notamermaid

Interesting. Not sure that I would enjoy that much going in February but the prices do look good: https://www.amawaterways.com/destination/europe-river-cruises/2024/enchanting-rhine/dates-prices March 17 on the Amalucia is an inviting date, but March 21 on the Amasiena is also good. Wonder why the latter is so much discounted. notamermaid

By the way, I have in the back of my mind the info that Viking is sailing throughout winter this year. I still do not think it is a good idea on the Rhine. But let's see how it goes. It is this itinerary and incidentally the ship that has just carried two of our river cruisers here on CC up the river this last week, will have the honour of sailing in January proper, not just over New Year, down "my" river: the Viking Alruna. Together with her sister ship Viking Tialfi sailing upstream: https://www.vikingrivercruises.com/cruise-destinations/europe/treasures-of-the-rhine/2024-amsterdam-basel/pricing.html notamermaid

Happy New Year to you! I never knew that the pink pigs are not a tradition outside of Germany. We also say "Schwein gehabt" ((have) had pig) for someone who got luckily out of a mishap. Marzipan is of course a very German thing (although most likely being originally oriental) so I should have guessed that this is not really an international New Year's gift. Or has anyone seen this somewhere else? A little plant of clover (Glücksklee) with a wire chimney sweep figure is also typical as a gift. Still a few notes and reports of water levels before we end 2023 in writing. The flooding in other regions of Germany unfortunately continues. Along the Rhine we will see the levels rise again and the official flooding status for Maxau gauge is still expected to return on 3/4 January. But with few ships now on the river I will reduce the reporting to a minimum. notamermaid

Happy New Year from Germany. Great fireworks in my neighbourhood. Good food, meaning I enjoyed my cooking efforts. Managed the tiniest celebration with a dinner of slow-cooked beef and vegetable casserole. Dessert was mulled wine fruit compote with master baker stollen slice. A grey day here with a bit of rain and wind, but the sun may come out a bit more. Too warm again. notamermaid

Grin. Sorry. Was actual not my intention. I mentioned it - not sure - three years ago? Dinner for One. It really is true, until a few years ago it was virtually unknown in Britain. Here is a short clip about the phenomenon, which I have only just found: I cannot find a version with the German introduction. Here is one without: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORvvK47EZqw notamermaid

Music. New Year's Eve is a day of fun, laughter and - if you are in Germany - the day to watch a British comedy sketch almost unknown to the British... So to lift the mood from my previous post here is my suggestion for uplifting music. If you are keen on the more classical stuff and prefer the Danube, Johann Strauss jr.'s Waltz "Blue Danube" is a festive piece. So uplifting. Fitting for the day in name, I have chosen for my dinner's last preparation the Music for Fireworks by Händel. A British composer - hang on, the a Umlaut? Yes, I tend to go with the original spelling as Händel was German. The fireworks music was commissioned not for a day like this or a royal birthday or such. He wrote it for the celebrations of the peace treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle in 1748 and it was first performed in London. We are ahead of most of you here on CC - Happy New Year to Australia and New Zealand! - so if you would like to see our Lichtermeer - the sea of lights - and the fireworks why not check out Feratel. This is Koblenz for example: https://www.feratel.com/en/webcams/germany/koblenz.html I hope life is good and peaceful where ever you are when you are reading this and you can celebrate with the music of your choice and much laughter. notamermaid

