notamermaid

To the present day. We have mentioned lock maintenance on the Danube but at the same time the Main river locks are being seen to as well. Work starts on 10 April. notamermaid

Indeed. As we have noted earlier in the year, this includes some Danube locks in Germany as well. Maintenance there starts on 10 April. Some of the locks in Austria are being maintained this winter and spring but at all locks one chamber is always open. notamermaid

A good question. It would be interesting to hear about this from someone who has been on the Rhine and Moselle on the same cruise. I do not go to the Moselle that often but must say that I did find Bernkastel-Kues busy in August. Cochem I know will get busy in the summer, it is loved by the Dutch. What I can say is that the Moselle river is not as busy as the Rhine river. There are fewer river cruise ships as well. Expect crowds in Trier all the time but I would says it is not Cologne or Strasbourg... notamermaid

I used to buy and drink lower alcohol wines. In the last ten years I have seen more and more of the 14% reds around here. Why do they make them that strong? Yorkshire puddings, yes, work well. I know it should be beef but I really like them with lamb. No mint sauce for me, I pour the gravy over the puds. notamermaid

I went from Heathrow to central London before the shuttle train existed. What a journey. To get from home to my river cruise in Passau I could have travelled to Cologne and flown to Munich from there. Or Frankfurt to Munich. I did not see the point, train ride was convenient. Not without fretting about not getting the connecting train but still fine. I like that Riviera Travel offers river cruises from Cologne. One can fly into Düsseldorf or Cologne airport but I think Düsseldorf has the better international connections. Frankfurt airport is on the Main river but the connections to the Rhine area are so frequent that I would always consider this as an alternative airport to get to many parts of the Rhineland. notamermaid

The last few comments about water levels have made me a tiny bit worried so I have had a look at the weather. It is raining in Saxony, as forecast, but it looks dryer in the Czech Republic. Saxony weather: https://www.dwd.de/EN/weather/weather_climate_local/saxony/sac_node.html The levels look stable according to the forecast but overall the tendency to decrease is indicated by the Czech authorities. For now it does not look like much will happen in the next three days that could be a worry. Current level at Dresden is 135cm. So still good. notamermaid

I am sure you know tons of weather report sites and this one is for Germany only, but I like the design. Easy to figure out where Brussels is - basically just off the map to the West of Cologne. We get our weather from the West normally so what is in the Netherlands is at the Rhine twelve hours later. Basic rule. https://www.dwd.de/EN/weather/weather_climate_local/_node.html notamermaid

My goodness, that is quite a bit of snow. No way we will get this is in April still. We have had snow in April in the past but it is highly unusual. By the time you are in Europe there will be only a minute chance of that happening. Pack for wind, damp, rainy days, early morning chill on excursions if you feel the cold easily. Temperatures are in the double digits during the day and at the weekend Germany and Belgium will have a warm spell. This means sunny days of up to 20 Celsius and potentially above. No winter down jacket or snow boots needed! notamermaid

Did I say it is being quiet on the Rhine? In Cologne it was a busy day yesterday. While dredging the Rhine at Deutz (maintenance work to the navigation channel) a bomb was found. WWII legacy again. At Deutz embankment are many offices including the RTL television channel building, which had to evacuated. This disrupted the broadcasting yesterday. The bomb was put on to a pontoon and defused. All clear. Spot the river cruise company logo... https://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/rheinland/bombe-fund-rhein-koeln-deutz-100.html The evacuation also explains why I saw a river cruise ship docked much further out on the right bank on marinetraffic.com yesterday. Further upstream there was unhappy excitement in Wiesbaden as well. In the city near the Rhine a bomb was defused yesterday, also. In other news - odd coincidence - the gentleman that saved Cardiff town hall in Wales from a bomb fire has turned 100 and his heroic deed was therefore in the news again. Unexploded ordinance is a legacy in Germany that will never leave us. notamermaid

So the Amina has been christened and is now on her maiden voyage sailing just behind her sister ship the Alisa past the Koblenz embankment. Amina will be in Rüdesheim tomorrow. notamermaid

