notamermaid

I think so far I have not posted it yet in 2023 - the notorious Kaub gauge. You sail past this in the Rhine Gorge, "address" is Rhine kilometre 546.2 on the right bank. The building: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegel_Kaub On the wall you can see the markings I and II. They denote first level of flooding and second level of flooding. When the level reaches the second one all river traffic stops in that section of the Rhine. notamermaid

No news is good news. Thanks for saying hello. A few posts back I said that everything looks good along the Rhine for days to come and it still looks that way. Maxau has seen a slight adjustment, here meaning the worst case scenario stays below flooding level. Kaub is very good for many days to come anyway, it will see a rise, but is not going to be drastic. Current levels: Maxau 509cm, Kaub 245cm. Lake Constance was a bit on the low side, but is filling nicely now. My impression is that snow melt is a little slower than last year, we have not had a very warm spell last week or this week (yet). It is rainy, grey and a bit cool. Tomorrow will see more sunshine and the temperatures rise, possibly to 16 or 17 Celsius in the valley. Rain will continue for a few days. The strike in Germany was only for one day, so as long as the French "behave" in that respect we should not see any delays at the locks. Should nothing unusual happen in between, update coming together with the report on the situation in March, i.e. beginning of April. notamermaid

Thanks for saying hello. I know someone in your town who I have dubbed "my friend in Charlotte" here on CC. Hope to see him this year or next when he visits my area again. Have a great cruise. notamermaid

When I saw your first post I thought "sleep7 has been on another river cruise. This will be a great read!" And it sure is! I have not even managed to get through the first two pages, cannot keep up. Thanks so much for sharing. notamermaid

According to the report I linked to above it should be removed tomorrow. If today's planning has been successful. BR, that is Bayerischer Rundfunk, the regional broadcaster, are really on the ball with this, so I expect them to report quickly when all has gone well. Interestingly, the Federal Waterway website originally put a date of the beginning of April for the end of maintenance, but recent reports including the authorities themselves all say that work is supposed to end on 1 or 2 April at the latest. This is the link for the press releases: https://www.wsa-donau-mdk.wsv.de/Webs/WSA/Donau-MDK/DE/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/SSP_2023.html?nn=1714704 It says 11 March till 31 March. notamermaid

The barge "Achim" in Geisling lock has been declared "fit for transport" by the authorities, i.e. it can be pulled out of the lock and transported to a "parking place" nearby - if the steel girders hold and little water gets into the hull. Today the ship will be floated in the lock to see what happens. If all goes well, the barge can leave the lock tomorrow: https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/gesunkenes-frachtschiff-achim-soll-wieder-schwimmen,TZiEyb4 Apparently, according to the report, it is not possible to transport the ship further right now. When proper transport can be arranged, it looks as if the ship's journey will end in Bratislava, not Linz. Maintenance is scheduled to end very soon, i.e. in the text it is reiterated that traffic is to run smoothly again from this coming weekend at all locks. notamermaid

By the way, strike: by law this "one day walk away from work" is regulated, so it can only be one or two days anyway. There is no strike action announced for Easter. notamermaid

That is disappointing. I am a bit surprised as lock maintenance was scheduled to be on till 31 March anyway. But I am not familiar with details so perhaps you miss it just by a day or even less? Of course, if timing is off on such a long journey you cannot make it to Amsterdam on the day, meaning the cruise after you cannot start on time so effectively they would run the ship to Amsterdam without the scheduled docking for passengers? Not sure that I can find out much more from the news - the captains have better access to the shipping info than me of course - but I will have another look at what is going on at Geisling lock and beyond. notamermaid

It has just been announced in the news that the Pergamonmuseum in Berlin is to close its doors from October due to repairs. This restoration work is of a structural nature to the whole museum. Details are not on the website (yet), this is the local news article: https://www.rbb24.de/kultur/beitrag/2023/03/pergamon-museum-berlin-sanierung-oktober-wiedereroeffnung-2037.html For me a highlight of my visit to the city. I do not care for Berlin, but I must say if you like art, especially of Asia, this is the place to go to. notamermaid

