notamermaid

Oh yes. The river is very cold and it is much harder to get to dry land on the wide approach to the lock, so the crew were very lucky. And the impact to the environment could be kept to a minimum. It is going well as regards time, i.e. the press release and regional newspaper give me confidence that they will manage to get this sorted by the time the locks are scheduled to reopen. Yes, it would affect river cruises going to or from Regensburg, which includes the Grand European of course. Have a great time on the AmaMagna. notamermaid

Although self-evident to me - and many other people I am sure - the CLIA chair Mr. Bouldin felt the need to say this: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tour-operators/clia-chair-urges-river-cruise-operators-to-broaden-narrow-websites Perhaps there are too few young people in photos being very active on a river cruise on the company's websites... We all know the power of good photos and being employed in tourism marketing myself I am familiar with what photos can do - I prefer to leave all that instagram fiddling to my younger colleagues though. I agree that there is a good river cruise out there that will fit (almost) everyone, apart from paragliding perhaps. You just need to know how to guide your customer to the product - be it a relaxing trip gliding along a river or canal or a family adventure trip on a custom-built river cruise ship for those active youngsters. notamermaid

Surprise news from the Expo, the Riverside Mozart was given a proper ceremony for her re-naming, complete with godmother: https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/Riverside-christens-Mozart-surprise-ceremony?ct=river notamermaid

Hello and welcome to CruiseCritic. You have chosen a very popular route for first time cruisers and I dare say a good date. Historically, flooding from Spring is through by then and low water not there yet. For the Rhine I am more confident than for the Danube to be able to stick to this for this year as well. We are starting on a bit of a low for this year but as we saw last week, the Rhine is able to get to a good level with just 24 hours of constant rain. This becomes a bit more difficult when the temperatures go up, i.e. needs a bit more rain. We cannot say what the weather will be in Summer but the real problems in the Rhine gorge tend to start in September. Last year saw an early start to problems at the end of July. Also consider this: what is your company and ship? Viking with a 135m ship? Amawaterways with a 135m ship? Avalonwaterways with an older 110m ship? Or a different company entirely? Also consider this: what will happen most likely when the water is too low? A ship swap? A cancellation? Do you know what your company's policy is? Also consider this: where are you coming from, i.e. how do you need to travel to get to your cruise and what would a disruption do to your enjoyment? All in all, companies do well, ship swaps are smooth on the Rhine - remember that they do not happen every year and I have not read of one being necessary during the time period you are travelling. Past cruisers please step forward if you have done a ship swap in the first half of July. What would you change to that could be similar to a river cruise in the area? A river cruise is a unique experience. A land tour can give you a great different insight into life along the Rhine of course. Question is really, how much are you willing to accept a disruption to your river cruise? Again, overall it is unlikely to happen - by that I mean on a probability scale for a calendar year - and when it does, depending on ship and company, it is likely to be mild but will require being flexible with excursions and coach travel. notamermaid

It is 18 March and the 175th anniversary of the Märzrevolution in Germany. You do not hear that much about this phase in German history on a standard river cruise I reckon. It was quite a decisive event and while the big things happened in Berlin of course, Frankfurt had been chosen as the place for the assembly, more precisely the Paulskirche. If you would like to learn a bit about this aspect of history in this anniversary year, you can book a tour: https://www.frankfurt-tourismus.de/en/frankfurt/offer/detail/Anniversary-tour-Update-Democracy.-Following-up-on-the-1848-Revolution-English-Adult-NDS00020140423164728?globalReset=1&lang=en Or you can just read about it: https://paulskirche.de/en/pages/the-history-of-paulskirche notamermaid

Welcome to CruiseCritic and thank you for saying hello here. Perhaps you have actually looked at this already but it is kind of customary for us here on CC to recommend the pinned threads at the the top of this page to new members. Great info compiled by our host. Amsterdam to Budapest is one of the longest standard journeys along the magnificent rivers of Europe. And you also get to see that feat of engineering which is the Main Danube Canal. That canal we cover as a topic in the thread on the Danube. If you fancy reading a bit about the Main this is the thread: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2670259-the-river-main-infos-and-river-cruising-experiences/ Things are quiet along the Rhine now, water levels are okay, and we have a bit of early Spring in the air, meaning the weather has calmed down. It is quite warm during the day. Before I forget, I had mentioned we would look at the river at Maxau again to see what may happen on 24th to 26th March. Right now the most likely scenario is for the river level to be around 505cm on the 25th of March with the computer modelling giving a wide range of figures after that but looking favourable for the level to stay in a good range nevertheless, i.e. no extremes either way. This means Kaub looks good for the rest of the month. notamermaid