That is quite a long journey to get to Cologne, but one I would love to do. Will you be travelling direct from Waverley to King's Cross? I love the sight of the Grand Central but I believe that does not have a direct connection, you need to change in Sunderland or thereabouts. Perhaps one day I will manage the Caledonian Sleeper. I once inquired with Riviera if they could calculate me a price for a non-fly, non-train river cruise as I would have joined in Cologne coming from within Germany. They were very accommodating but the plan then fell through. So they will pick you up at King's Cross to transfer you to St. Pancras? I would not want to carry luggage through London via the Underground or bus. Okay, could take a cab... I went from Ebbsfleet to Cologne some years ago and it was a great experience, made better by the fact that from Brussels to Cologne we took the Thalys rather than a German train. Train travel in Europe is so good and convenient, it is certainly an alternative to flying, especially distances under five hours, i.e. what a fast train can cover in five hours. You will not see this coming from Brussels, but the Hohernzollern Bridge crossing is amazing, I love it. That happens when you come into Cologne Main Station from Deutz. Fun fact: Cologne railway station was partly modelled on St. Pancras. notamermaid

Difficult one. Looking for the perfect time... Hmm, it is a long journey through Europe. But there is no great difference of the areas along the way, I mean you do not need to think of the Netherlands differently from Hungary (apart from specific feast days). Two bottlenecks need considering: 1. Kaub on the Rhine for low water. 2. Pfelling on the Danube for low water and Passau on the Danube for high water. Avoiding both high and low and crowds narrows it down a lot. Europe is always a busy place, apart from January and February to early March really. November before the Christmas markets start is a relative low. For water levels: Mid-May to end of June and November to early December. But as others have mentioned, you can be unlucky and hit a year with a more unusual level pattern, like last year in November for example. notamermaid

Let us stay with Rüdesheim and the webcam on the opposite bank at Bingen. We can use it to have a look at the bridge from Rüdesheim to Bingen-Kempten. Here it is - was: I have chosen this frame as the light is good for bringing out the stumps of the bridge. The two odd looking dots in the river are two of the pillars of the once mighty railway bridge. You could also cross it on foot. It was destroyed in 1945 and never rebuilt. The sister bridge at Urmitz was rebuilt in a different design and the more famous Remagen bridge was not. From the air it looks like this: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburgbrücke#/media/Datei:Rhein_Hindenburgbrücke_Pfeiler_Rüdesheimer_Aue.jpg Destruction (effort) was in the end by the hands of German soldiers. Call it what you will, I call it madness, in any case it was a more or less futile effort to hold back the advancing American troops. I have mentioned before that engineers used the islands in the river often to put a bridge pillar on. This is a photo that shows the construction - a sad state: https://www.bingen.de/kultur/stadtarchiv/virtuelles-binger-archiv/archivdingstag/die-hindenburgbruecke-wurde-nur-30-jahre-alt The island is called the Rüdesheimer Aue. What is unusual is the word Aue in this case. But that is for another post when we talk about river islands. notamermaid

Let us have a look at Easter traditions on the Moselle, specifically Luxembourg. Many are the same or similar to Germany but a few are unique. Just to remind people: the country of Luxembourg straddles the Moselle, meaning the river is the border for some distance. 36km of the river are part of a condominium, meaning the two countries administer the Moselle together but other river borders are part of this arrangement, too. Luxembourg has its own language but is part of the dialect group Moselle Franconian. So we are close in that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxembourgish In English it is the Easter Bunny, in High German it is the Osterhase and in Luxembourgish the Ouschterhues: https://luxembourg.public.lu/en/society-and-culture/festivals-and-traditions/easter.html notamermaid

It is April and time to have a look at what the river did in March. Maxau gauge: The level went up briefly over the line for M_I which means that extra vigilance is necessary while sailing and with adjusted speed. Since then we have had too little rain to have an impact on the level and the graph has gone steadily down. This is putting Maxau nicely into the mean figures range. Kaub gauge: Likewise we saw the short rise but no crossing the M_I line. Kaub is now above the mean but not by much. We will most likely continue to see fairly steady levels with Kaub staying in the ideal range between 200cm and 300cm till 8 April and probably beyond. notamermaid

It is April and time to have a look at what the river did in March. Pfelling gauge: These levels are good for this time of year. We need the river to be a bit high, i.e. above the mean, to sustain it during summer. All in all it has been an uneventful month as regards levels. All good. Next up are the lock closures for maintenance from 8 April on the Canal and 10 April on the German Danube (see also from post #32 in this thread). notamermaid

