notamermaid

Kaub is at 422cm: That is high but not flooding. Kaub will continue to rise throughout Friday. notamermaid

The Moselle is affected by high water levels. Trier gauge is at 659cm and still rising. At 695cm river traffic is halted. notamermaid

The level at Maxau is still too high, 769cm. notamermaid

So no quick repair possible. That means either a lengthy stay in Miltenberg for the Gymir or towing to a shipyard. Update from Mainecho says the Gymir hit parts of the dock structure while trying to dock, so damage there as well and along the ship's hull (scraping). Crew told the newspaper that passengers went on an excursion to Rothenburg. https://www.main-echo.de/ressorts/blaulicht/unfall-schiff-viking-gymir-liegt-manoevrierunfaehig-in-miltenberg-fest-art-8092636 Würzburg and Rothenburg can be combined in an excursion, no contradiction there. notamermaid

Sorry, that would be a tad high... 700cm. Current figure at Maxau is 782cm so going down at a reasonable speed. It is currently raining in the Upper and Middle Rhine valley again. notamermaid

Sorry to read that your friend has their cruise affected. Most important thing is that all are safe, but what an annoying thing to happen. In a discussion among the folk online who know the rivers from sailing - there are some captains posting - it has been mentioned that the railway bridge is lower than other bridges. A few crucial centimetres less. notamermaid

Sorry about the link. It seems that SAT1 a television channel does not want you to watch it in the UK. I get the same with BBC iPlayer. The ship was the big news yesterday in German media, this morning I cannot find any updates. This is the railway line bridge, so I assume that dot away from Miltenberg town and the regular docking place is the Viking Gymir, no terrestrial signal accessible: notamermaid

Pfelling gauge is at 576cm, that is very high but statistically not yet flooding. Passau is high at 625cm but that is better than yesterday and eases the situation for river cruise ships. notamermaid

Basel-Rheinhalle gauge is well done again but obviously the river is still carrying a high volume of water with Lake Constance well above the mean. River traffic has resumed. Maxau peaked at 805cm this morning and is slowly going down now (798cm). The situation is a little worse than what the forecast suggested last night so it is not clear when and if river traffic will resume during the night. The wave will be going through the Rhine Gorge later today. From the Moselle we hear that after the situation calmed yesterday, the authorities do anticipate a rise at Trier that may bring the level to 700m. The ban on river traffic is triggered at a level of 695cm. notamermaid

Passau gauge now stands at 645cm. notamermaid

It does not look too bad and the report says no one was injured. If there are technical issues due to the damage then that will be problematic for sailing.You can see that some parts of the superstructure have come off in this video: https://www.sat1.de/serien/1730-sat1-bayern/videos/zu-hoher-wasserstand-im-main-kreuzfahrtschiff-bleibt-haengen-7373322 The assumption is that the high level of the Main could have contributed to the accident. All in all though the river is not that high. But you need to calculate carefully how much headroom there is, the recent rain has made the level rise. There is no flooding (yet). Again, the Main has many low bridges. This is the gauge closest to Miltenberg: notamermaid

Thank you for the info. I hope you have very much enjoyed your cruise. The forecast has been adjusted and it looks as if Maxau will now peak below 800cm. This could happen during the night so with a bit of luck ships will be able to sail again tomorrow evening in the stretch from Iffezheim to Germersheim. The blue markers mean high water levels: notamermaid

River traffic around Maxau is suspended as confirmed by news reports. notamermaid

Bridges on the Main are notoriously low. This report says the ship has sustained heavy damage at the wheelhouse and (for the time being) cannot sail: https://www.main-echo.de/ressorts/blaulicht/schiff-kollidiert-mit-eisenbahnbruecke-miltenberg-bahnbruecke-gesperrt-art-8088469 The railway bridge was temporarily closed. notamermaid

Maxau gauge has just reached 750cm. notamermaid

With the Danube and the Rhine experiencing some flooding we should have a look at the Elbe. Dresden is at 163cm. All fine around the long-term mean. But there is some volume of water coming so a slight rise we can assume will happen soon at Dresden. notamermaid

Basel level peaked at 872cm and is now down to 846cm. There is a river traffic ban up to Kembs. Maxau is at 726cm, still below the crucial figure of 750cm. With the lock at Iffezheim doing the locking process more slowly I anticipate a backlog when shipping fully resumes. notamermaid

Passau gauge has reached 623cm and is rising more slowly now. Can it stay below 630cm? notamermaid

News from Basel is that the river upstream is closed to traffic which I assume means that excursion boats cannot go upstream from Basel. According to the authorities' website river traffic is halted at Basel and the downstream section to France at a level of 820cm. Basel gauge is now showing 800cm. Basel newspaper confirms the procedure at 820cm. If you are in Basel about to embark or are sailing tonight it would be great to hear how things are going for you. notamermaid