I have seen the dedicated Viking tour buses parked along the Moselle and occasionally in traffic on the Rhine river roads. Unless tour bus drivers and local drivers were all off work and with their families for Christmas that shuttle should have been there. Viking, do better next time. In winter or in the dark I find that it is not acceptable to ask passengers to rely on public transport and not even provide ideas for safe transport, tram/taxi, etc. Hanging around for a shuttle? There are small 8-seaters (taxi/chauffeur companies) for hire. I could be an option at least for a few not so mobile people. As I have been to Niehl I will say that even during the day I would not feel comfortable walking around there for long. I have travelled on trains, trams, I find it perfectly fine but trying to find your way out of an industrial harbour to get to the city centre is asking too much, especially in a foreign country with foreign language (Niehl is a former fishing village, now a suburb, do not expect to bump into an Anglophone at every corner). No way is this good, that is not luxury river cruise line, that is sub-standard logistics and communication. @Pushka roads close to the river can flood, tour bus organizing can be tricky and the logistics of docking for a large river cruise ship can be likewise. There are not that many docking areas of comfort for passengers in that area. Speyer to Cologne is much easier. But again, like I mentioned the occurrence of using Nierstein dock, there are ways around it and a company, as I indicated before, can always admit "defeat" and cancel the (remainder of the) trip. It can be done and has been done. Viking has the policy of taking you everywhere in a coach and end the trip on the day it is supposed to end in the place it is supposed to end. They have completed their service and given you a complete journey. From a European Union customer point of view, well, that is not enough to justify the expense. You in Australia have it appears similarly good customer policies. Let us say, I would demand more of my company for the thousands of dollars paid. Again, logistics are a challenge but Viking has been on the rivers for enough years to know the geography, the supply chains, etc. And have dealt with low and high water enough times to know what it is like. The landing stages at Cologne flooded? Let's just say that for the locals there are plans, graphs and lists of what road floods at what centimetre, i.e. river level height. Check it once, remember it and note it down for all ships across the fleet. Perhaps this is already done of course. The details for the KD docking for example are all online: https://www.riverdocking.com/de/anleger/koeln-altstadtufer This season we have had unfortunately few glances into how other companies have reacted. I will put a question to that effect in the Christmas market cruises thread. Phew, difficult to get back to calmer thoughts after this. I just get a tad dare I say annoyed when I read the same woes with one company again and again. I guess the positive mantra for this is: there is always room for improvement. notamermaid

I must admit that this is a worry. If we get a sudden thaw we may be up a certain creek without a paddle. A large part of Switzerland drains its water into the Rhine and of that the Aare river is the biggest contributor, carrying more water than the High Rhine itself. Just beyond the ridge South of the source is the Rhone glacier, that river as we know flows into France. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aare Fun geography fact. The town at the confluence of the Aare with the Rhine is called - Koblenz! notamermaid

@Host Jazzbeau , the gingerbread man icon next to your name is cute. The pop-up says holiday sharing. Does this refer to you telling us about your Douro river cruise? notamermaid

Oooohhh, I am afraid that goes beyond my ability to research. Sorry. Something like this should be on a Swiss website, I am sure. What I know is that Lake Constance is very well filled so there has been snow melt when there should not have been and additional rain, meaning more than the average for December. The ground is saturated and it has been unseasonable warm. However, the high Alps are of course always in snow in autumn and winter so I cannot say anything more about the topic. I must admit that I am a bit worried about January and February. If we do not get lower temperatures and less rain we will see flooding again. The Rhine will remain high and Maxau gauge is still just above the threshold of flood mark I (for navigation). We will get rain just after New Year and the Upper Rhine (around Maxau) may well return to official flooding status then. notamermaid

It really could not be researched, this season has - as I pointed out in the post with the graph - been exceptional. Having followed your experience in these threads, especially in Strasbourg, I will say that how the itinerary was handled under the circumstances was not good enough and occasionally - as in this case in my opinion - a re-routing or brutal end can be more rewarding for a customer. By the way, forgot the mention this a few days ago, re-routing happened with A-Rosa for example. An itinerary of theirs did not even go up the Rhine. The whole river cruise was changed to focus on the Lower Rhine and the Netherlands. Perhaps not what one may want to see but the ship actually sailed proper, everyday, with a good docking location. Call it a "tulip time would have been on the fly turned Christmas market experience" cruise. Or something. Oh, and the Christmas markets and towns along the Main can be very good, too, one does not need to go to the Lowlands... Why not stop at Mainz, Wiesbaden and Frankfurt next time Maxau is blocked off, dear (insert name of river cruise company)? The logistics are not easy but, my goodness, in decent conditions they manage to sail from Amsterdam to Budapest. notamermaid

Budapest was (part)flooded on Thursday, the Netherlands is getting rather wet, we still have danger at dams in Germany, not sure that Cesky Krumlov is safe (high Vltava river, check it out if you are interested) and there is water in the train tunnels in Kent so thousands of people are stranded at St. Pancras in London as Eurotunnel has had to cancel trains. Not a good end to the year. Not complaining really, but I have a cold so have cancelled my New Year's Eve party. Interesting and good news somewhat is coming from KD, the Köln Düsseldorfer excursion boat company. But that will go in a separate thread next year. Soon time to wrap up the river threads and look back at 2023. Now onward, armed with handkerchiefs and ginger tea, I shall welcome 2024. Hope you are all safe, dry and ready to celebrate. notamermaid