It is April and time to have a look at what the river did in March. Dresden gauge: The month started on a high but good level. We can see the level steadily going down. The month ended below the mean. As the Czech authorities retain water, i.e. with the drinking reservoirs control the river flow, how much further down the graph will go will depend on not just rain but also how much of this the authorities prefer to keep in the reservoirs. Rain is forecast Tuesday to Friday in Saxony in only relatively small amounts. notamermaid

Good to read you have been exploring Europe again. We have two holidays here so today has been a quiet one as the weather has been rather mixed. With a bit more effort on my behalf I could have made it to an organized Walk to Emmaus but instead I contemplated life and religion at home. Had a lovely meal of lamb, Yorkshire puddings (a nod to very dear people and a staple of my cooking for many years now), potatoes, beans and carrots. Pairing was a Spanish red wine with a staggering 14 percent alcohol. Dessert was individual raspberry pavlovas. I organized a small Easter egg hunt with just a few chocolate eggs and sweets indoors. Short but enormous fun. Still hoping to get away for a long weekend soon. notamermaid

Good to read that you can finally embark on your long awaited river cruise. Looking forward to reading about it. Have a great time. notamermaid

The river is as busy as always, with barges great and small, tankers and an increasing amount river cruise ships and excursion boats, now that Easter is here. Wednesday will see the christening of the Amina in Bonn - I had mentioned it a few weeks back. She is still docked in Tiel on the Waal but her destination Bonn is already visible in her ship tracking signal. It has been an Easter weekend with very mixed weather. We have two holidays here, so today is still a full church holiday with closures of almost everything, i.e. shops, offices, etc. Life on the river is relatively uneventful thankfully, although the Netherlands have reported a ship accident involving two barges and another ship on the Waal with potential damage to the railway bridge, so we can have a look at more things like islands, ferries and bridges. But first a look at this past March. notamermaid

Another report on the Rousse Prestige, really good one. 😊 As I was secretly thinking and very much hoping, all injuries are indeed minor. I guess it is the "heavy bump that throws you off balance and against a table or onto the floor". Which would normally result in easy to treat injuries. The accident quite naturally became a topic on Binnenschifferforum and according to one poster all passengers are back on board. Photo of damage to stern: https://www.binnenschifferforum.de/showthread.php?117616-Schiffs-Unfall-auf-der-Donau-17-Verletzte notamermaid

The crew on my ship, the MS Belvedere, was Eastern European mostly. The two captains were from Serbia I believe. Interestingly, the younger one was in charge, with the older being the "second captain". It only became clear during the cocktail hour talks. The older one was more experienced with the passengers so talked a bit more. Really nice guy. He was the one who showed us the wheelhouse during an afternoon sail. The hotel staff appeared to be a mix of Eastern European and Austrian and German. notamermaid

Spooky it is. One can only imagine what the people in times must have felt before it was figured out why the sky turns brown/weirdly coloured. The snow photos of Switzerland with the brownish strikes I find really weird. notamermaid

It is unlikely that we will read more about this. All the better I guess as that would mean that all those taken to hospital will recover quickly or are already back on board. So hopefully no more reporting. @Canal archive if I have understood it correctly when river cruise ships do nighttime sailings this means there are three shifts in a day and three people allowed to steer the ship are on board. That is a captain, someone I believe is called a second mate (not sure about the maritime English actually) and a third one who is learning or can do some sailing. Not sure about the patents needed, etc. That would for me be an interesting topic to follow up on. I spoke to crew and had seen two people steering the ship with a third obviously trained to handle the bridge controls (who I saw when I was in the wheelhouse briefly). But I have no further details on that. If anyone is interested in asking on board and posting... notamermaid

Following the track of the Rousse Prestige online, I cold tell the accident happened at around 21.45 local time last night. According to Austrian reports the captain (second mate in this case) pressed an emergency button whereupon the electronics kicked back in and he could sail and dock the ship at the embankment. Rescue teams, etc. were called to the scene. 17 persons were injured and 11 of them taken to hospital but all injuries are supposed to be minor. You can see from the track that the Rousse Prestige docked for a few hours and that correlates with the report that the authorities later cleared the ship to be allowed to sail on. She left the Aschach lock area during the night and has since sailed on without further problems it seems. She is docked in Vienna at this time. I am posting this screenshot also as it shows you the docking locations in Vienna. The Rousse Prestige is in Nussdorf. Several other ships have the more convenient city locations: notamermaid