Being able to see a river cruise ship on an open day is a rarity. There have been a few occasions this year. Next one coming up is Nicko Cruises who I do not remember doing any. On 26 November you can see the inside of the Nicko Spirit at the HGK Landebrücke in Cologne. Time is from 10am to 5pm. There is coffee and cake and - currywurst in the ship's restaurant. A prize draw will also happen, you guessed it, you can win a river cruise. Info from commercial website, but you can also look this up here in German: https://www.touristik-aktuell.de/nachrichten/kreuzfahrten/news/datum/2023/11/10/nicko-cruises-zeigt-die-spirit-in-koeln/ notamermaid

Thank you for your kind words. So glad it has been helpful and I took away a bit of worry. Good to read you are planning to go again to see the Christmas markets. It is a magical time. I always get excited for people who have not seen the lights and festivities and can look forward to experiencing Europe in this way. notamermaid

Welcome to Cruisecritic. Wow, it sounds as if you have indeed been fortunate. Also seeing that coming up are likely problems with flooding rather than low water. I see the Mimir signalling in the Rhine Gorge but the signal is weak so you are most likely in Koblenz by now. So one of the two may be your ship: From: https://www.feratel.com/webcams/deutschland/koblenz.html Hope you enjoyed the castles and have a great time on "my" river and in Amsterdam. No flooding in Koblenz yet of course, all of Deutsches Eck is still exposed. notamermaid

Occasionally I look at the river cruising roll calls. It is fun to read when people enjoy themselves planning, cruising and giving advice to past cruisers. Lately I have been reading more not so happy comments about passengers being ill on the cruise with colds. But what comes up again and again is on the long European journeys passengers saying that they did not realize you cannot always dock in town and need a bus ride. So let us see for the Danube. It actually is the case that you dock in towns. Depending on company, how busy a place is, the harbour master's orders and water levels. It works all the way from Straubing to Budapest, Regensburg does but ships also seem to be in a harbour area further out. Granted, in Vienna much of docking is in Nussdorf, a suburb, these days. But several companies still dock in Vienna proper. The bigger issue is the Canal. Ever seen a river cruise ship in front of the skyline of Nuremberg or Bamberg in brochures? Yup, you guessed it, the rivers do not lend themselves to it. Bamberg is not too bad for docking I would say as regards distance. The problem with Passau is that it is very busy and needs to move ships out to other harbours. Check out the docks and the blue dots on marinetraffic.com and you can see how it looks in the various places. Here is the example for Nuremberg, arguably the worst docking spot, this morning: Remember it is correct to say you dock in Nuremberg as the commercial harbour is in the outskirts of Nuremberg. Just not in the city centre. "My" Belvedere is in the harbour this morning. 🙂 notamermaid

Thank you for your detailed review and your many comments on Eastern Europe. I was fascinated by seeing what was for me the gateway to the former Communist area on my cruise - Budapest. We did a coach ride through the outskirts of the city. The contrast between what was and what they have done since was great, but seeing it five time over may be a bit much for me. I also saw it in Bratislava on the return sail in a different way. I need to comment on Viking. The demographic you describe matches what people have mentioned here often. Since Viking has been so successful with their ocean ship venture we read here about more and more people coming from there to Viking river cruises. That is fine and works for many people but it is a different kind of holiday. The combination of company and itinerary may not have been the best for you. There are so many choices out there, give it some time and perhaps you may consider looking at river cruising again. Again, thank you for your great review. notamermaid

I suppose it is not that much different to cars. If it is roadworthy - fit to sail - a ship can carry on. The damage is assessed, the police launch looks at it and files a report - the press gets a release and a number for inquiries - and things run their normal pace again. In this case without the second lock though. The captain is described in the television report as a "Steuerfrau" which is of course the female to "Steuermann". Thankfully no one was hurt in all this but I can well imagine the lady's professional pride was... Locks are operated with signals of course, so green for free passage into the lock, red for stop. Gate fail, signal fail? Human error? Certainly activated are the signals for flooding, that is on the vigilance website Rhine, Neckar, Saar and Moselle are on 15 minute update. If you want the "full drama" (which it is not, just mild flooding) this is what it looks like: You can see that the situation in Koblenz and Cologne is still laid back. Maxau is our marker to watch now, there the level is 637cm, so not too bad yet. The forecast gives us a strong rise still - see the rise at Basel - so while there is a bit of uncertainty in the modelling there is the risk of a river traffic ban which happens at 750cm. We will find out more latest tomorrow lunchtime. On the Moselle by the way we have a wave going through Trier towards Cochem now. But it does not look like there may be a river traffic ban. The level is not that high. notamermaid.