notamermaid

Kaub gauge at 206cm. Quite a bit of water still coming from the Upper Rhine valley. Weather forecast to improve. Plenty of room, i.e. a good level, for high temperatures and lack of rain to have no real impact and the figures above 100cm for some time. notamermaid

A quick look at Pfelling. 479cm with the probability to rise further. The Regen river (flows towards Regensburg) has risen so much it is over the flood mark 2. Passau okay, but we will need to see how the high volume of water coming from the tributaries translates into figures at Pfelling and further. The Isar river is at a good, not too high level. It is rare but there has been flooding in August on the Danube, notably in 1991. The weather should change to more summery temperatures this week. notamermaid

Peles is indeed a "newbuild", a 19th century mixed styles countryside palace. From the photos I have seen I think this must have worked very well as a film location for winter! notamermaid

Yes, I would say so. I tend to feel a little cooler than some people but can get to short sleeves in the afternoon. notamermaid

We did not even make it to 20 today. It has been cold for several days. But that is unusual. August is warm to hot. September is mixed and can vary quite a bit from coast to hills, from valley in the North to valley in the South. Mornings can be cool but afternoons very often get to 20 and more. Really pleasant for touring. Check accuweather or wetteronline.de notamermaid

Pfelling gauge has risen to 428cm. So plenty of water to keep the ships sailing comfortably for hopefully quite a few days in August - or, hmmm, a problem arising at Passau? The level at Passau went close to being rather high at the infamous bridge. The river stopped short at 620cm, that is only 10cm below the figure that the officials have put down in the list of important levels as being the one that may cause problems for passage for some river cruise ships. At 594cm now, the level looks pleasant. Hopefully, not too much water will come from the Upper Danube in the next 48 hours. It is still raining over the whole Danube basin (more or less). notamermaid

@braemar12 That is a busy long itinerary. Esztergom Cathedral is something between magnificent and serene I find. The bridge: The Cathedral frontage with statue: Enjoy your cruise. notamermaid

My interest in Bucharest comes from the connection of Queen Elizabeth of Romania to her birthplace on the Rhine at Neuwied. I would like to see Peles Palace in Sinaia one day where the Royal Couple lived. I would definitely go on an excursion to Bucharest just to get a feel for the city and its recent history as well. I enjoyed seeing the remnants of Soviet times in Budapest. notamermaid

Brrr, cold! I have arrived at the water cooler with a cup of tea instead. 🫖 It is so cool in Germany. Unpleasant winds as well. No need for air conditioning at work. Found a note from my colleague on a spread sheet with the comment "the year will soon be over..." Shock, no!! I feel as if I have not had a decent summer yet. Planning ahead is fine, but that note came at a psychologically inconvenient time. Looking forward to a warmer week and perhaps I can share a few photos of Westphalia to keep at least a bit of holiday spirit going for me. notamermaid

Great! Passau return is a typical cruise offered on the German market - hence Amadeus doing this. Is that a 14-night cruise? notamermaid

Sabrina - Severn, I see how it has evolved in the letters. Thank you, I do not know much about the rivers of England. Surprised that the Severn is longer than the Thames. The view from the bridge over the Severn estuary is stunning. More word history - the Mosel is the Latin Mosella which means small (river) Maas (Meuse). Father Rhine and Mother Moselle allegories are depicted on this monument in Koblenz in the park along the Rhine embankment: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Vater_Rhein_und_Mutter_Mosel.jpg "Vater Rhein und seine Töchter" is the title of a monument in Düsseldorf: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vater_Rhein_und_seine_Töchter notamermaid

My pleasure. You may well hit the bad weather front on Sunday but the week ahead looks to get better as you sail towards Basel. Have a great cruise. If we are going into the linguistics/history nerd thing - and I cannot resist at this point - let us have a look at Rhenus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhenus_Pater Fun fact: Rhenus is also in the name of a maritime logistics company, they were of course inspired by that Latin word for Rhine. notamermaid

Hope you are having a great time on the AmaSerena and touring the ports. Thank you for the photo. Could Kaub gauge become one of the most photographed "non-castle" towers on the Rhine? notamermaid

Famous Pfalzgrafenstein is an iconic site. So many great things to see in the Middle Rhine valley. What I find fascinating about my river is the sheer variety of landscapes. Like my avatar photo. It is very different from the river where the famous castles are. At that spot at Rhinau I saw a wide river with island and factory and other grand scale man-made structures in the distance. The buildings and villages in France looked similar to ours but the differences were still noticeable. There are several landscape spots apart from the castles that I like. Not sure that I have a favourite one (beyond a particular sight that I grew up with). Rüdesheim hills, Bacharach, Boppard are all memorable, Oberwesel town wall is great. Urmitz Rhine bridge is a fascinating sight because I like steel bridges. After the wide valley at Neuwied the Andernach Gate where the river enters the mountains again stands out. Petersberg near Bonn is always a welcome sight. Cologne Hohenzollern Bridge at night is fascinating. A particularly warm memory I attach to the sunrise at Oberwinter. But after all that idle talk I will leave you for the weekend with two videos of the Upper Middle Rhine valley, both posted before in a previous year, but you can relive some moments from your cruise, learn a little about the valley or have your appetite whetted. By the way, weather should go back to being really summery soon and Kaub gauge is doing just fine, now and for the foreseeable future (let us say at least a week). https://www.dw.com/en/upper-middle-rhine-valley-a-unesco-world-heritage-site/video-16995075 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XElvTqJVWA notamermaid

