notamermaid

I do not think there is that logic, i.e. I understand what you mean and when I read about Viking doing that and getting away with it I really shook my head. It does not work in Britain or in Germany. Anyway. It is the create demand, create the supply thing I would say. The commercials that jazzbeau mentioned, the demand is created, then the supply is there but you need the exclusivity and scarcity to give that "excessive willingness" ((my not quite neutral comment)) to part with money far in advance. Commercial/advertising leads to demand leads to supply leads to booked cabins leads to scarcity through early booking leads to scarcity as you make yourself the (perceived) prime - if not only - supplier for the demand leads to incentive to book fast, leads to - repeat cycle from here. It becomes a well-oiled machine and success story. But of course you need to add sufficient customer satisfaction so that the word spreads that this is a good product. Which we know it is from many happy voices here and elsewhere. notamermaid

You are right. The Monarch Empress is 110m long, the Monarch Queen almost the standard 135m and is the ex-River Voyager. Here are some details: https://www.binnenschifferforum.de/showthread.php?112886-Monarch-Queen-KFGS-02336621 What an odd coincidence. Have a great cruise. notamermaid

With (former) Jewish life in focus in Germany this week (as is the case every year in November) I would like to tell you a little about a historical "curiosity" that is a bit off the beaten track. A mikveh underneath a town hall. In the old town hall building in Andernach is a meeting hall and underneath that is a ritual bath. The water level rises and falls with the Rhine river level, i.e. the ground water reacts: https://www.andernach-tourismus.de/en/andernach/places-of-interest/old-townhall No English page: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikwe_(Andernach) The town hall was built on the former synagogue site in the Middle Ages (!) and Jewish life did not return to Andernach for over than 300 years. It is a rare example of a Medieval mikveh that is still standing today. I was down there many years ago. Not sure when it is open to the public these days, standard opening is on "Tag des offenen Denkmals" in September. If you are interested in the topic generally, Speyer and Worms are cities to explore and a museum in Frankfurt on the Main is a good place to learn more at. Brief note on water levels: within a perfect range, not low, not high. notamermaid

The hull for the ship "Porto Mirante" was on the Main a few days ago and the hull for the "Amadeus Nova" is currently being pushed by the "Zasavica III" towards the Rhine. Just before leaving the Main it will most likely get a new carrier, usual is a barge that pulls the hull alongside. Handover is at or near the last lock on the Main at Gustavsburg. The lock is within Gustavsburg district but for historical reasons the lock is referred to as being at Mainz-Kostheim (on the other bank of the river). Here is a link: http://wikimapia.org/9595845/de/Schleuse-Mainz-Kostheim Notice the kink in the graphics? If not, have a look at the photo on the page, click on it to enlarge it. One lock chamber is bent. In German that is called a Bananenschleuse. Shortly after that the Main enters the Rhine. This is what it looks like from the air: https://www.luftbildsuche.de/suche/d/luftbilder/sh-9795eb800de66a6e4fe19fbb10e07ae1aff89ed9/wiesbaden-mainz-kostheim.html By the way, when the Rhine is low, so is the mouth of the Main and can be tricky to navigate, with no lock keeping the level high enough, whereas the whole Main where river cruise ships and commercial traffic sail has enough depth. notamermaid

As I was walking through the shop aisles with the towering chocolates and gingerbread I saw the goodies by two companies from Aachen, called Lambertz and Kinkartz. As they are in Aachen the products they bake are called Aachener Printen when made with moulds and the typical ingredients and they can only make them in Aachen or nearby! It is the protected geographical origin. Print (English) and prent (Dutch) are the origins for the name Printen. The two I have mentioned are not the only manufacturers or bakeries. Here is one with some nice info on the history: https://printen.de/en/printen-tales/ You can best get to Aachen to see their Christmas market from Cologne, just a good half hour by fast train. https://www.aachen-tourismus.de/en/discover/events/aachen-christmas-market/ Printen you can buy in many shops in the Rhineland, just like at my local supermarket. Those are the big companies, others will only be available in and around Aachen. notamermaid

Where do you put extreme cold on the thermometer? I live in a mild valley with the temperature barely falling to zero in November during the day but along the Danube in Germany and Austria it tends to be a bit colder. You get night frosts in November for sure. I would call neither valley's conditions "extreme cold". You can get snow on an excursion into the hills along the Danube but all in all I would not call our November cold in Germany. I have not even got my winter jacket out yet, nor do I wear gloves and a hat. This will happen later in the month for sure as I feel the cold quickly. I agree with checking temperatures for the places you intend to visit on websites. See if accuweather.com can help you there. notamermaid