Yes, you could almost call him lucky. I am really sorry your holiday turned into what it was. You travelled such a long way to get to Europe and were disappointed. Re-routing through a different airport is somewhat easy when coming from the UK and overall the logistics are a bit easier than for other travellers. Still, I think your itinerary could have been handled better. I hope there is a financial easing of your disappointment coming from the company. And I do not mean a "take our voucher and try again" e-mail... notamermaid

It is still too warm for this time of year in the Rhine valley. Ten degrees Celsius is not normal. So we will continue to see rain rather than snow on already saturated soil. Not good, especially in the Netherlands: https://nltimes.nl/2023/12/29/water-levels-major-rivers-will-rise-early-january The rainy weather will also come to Germany but overall the impact does not look major at Maxau. The outlook towards 3 January has not changed much, if anything a little for the better. notamermaid

Cruisecritic's own Adam Coulter has been on a Christmas market river cruise. 🙂 His first one. Here is his experience. I think you can guess what happened - his cruise was impacted by the high levels of the Rhine: https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/articles/just-back-from-tui-skyla-a-christmas-markets-cruise-on-the-rhine I love the gingerbread houses on the ship. notamermaid

This year has proved more than others that there is no way round that. There has been low water, then unusually there was prolonged flooding. There have been accidents as well (a few only thankfully), minor with river cruise ships, barges/lock incidents have impacted travelling more. You, ural guy and everyone else on the Alruna have indeed been a bit lucky. As I wrote, river traffic got close to being banned at Cologne when you were there. Have a great time up there on "my" river and a pleasant journey home. notamermaid

I had not noticed earlier: ural guy is also on the Alruna. notamermaid

The situation on the Elbe is still not good but the wave has gone through Dresden. This is Dresden: The upper reaches of the Vltava are still relatively high, I see level 2 (orange) at Cesky Krumlov. Flood warnings are also issued for the Havel and other rivers feeding the Elbe downstream from Dresden. notamermaid

Thank you for saying hello from your cruise. Good to read that all seems to be running smoothly now. At least up to Budapest. Amadeus, a bit of a more unusual company for North Americans. I reckon your New Year's Eve celebrations will happen in Vienna? Have a great cruise. notamermaid

Market Harborough, never been there. Been around it on the A1(M) and in Oakham and the M1. I see they have a town hall on stilts, I mean pillars, just like Faversham in Kent. I find them fascinating, there are not that many that I know, it seems to be more a British thing. I have never seen one personally in Germany. Perhaps few of them have survived the last two centuries here. notamermaid

Great! I did not know the bookings were open so far in advance. So you are going early in the Christmas market season: https://www.viva-*****/en/reise/adventsreise-nach-prag It is not fully clear to me but it looks from the daily arrival and departure times that the Swiss Ruby sails right into Prague. No coaches involved. Am I right? notamermaid

Here is a question for you past cruisers on the Rhine. I have read today - little more than the headline as the article is behind a we-want-your-data wall/pay wall - a newspaper article about river cruise ships now docking in Nierstein. This had made it into the news as it is a recent phenomenon, i.e. more ships are stopping there than used to. Townspeople think it may have something to do with the recent flooding that as we know disrupted normal itineraries. I wrote about Nierstein quite some time ago in the following link, I included the town in my list of the lesser known places: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2516698-rhine-beyond-the-standard-ports/page/2/ Has anyone docked in Nierstein recently and was it an itinerary change? notamermaid

Time to talk about the weather and the state of the roads to the experts in such conversations that are supposed to be the British. @Canal archive any snow where you are? notamermaid

Sad to read that. Good to hear you are safe. Floods in Northern Germany and along the Elbe still bad but in the last few hours reports have come through that the Elbe at Dresden is not as bad as had been predicted a couple of days ago. notamermaid

Something I forgot to mention. Not sure how many snow photos there are in river cruising brochures... It will likely look all great and romantic but more often than not you are going to encounter icy rain and plain rain rather than snow. Remember that the rivers suitable for river cruising in Europe are mostly below an altitude of 200m and it does not snow much. You could hit the right day and it will truly look magical. Last year in December we in my warm valley had two days of great snow that actually stayed with us for a bit, this year we have had about two hours that vanished within 12 hours. I mean in these last six weeks, so no snow for Christmas markets at all really. There is more snow in January and February. The two highest places in altitude as ports are Nuremberg (on the lower "slope" of the Main Danube Canal) and Regensburg on the Danube (unless you dock in Kelheim which is very unlikely). Regensburg town centre is at 337m above sea level. If you choose the Rhine you may for example dock and find the place rainy but take the excursion into the Black Forest and find yourself in a winter wonderland. notamermaid