the old ones that are occasionally used, the engine sound is great and you can see some of the mechanical and technical parts exposed. This girl does not understand any of it, but I like the machinery. We have Lanz Bulldog's in the area, but the Krämer ones are also interesting and nice to look at. notamermaid

My pleasure. Good to read that you will be on the river again. You venture into what is indeed for me unexplored territory. More and more people are going that far down the river these days, hopefully we will hear comments and perhaps the odd report from on board a river cruise ship as the year progresses. Writing about Carnuntum the other day, I looked at the expanse of the Roman Empire again. It is enormous. When you sail from Amsterdam to Budapest, shortly after leaving Amsterdam you enter the Roman Empire, sail out of it on the Main river, re-enter it at Regensburg on the Danube and sail along the border into Budapest - Buda being within the old Empire and Pest not. But it does not stop there. The Empire spanned much further, on the river you go past the ruins of (Emperor) Trajan's bridge in Serbia and when you disembark at Russe to get to Bucharest you do so at "Sexaginta Prista", which means town of 60 ships. Apparently, some companies use Giurgiu on the left bank of the Danube. That town is in marshland and outside of the Roman Empire, but just across the bridge from Russe these days. And if you happened to fly into Budapest from London you left Londinium in the Roman Empire. I find it fascinating. By the way, not quite so charming, but the region being so far away from Germany and it being called Walachia (that is in Romania), in German language we call a rural place with little population "far away" (it may only be 50 kilometres), especially when sending a person there, "die Walachei" or "jemanden in die Walachei schicken". notamermaid

How different lives and therefore perceptions are! More than two a day is an unusual sight for me, especially in winter. But driving for a bit in the car will of course get me into the countryside where I may see more. I guess I would call 10 a lot. That is what is so unusual, the French are brilliant at striking (I mean that logistically and using opportune times of the year, always know when to use an event, etc. to get attention) and we are good with the transportation strikes. But farmers in Germany? Naaa, normally just busy with their lives and fairly content. Not now... Incidentally, I thought yesterday that I should mention this in the Rhine thread again as the protests are likely to continue into the river cruising season at this point, here meaning probably beyond 10 March. But we will see how it goes. Dutch, French and Germans farmers are certainly united in solidarity with each other. Independently of each other, two people told me about the Carnival parade each one of them saw along the Rhine. In both parades a tractor was displaying a sign with a protest message. Floats in the parades are usually pulled by tractors, that is standard procedure. notamermaid

Thank you. This reminds me - I had started a thread about it and should really continue that... notamermaid

All has been revealed! The Radiance will sail the Danube, while the Rose will sail the Douro: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tour-operators/riviera-travel-reveals-itineraries-on-two-new-ships notamermaid

Koblenz has now gone to navigational flood mark I. The level should peak tomorrow and is unlikely to reach official flooding status. All in all still good. The few ships sailing should be impacted only minimally. As a curious side note: there is one ship currently sailing on the Rhine that is on an errant for "its own sake". The MS Sans Souci normally sails mostly in the East of Germany, on the Elbe and thereabouts. She made a special trip to her new home port of Basel in order to register with the Swiss authorities. Ownership of the vessel has changed so she will soon appear with Swiss flag instead of German flag. Info from Binnenschifferforum. The MS Sans Souci on marinetraffic.com: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:136408/mmsi:211482300/imo:0/vessel:SANS_SOUCI#overview notamermaid