To all those interested in German-speaking ancestry. If you have looked into this topic you may well know this website already, but perhaps you have just started researching: https://www.palam.org/ I have read the book "Becoming German" by Philip Otterness and found it quite fascinating. notamermaid

Thank you for reporting. That is good planning from Amawaterways and the ship crew. Hope you have had a great day in Passau and everything goes smoothly from here. notamermaid

In the absence of steam technology, which came to the Rhine in 1816, river travel was different. I am not sure how travel for individual travellers was organized. Goods have been transported on a regular basis on the Rhine since Roman times. From Cologne upstream travel and transport was aided by horses due to the strong current and therefore slow, so people may have taken a carriage or walked upstream and took the ship downstream. William Turner walked from Cologne, for example, but Lord Byron took a ship. People leaving the country took ships as well, not sure how regularly. I have read a story of emigrants from the Westerwald hills boarding a ship in Neuwied - the nearest port. Such stories are described in books that focus on emigration. You can learn about life along the Middle Rhine in the museum in Koblenz-Ehrenbreitstein. Apparently they offer an app with English audio guide: https://www.rhein-museum.de/besucher-infos Oh, and the Rhine was still in its natural bed in the 1700's. In Winter the river froze, ice floats during the thaw were a great hazard. notamermaid

The Viva Two was christened in Düsseldorf on 23 March. German reports have come in since, but this is the first in English: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tourism/viva-cruises-confirms-third-new-ship Apparently on the occasion of the christening, Viva Cruises announced that a third new ship will join the fleet. notamermaid

The barge "Achim" is still in Geisling lock. Over the weekend 26 tons of steel have been welded to the hull. That is supposed to stabilize the ship. Next step is to let water back into the lock and see if the barge can float. The plan is to have everything sorted by Wednesday when the lock at Straubing reopens after its scheduled inspection. notamermaid

I have just read that the personnel of the Federal waterways is expected to be on strike in Rhineland-Palatinate. This will affect the lock at Koblenz on the Moselle and the lock on the Main at Mainz. Those are confirmed, there may be other disruptions. Buses operated by Deutsche Bahn may also not run. notamermaid

Aahh, they would. No problem. Nought like a good bit of poking fun and feeding the stereotype beast. 😉 I do, too, as you can tell. That is quite a typical time - 1730's - and area to have left for the Americas. Need to think about that for a bit. What I can say is that people did take a ship to Rotterdam where there was either an ocean ship already waiting or people found a place on a ship for passage while waiting in the town. We need to remember that people did not leave from Amsterdam - normally - if they came from Germany. Until well into the 20th century Rotterdam was the seaport for Germany to the West, obviously, as it is the mouth of the river Rhine. It remains a main thoroughfare and port for the shipping industry. Amsterdam was only well connected and used for river cruising - an older shipping canal existed - with the building of the Amsterdam Rhine Canal: https://www.hollandlandofwater.com/amsterdam-rijn-kanaal/ notamermaid

Major strike action expected in Germany on 27 March This will affect the public/services sector, including airports and trains: https://www.euronews.com/travel/2023/03/23/german-unions-call-for-widespread-transport-strike-on-monday It could also involve the lock in the Upper Rhine valley at Iffezheim in Germany, it has been mentioned that at least some lock personnel will be part of the strike. I have seen the North of Germany mentioned and the Neckar river. It has been reported that regional trains may run, but long distance trains are expected to be cancelled all over Germany. Local buses should run. But we will see how it goes. All in all, people will have their own opinions about all this and the news be filled with voices from "the man on the street" - in Germany usually not with fires burning in the background. This is not Paris. Touch wood. The weather is boring, rainy and quite windy. I can think of a better time to be in Germany than right now. notamermaid

Major strike action expected in Germany on 27 March This will affect the public/services sector, including airports and trains: https://www.euronews.com/travel/2023/03/23/german-unions-call-for-widespread-transport-strike-on-monday It could also involve the locks on the Danube in Germany, it has been mentioned that at least some lock personnel will be part of the strike. I have seen the North of Germany mentioned and the Neckar river. Pfelling gauge is fine. 380cm. Trend is for up, but only slowly. Looking good till the end of the month. notamermaid