@ksloanbrown welcome to Cruisecritic and thank you for the photo of Pfalzgrafenstein at Kaub. Have a great time on the Avalon Expression. notamermaid

Talking of the Scenic Jade. The fabulous people on Binnenschifferforum have spotted the Jade at Regensburg on the 3rd. Perhaps someone recognizes themselves on the ship: https://www.binnenschifferforum.de/showthread.php?63236-Scenic-Jade-KFGS-02335641&p=461058#post461058 Pfelling at 367cm. notamermaid

It is August, time to have a look at what the river did at Kaub: The month started on a relative low for this time of year and the worry of the level going to a real low was certainly there. The decline was slow and before problems for river cruise ships could really arise the river recovered in the middle of the month. This was a short relief that could not be backed up and we saw first the return to where the figures had been before and then a further decline that brought the river close to a level that would have been problematic. Thankfully, after a very dry week, rain set in all over the catchment area and we see a fast rise of about 90cm. On the Danube at Pfelling this was even more pronounced with the level rising by just over 100cm in that short space of time. Cooler temperatures and continued rain on and off kept the level high enough till the end of the month. notamermaid

Welcome to Cruisecritic. Thank you for reporting from your cruise. Indeed, the weather is not really summery and unsettled days still lie ahead. Pfelling at 383cm. notamermaid

That's the spirit. The Grand European is an amazing journey. As Canal archive says the ships are out of position, so the last swap was the swap to put the ships on opposite ends of the continent to where they should be and the company did not have to switch them back as the river's levels rose. Have a great cruise. notamermaid

A curious little ship has been on the Moselle - you may still be able to spot it today. She is called the Ulma V and is a wooden ship from the Danube, a so-called "Ulmer Schachtel" or "Zille". I have mentioned this type of vessel in the Danube thread. No photo unfortunately of the unusual ship with black and white livery on the river as the newspaper article is behind a paywall. The website of the friends: http://ulma-ulm.de/Historie-der-ULMA/ notamermaid

Not sure myself about the set-up of Ama and APT. There are the few specific ships that have the APT livery/logo when I see them sailing on the river. I know that one grand European journey has an APT tailored specific itinerary. It includes Namedy Castle as an excursion and at its inauguration was mentioned as being exclusive. About Brohl and the saga of the Carmen Sylva: The sale has been confirmed. The Andernach businessman is now the proud owner of the excursion boat. In an interview with a local newspaper he has stated that he wants to turn her into a "house boat". A major restoration task, I hope for a happy ending. So far, I am delighted that she is still around. notamermaid

It is August, time to have a look at what the river did at Pfelling: The river started on a low, too low for some ships. The level struggled to recover and on the 10th dropped to a figure that is very low for this time of year. Shortly after that we see the graph jump and that level back over 300cm created a window of opportunity for all ships to sail the shallow stretch. We have read that at least some ships were able to use this short "high". The level dropped again but not as low as before. Still, again this necessitated ship swaps. A minor rise was very short. Again we see the level fall below the line of RNW at 290cm. This 290cm happens to be the level at which the river cruise ships with the deepest draft start having problems sailing. Heavy rain in the whole catchment area of the Upper Danube in Germany meant that the level at Pfelling recovered very quickly after that. So much so that the rest of the month saw comfortable sailing. Additional rain has helped to keep the level well over 300cm, too and as you can see the graph is showing the level around the long term mean (MW). notamermaid

So, little is happening on the Elbe in summer, meaning July and August, on the stretch that takes in Dresden, Meißen and Wittenberg. I have had a look at the offers on a German online-only booking website and if you widen your search for the whole Elbe you find several river cruises. Tomorrow you can go from Hamburg to Brandenburg with Plantours, on the 6th you can go from Hamburg to Berlin with CroisiEurope, etc. If you wanted to see the Elbe in summer you could but this is of course still very little river cruise traffic compared to other rivers and even some canals in Germany. notamermaid

No problem. A quick change in weather pattern can be the difference of sailing and non-sailing and I would say from having monitored this over the years that the Danube is more pronounced with the rapid recovery than the Rhine. Mind you, the Rhine tends to have the fewer problems with it than the Danube in Bavaria. We are now in August so it is time to recap July on the rivers Danube, Elbe and Rhine. And on the Danube we will see this rapid recovery in the graph quite clearly. On the Rhine it is there as well but as we saw the river on a "mild low" the effect was virtually non-existent, i.e. river cruise ships have been sailing with very little impact and no ship swap (as far as I can ascertain) was necessary. notamermaid

Speaking of which: Kaub gauge 178cm. Forecast adjusted to just reaching 200cm on Saturday. notamermaid