notamermaid

Ah, interesting, I saw those mentioned in a list online. They are at least similar but as I understand it the particular structure of the bridge at Passau is more unfavourable. But I need to leave the details to captains to decide which is worse. It is calculated as "maximum clearance under bridge at highest possible river level allowed for sailing". I will get back to that with a bit more time. notamermaid

River levels. Maxau still rising, now at 819cm, may get to 830cm tomorrow. Which appears to confirm to suggestion of the authorities that the river ban will be in place for the rest of the week. If the peak is tomorrow, the river is unlikely to return below 750cm this week. Speyer gauge is rising fast, now at 717cm. A river traffic ban is issued at 730cm. I have read that Lake Constance is at its highest level since (modern) records began. If the situation gets much worse downstream, meaning Mannheim to Mainz, ships from the Main river may not be allowed to enter the Rhine. Which would jeopardize both the Grand European journeys and the ones going West to East and vice versa on the Moselle/Rhine/Main. notamermaid

Good, you made it to Koblenz. Nice that Viking was able to charter a small vessel and you get to see the Gorge from a ship. I think I get the logistics of the ship swap and long bussing now. Have read about it here before, not a new idea of Viking. It means they are trying to keep a downstream itinerary going without having to cancel it, i.e. from Basel coach to Strasbourg, base for a couple of days or so, coach to Koblenz or Cologne, switch to other ship. notamermaid

The problem at Passau is the Luitpold Bridge which is one of the bridges with the least headroom along the whole Danube. Current water level is 742cm. At 780cm river traffic will be suspended. Pfelling gauge is at 666cm. According to the authorities in Bavaria river traffic is suspended there at 620cm. notamermaid

Sorry to hear that. If I may say so - I am puzzled as ships can sail to Koblenz and through the Rhine Gorge. Why would a company want to keep a ship in Cologne? Towns of ports between Cologne and Speyer. But then I am neither a captain nor a cruise director. At this point in time, a river traffic ban is not expected at Worms or Mainz within 48 hours. And not at Koblenz either, which you would get to first, i.e. during the night from Cologne. notamermaid

Passau gauge has climbed to 755cm. High volumes of water to come from tributaries still and the Danube is carrying a lot of water from its upper reaches still. The situation now: Some tributaries are high but do not show up as being on their respective flood mark I (yet). notamermaid

I needed to confirm what I had suspected may happen when I looked late last night: have found a news report that says the river traffic ban has already been issued from Basel to Kembs and then extended to Kehl (that is the German harbour opposite Strasbourg). Now in the last hour or so the gauge at Maxau climbed to 750cm. It is now at 756cm. River traffic is suspended from Iffezheim lock to Germersheim railway bridge as well. I have taken a screenshot for you of the German article: It says that the authorities expect the ban to last the whole week. The sections in my screenshot, no sailing here: It is not yet clear what will happen further downstream but the gauges are on flood mark I already (up to and including Cologne) which necessitates adjusted sailing as laid down in the regulations for the waterway. There is still a lot of room in the gauges' graphs till they reach their respective levels for a river traffic ban. We will know more by Thursday. notamermaid

Good to hear you have been able to sail the Rhine Gorge and the logistics worked out for you after that tanker had delayed things. Basel will be impossible to reach, true, Strasbourg I am not sure what will happen in the time frame that your ship is looking at. It is a difficult, busy time for cruise directors to find the best solution. I hope everything works out well for you and you can see Strasbourg. notamermaid

That makes sense. You really need to see how far you can get and what the most sensible/comfortable/doable logistics will be. Hope you are having a great time in Cologne. notamermaid

Thank you for your wishes, I hope this is a joyful time for you. Knecht Ruprecht it is, but when I was young, the Nikolaus incarnations I encountered were often without one. The bad guy is mostly absent instead the Nikolaus mysteriously knows all your misdemeanours and that stern voice is enough. 😉 notamermaid

Hopefully someone sailing will be able to help. Meanwhile you could have look at the authorities' website. Right now part of the Rhone is showing elevated levels: https://www.vigicrues.gouv.fr/ Have a great cruise. notamermaid

Thanks for the info. The problem with the flooding is that you cannot just swap in the middle of the itinerary that is the Rhine Gorge. The problem is at the Southern end. So it will be interesting to see how that is managed. Bussing from Basel to Breisach can only partially work, meaning now, but not when river traffic is banned further North. Coming from Amsterdam you can go far on your itinerary, hopefully up to Mannheim. Last minute decision quite possibly. Hope all goes well for you and you have a great time. notamermaid

It was the plateau at Maxau gauge. Now down to 743cm. Back up tomorrow. The authorities expect flooding that occurs statistically every two to five years. At Maxau this means we will likely see 800cm. notamermaid

Passau has risen to 704cm and is now on flooding level 1. notamermaid

The level at Maxau is now steady at 746cm. Looks like this is the plateau for the time being, with a slight drop to follow. Then, at this point in time, the forecast indicates the 750cm and river cruise ban to very likely occur in 26 to 28 hours. notamermaid

Let us have a look at Metz and Trier Christmas markets: https://www.tourisme-metz.com/en/discover-metz-metropole/christmas-inspirations https://www.trierer-weihnachtsmarkt.de/en/ notamermaid

The situation on the Danube and the Rhine is not good for river cruising, we have mild flooding which is set to get worse during the next 48 hours. Perhaps a bit surprisingly the Elbe is almost unaffected. This is the flood warning map, green colour is good, yellow not so much, orange is not good at all: Only a few small tributaries of the Elbe have really elevated levels. notamermaid