In post #4 of my link it says Hardinxveld, which is the seat of the shipyard that usually does the outfitting. The shipyard where the hull was built is a sister company. I guess the Porto Mirante will be taken on board a carrier of sorts via Rotterdam to Portugal. The hull of the Amadeus Nova is now on the Main river. It has been a rainy weekend. The river's levels are very good. November weather but when the sun comes out the shapes and colours of the trees still look good. The autumn storms have not been too bad so far around here, so the Middle Rhine valley and the Moselle valley still have foliage one can enjoy. notamermaid

The hull will be the Porto Mirante. It is being towed by the barge "Vision" and has passed Xanten. It was spotted at Koblenz (see post #5): https://www.binnenschifferforum.de/showthread.php?116011-KFGS-Kasko notamermaid

We have a Prussian memorial one from the war of 1871, WWI and WWII. An unusual story is the memorial of General Marceau, a much revered general of the French coalition army. The memorial pyramid is in Koblenz-Lützel on the French cemetery. No English info unfortunately: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franzosenfriedhof_(Koblenz) Hmmm, I think I could put this in the Rhine thread with some more details. notamermaid

The Danube at Pfelling continues to be at pleasant levels. 344cm this late morning. notamermaid

Both fine indeed. Moselle in mean range, Main a bit low. No problems with low water due to the locks. Main is deep enough to not cause concern even when the levels are statistically on the low side. The odd exception at an individual docking location is always possible. I would not know about this. notamermaid

I can assure you that she was and still is regarded very very high in Germany. "Als die Queen kam" when the Queen came in 1965 it was such an exciting time, what an honour after hard years for my country. In Bonn, our then capital, she laid down a wreath at a memorial for the victims of wars. The funeral was a sad day. notamermaid

The Remembrance Days of Jewish Life in Germany are coming up here. Every year in November with Commemorations, wreath laying and speeches. Also some talks and exhibitions tend to take place at this time of year. I have mentioned this elsewhere but for those interested when on a land trip or on a river cruise you can look at the plaque scheme. This is designed more for those people that do not have a proper grave, each is a memory not just for Jewish people: https://www.stolpersteine.eu/en/home On a happier note. A few years ago I happened to meet through work (tourism) a young man visiting my area. While talking it transpired that he was on a "look at the place where your ancestors lived" tour and his grandfather wanted to know a few things. He only had three days left to find the Jewish cemetery and some more info before flying back to the US but it was difficult as that was over a weekend when offices are closed of course. Thankfully through a history project I was familiar with the cemetery and knew local contacts so I could help him and especially stayed longer at work. I really enjoyed doing overtime for that. notamermaid

Thank you so much for your detailed review. We know you like giving very many details from past reviews. Lively and really takes you along on the journey. I think I have never felt that close to actually being on Viking ship (apart from the five minutes I was in a lobby of one once). Your food choices and excursions from a Jewish perspective are very interesting. We passed by the synagogue in Budapest on the coach tour but had other emphasis on that bus ride and walk. It looked massive and architecturally very pleasing from the outside. Your cabin looked tiny! But one is out and about most of the time so could be worse I think. I see on one daily the explanation of scuttlebutt. That could have been an alternative name for our water cooler thread. Looking forward to the next posts. notamermaid

Time to have a look at what the river at Kaub did in October: From a still pleasant, a bit on the low side, level the figures went steadily down and on the 19th hit 67cm. That is 10cm below the GlW. At that 77cm the navigation channel is only 1.90m deep. A cliffhanger situation for ship swaps. Did they happen? There may have been a few, if so I did not read about them. A much better situation than we saw on the Danube. And so far this year has been a relatively good one on the Rhine relating both to low and high water. The level improved on the 20th and after a few more low days the figures shot up in reaction to heavy rain and put the sailing conditions in the "perfect" range. Still great now, current figure is 192cm. notamermaid

Aah, good to see that map and read your excitement! Wow, what a journey for a map. A world trip. For those not familiar with it, here it is the website of the publishers: https://www.rahmel-verlag.de/en/products/produkte_details.php?prod_id=43 with some more interesting folding maps and calendars. Unfortunately the publishers only ship within Germany so - as they also write - that big online marketplace is the best place to order it from. notamermaid

Riviera Travel have opened 2025 bookings. Mentioned again is the new Porto Mirante, debuting in July 2024: https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/Riviera-River-Cruises-opens-2025-bookings?ct=river notamermaid