I actually understood that, but then I am a little used to Bavarian. No real Bavarians, only Prussians? Ha! No way are there only Prussians. A crude, understandable, distinction. But we in the West are Rhenish (or this or that tribe, citizen, etc.). For us the Prussians are far away - kind of in a some foreign land that appears to have a city called Berlin. I am a girl of the Bonn Republic, descended from Franconians and Rhenish Germanic people, with a strong affiliation to cultured Celts in Gaul. Happy to talk to Anglo-Saxons and their descendants. Obviously cannot tell if a mounted Roman soldier from Spain caught the eye of a Germanic girl in my ancestry at some point in time. The map I posted above ends at Cologne, so here is the continuation, the Lower Germanic Limes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_Germanic_Limes Xanten was an important Roman centre, would love to see the museum there. notamermaid

Nooo... You are right. That is for another nation. I actually had a French teacher in college who when she told us somebody did not like something in France and/or history "faire la grève" and raised her fist to indicate protest. Had not thought about that image for many years, it came back to me a few days ago. Grin. notamermaid

Yes, that sounds an odd sight. Great what solutions all those engineers find for problems. The Dutch are masters of lift bridges it seems, but I have seen a couple in Belgium and Northern France as well. I mean those that have a balanced weight. I thought this is some cantilever but according to Wikipedia one of those that I have in mind is called a bascule bridge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bascule_bridge Around where I am we normally just have bridges that are high enough or ferries. I have been on the Tees Transporter Bridge - weird and fascinating. Normally I would just link to a text, but this gentleman with regional accent made me chuckle, I can understand that in a steel town getting a Scottish company to build this masterpiece is a little embarrassing: https://www.middlesbrough.gov.uk/parking-roads-and-footpaths/tees-transporter-bridge Sadly, there is quite a bit of repair that needs to be done on it. notamermaid

To be fair to the French, I need to say that we have had a strike (Warnstreik) on 21 March in the public sector. Will happen again on 27 March and could affect public transport. notamermaid

What fun, I am trying to picture it. 😁 There is still the idea of a boundary, especially when you have no bridges right into the modern era and rely on ferries. The Schäl Sick is a Cologne area way of describing the right bank of the Rhine, usually interpreted as the "wrong" side. It is a contested explanation that it is to do with the horses pulling the ships. But it is a fact that Mainz, Koblenz, Bonn and Cologne are the cultural hubs on the left bank and on the right bank are the suburbs that those on the left bank, errrhm ((restrained cough)), may find less desirable. The left bank railway is certainly the higher ranking one. Caesar by the way did tell the tribes on the right bank off for doing deeds on the left (against Roman-friendly tribes) they should not do. He crossed the Rhine twice by building wooden bridges, told them "stop doing that (roaming, harassing, stealing) or else" and returned to civilized Gaul. My way of putting it. One site is most likely near the railway bridge at Engers port, called Urmitzer Brücke. On Ehrenbreitstein Fortress you can admire a reconstruction of the pile driver used: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesars_Rheinbrücken#/media/Datei:Roman_Pile_Driver,_Festung_Ehrenbreitstein,_Koblenz,_Germany.jpg notamermaid

Yes, that is a good one, albeit not scientific. Would you believe it, there is a Wikipedia page on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weißwurstäquator Tons of fahrts around on German roads: Auffahrt, Abfahrt. And Einfahrt, Ausfahrt in multi-storey car parks, etc. Overall I think the English beat us to it with place names, but there are some fun ones around. Not far from the Rhine, completely benign but weird, is Katzenelnbogen, "cat's elbow(s). That made the old noble family "The Counts of Cat's Elbow" . That just demands a fairy-tale, doesn't it? 😉 Apparently, it is not sure where the name came from, may have been a connection with the Germanic Chatti tribe. Oh well... The castle called "Katz" which you see next to "Maus" when sailing through the Rhine Gorge belonged to the family, Katz is shortened for Katzenelnbogen. notamermaid

The Danube in Bavaria is doing pretty well. Pfelling gauge is at 362cm. There is an upward trend further upstream, nothing to drastic. Unless the weather changes a lot, this looks good for pleasant levels for sailing for several days to come. Nothing too low, nothing too high. notamermaid