It is a section of river that does not contain many ports that river cruise ships use. It is easier to say that ships are banned from sailing in that area. The section contains Karlsruhe: Depending on how far the flooding extends and the severity of it, we could see a river traffic ban from Rheinfelden through Basel, Breisach, Iffezheim lock, Speyer and Mainz up to Bingen. But we are not there yet. It is a probability. The (mild flooding) warnings have now been extended to Bad Honnef near Bonn. For the moment we have a wave that is a little less than expected. But more is to come. A river traffic ban at Maxau today is a cliffhanger. Current level is 742cm, only 8cm to go. Each section of river is a little different, so a ban at Maxau does not automatically lead to a ban further downstream. It depends on weather and the other tributaries and the geography of the river valley. The Moselle is not carrying a huge volume of water although it is high so that is good for the sections past Koblenz. Not sure what to make of the Main river situation for the Gorge. We will need to wait and see. The flood warning service is active, you can look up all the graphs in one place. This is it: https://www.pegelonline.wsv.de/webservices/zeitreihe/visualisierung?ansicht=mehrfach&pegelnummer=2310010&pegelnummer=23700200&pegelnummer=23900200&pegelnummer=25100100&pegelnummer=25900700&&pegelnummer=2730010&start=2023-11-10T00:00 When you click the coloured numbers top right, the figures for that respective gauge show up in the right column. Sorry folks, this is not looking good. Cutting out Basel and docking at Breisach may not be enough Plan B for a river cruise from Basel to Amsterdam. Not sure how else to mark it, so this arrow in the white field does it. Breisach in relation to Maxau further downstream near Karlsruhe: notamermaid

Sorry to read that. Yes levels are rising and I am afraid the Vils joining at Vilshofen has contributed to the volume of water at Passau already. Passau has made a jump and is at 683cm. Level to rise to over 700cm by this evening. It looks like we will not see ships going under the infamous bridge for a few days. notamermaid

Oh that is nice to read. I have thought for a long time that an overcrowded place like Cologne could be replaced by the smaller and quite frankly more atmospheric Trier market on an itinerary. Both very old towns but quite different from each other. Metz (France) extension, then Trier and down the Moselle to Koblenz, then through the Gorge and onto the Main to end in Frankfurt would be my Advent short river cruise of choice. Unless I could do one just on the Main. notamermaid

Advent, Advent, ein Lichtlein brennt. Erst eins, dann zwei. 🕯️🕯️ It has been a week where the news and the madness of this world have got to me a bit. But today it is time to light the second candle, so that is what I did after a busy day. It was time to do something different so the Christmas market visit of today was - to a museum instead. Watching the model railway in my local toy shop all those years ago is one of my really fond childhood memories. So I combined Christmas cheer with a railway museum. It is in Koblenz-Lützel. What fun it was. Today was Nikolaustag event, so a Nikolaus, not a Father Christmas, was there to talk to children and give them each a gift bag. There was food and drink in an old dining carriage and of course the huge engines and model railway to look at. I took no photos that I can post, but lo and behold my regional television channel was there as well and made a short video, you can get impressions here from 4:16 (just ignore the German commentary, the gist of it is the children and grown-ups have learnt something, have had fun and are happy): https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/swr-aktuell-rheinland-pfalz/sendung-19-45-uhr-vom-10-12-2023/swr-rp/Y3JpZDovL3N3ci5kZS9hZXgvbzE5Njg0Nzg Later we managed to have a brief visit to a Christmas market, but having kind of got lost trying to find a place to park, we needed to ask the way. What a happy answer we got, and there were more jovial people all around. Merry chatter and joyful music. Then, near home, already in darkness, it was my turn to show someone the way. At a street corner I noticed two ladies discussing the distance their smartphone was showing. I asked them if they needed help. They had been unable to find a space to park nearby and did not know the way to a church. The smartphone had helped but they were still unsure. So I told them that this was were I happened to be going as well and they could walk with me. We chatted the short distance and parted ways exchanging friendly wishes. Today has been a day of warmth and goodwill all around me and I am at ease with myself and the world is a peaceful place. I hope you have a peaceful week. notamermaid

Yes, the levels are rising. Regensburg is forecast to reach flood mark I tomorrow. This is the current map, yellow is flood mark I, orange is II, red is III: notamermaid

We have had the first small wave going through Hauenstein and Basel. A slight decrease in levels now. This will be followed by a stronger wave. It is uncertain how much stronger this will be. Maxau gauge is on flood mark I, running slightly below the forecast. It is at 691cm. The small wave coming from Basel will be in Maxau tomorrow. A river traffic ban is still likely tomorrow but the forecast is not as certain as yesterday about this. With the second wave it looks almost certain. The Neckar river has risen and the tributaries to the Main river will bring the levels of that river up. All this water will add quite a bit of volume to what the Rhine is bringing with it from the Alps. Levels in the Middle Rhine valley are therefore also already rising. notamermaid

A good move to avoid Basel. Breisach is near enough for Plan B logistics, hopefully the next river cruise downstream will work out well for the passengers. Hope you have a good day in Breisach and transfer to Basel. notamermaid

Basel is now rising fast and at Maxau gauge the rise has started. 700cm is expected for midnight there. Interestingly, authorities expect the Moselle not to be hit that much by the current rain. But the levels will rise there as well, just not like on the Rhine. Over on the Danube many tributaries to the river show elevated levels now. notamermaid