It is time to have a look how the river did at Pfelling: In short: for 26 days the river was too low for the largest river cruise ships. And there was not much water for the smaller ones either. After the rise, towards the end of the month the gauge briefly showed 290cm but went straight back to a more pleasant level. Sticking together September and October the situation looks like this: It is not so easy to see so I will explain. After that massive drop September was wobbly, the level being either below or above 290cm for several days. then from 28 September till 26 October the level stayed under that crucial figure throughout the whole period. 29 consecutive days of the river being too low. Sounds a lot but in the grand scheme of years this is topped by other years of this century both in lowest figures and in numbers of days. notamermaid

It is Scylla. They will own the ship and she will go to both Phoenix Reisen and Riviera Travel in time charter. https://www.rivieratravel.co.uk/ships/ms-porto-mirante Proud Scylla: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/marc-brunger-40a5152a_ms-porto-mirante-activity-7123668969219059712-DgIh notamermaid

The hull I mentioned a few days ago it has been confirmed by info I found from the company Scylla itself, is the Porto Mirante for the Douro. It will be finished in Hardingxveld, Netherlands. The pushing vessel has been changed at Regensburg, a standard procedure. The ship with hull is now on the Main river. notamermaid

All Saints' Day is a Remembrance day for the Saints but as Catholics the tradition is to visit your relatives that have passed away and honour them with candles on their graves. So I went with my family to visit my relatives and also had a look at friends and acquaintances final resting places . A distant colleague, a neighbour, a friend of the family... I have been in a somber mood for several days, I think it started when I remembered that just before Halloween quite a few years ago now my neighbour's cat appeared at my kitchen window giving me quite a fitting fright. The cat passed away last year and I still miss her. The candles where lit in the chapel and there was a priest in attendance. We talked a little. The path to one relative's grave took us past the war graves. It struck me again that several were from the same day. Civilians. One fateful day in autumn 1944. Among the graves of the last five years was one that ended in the same number for both birth and death, a baby not even one year old. Sad, I really wondered what may have happened. When I am on holiday I tend not to go to cemeteries, some people do, but I generally do not go, famous ones or the local ones. I just pass through when they are near the village church for example. It is then interesting to look at the names. They do differ within Germany. Some names are more regional some are ubiquitous of course. When you go to older cemeteries especially you can "study" cultural and social aspects. It does not matter whether you are Christian or not, the symbolism of and on the gravestones and sometimes additional personal references can be really interesting. November is the somber month, as I call it, in the Christian calendar of course with several days for remembrance, of reflection and prayer. Coincidental or deliberately in that month. Yesterday I noticed the first poppy on a jacket of a British reporter on television. I do not actually know on which day this tradition of attaching a poppy to your clothing starts. We do not do this in Germany. As a day of remembrance after many years of debate the second Sunday before the first Sunday of Advent was chosen in 1952, so this year it is 19th November. notamermaid

Wow, thanks for the videos. The Ems river is a federal inland waterway and then becomes an estuary, a tidal waterway with special laws for navigation, etc., meaning different from inland and standard coastal/maritime with special arrangement with the Dutch. The Ems was already dug out in the 19th century, the lower Ems was 4.50m in 1884 and by 1995 that depth had been increased to 7.30m. Now using the tide and the special sluice, ships with a draft of up 8.50m can be pushed from Papenburg out to sea. To compare: navigation channel depths inland on the Rhine and other rivers where river cruise ships sail vary greatly throughout the year but the standard depths that authorities "guarantee", that is maintain, are mostly between 1.40m and 3.00m. No chance of getting a large ocean cruiser up a river very far unless a river is flooding... Depth at Duisburg tonight is 525cm, at Cologne it is 485cm. notamermaid

Hull transport BN 663 is on the Danube, spotted in Austria. This will be the Amadeus Nova: https://www.binnenschifferforum.de/showthread.php?116048-Amadeus-Nova-KFGS&p=464251#post464251 notamermaid

All Saints' Day. Recap of October at Kaub coming soon. The Rhine ship spotters will in the next few days be able to see a hull transport, called NB 211, supposedly a ship ultimately destined for the Douro. Just a few days behind is the hull transport BN 663, the future Amadeus Nova, spotted yesterday on the Danube in Austria. notamermaid

The river at Pfelling just about managed not to get too low early yesterday morning. From the already better 296cm the gauge now shows 304cm. Recap of October coming soon. I can already say to no surprise of those following this thread that it was a bad month. And in the grand scheme of years it has been a bad year so far as regards low levels. notamermaid