Update from Geisling lock 880 tons of the 1100 tons of iron ore have been unloaded from the barge. Although the original plan was to get all the load, it was decided after this press release: https://www.wsa-donau-mdk.wsv.de/Webs/WSA/Donau-MDK/DE/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/PM3_Havarie_SchlGeisling2023.html to abandon the rest. I cannot link the updated info from a local newspaper. The water level will now be reduced to 2 metres for a part of the chamber, i.e. a chamber within the chamber will be created and the ship further inspected. They are very careful about not spilling Diesel or oil unnecessarily into the environment. Then a decision will be made as how to deal with the ship itself. notamermaid

The Main, different from the Danube and Rhine, is controlled for its entire length as a German federal waterway by locks. River cruisers will never see the uncontrolled Main unless they go on an excursion (or on a tiny boat). Here is the Main in the context of navigable rivers (the map is international and by the institution designed to be in German, English and Russian): The black arrow lines are the locks. You can see the light blue stretches of the free-flowing Rhine and Danube. You can see the young Main going around the word Bamberg as a thin blue line. While the Main is so much narrower in many stretches than the Rhine the fact that it is controlled and as deep - in parts deeper - makes it a more reliable waterway as regards water levels. notamermaid

Oh, yes! Oh, nooo!! No one on mainland Europe would have been safe. They were happy to raid along the Rhine and Moselle already. notamermaid

A trip to Nickenich village in the volcanic Eifel part 2 A churchyard, complete with cemetery or not, and church always need exploring. As one can expect in Germany anywhere in such a setting there was a war memorial for WWI. The archangel Michael slaying the dragon, as far as I can tell made of local stone: The one for WWII was just a few steps away. On the steps this pretty butterfly greeted us in the sunlight, it was an astonishingly warm day for February: I had lost my bearings and was not sure which way to go to find a specific street so I asked the lady at the church door. She was leaving as we were about to go in. Question answered but then she added: “And if you want to see the tumulus, that is up the village on the main road”. A cheerful thank you from me and my brain puzzled: did she mean tumulus as in Romano-Celtic burial hill?? But first the church. As only the chapel was accessible and the main church interior locked with iron bars, I took a photo of the unusual iron spiral staircase: and the hall through the gate's bars. The first floor above us there will likely hold the organ: I had mentioned in my previous post that Monday was an unfortunate choice for a visit. The reason: the bakery was closed! Monday sees very few people in the village and both bakeries are closed in the afternoon, so that Monday only gave us the chance to try out the butchers in Nickenich. I can confirm that the Wiener Würstchen sausages from there are good. While walking the village streets I was able to find out that Nickenich once had a castle (altogether now: nooo surprise, this is Germany), which has long gone as an edifice, but a Burgstrasse still leads to the former spot: The building on the left there is a typical design in the area. This gate is the old entrance to the working quarters of the castle: I would have liked to also check out the farm shop but things were getting a little late. After all, there was that tumulus that we still wanted to see. This is another farm building that apparently offers potatoes as the small sign under the road sign says: Then it was back to the car and up the road to the Tumulus. To be continued… notamermaid

The CroisiEurope's La Belle de Cadix is an interesting vessel that is both allowed to sail the Spanish rivers and the coastal areas: https://www.croisieurope.com/destination/bateaux-guadalquivir-guadiana With 110m by 11.40m she is of the modest size that can sail many rivers and with the standard low draft of river cruise ships she would certainly make it to the Main Danube Canal if she ever came to the colder shores of the North Sea from her home in Spain... notamermaid

About the European watershed. This does not only divide Rhine and Danube but much more of course. You can read up on it but for the purpose of river cruising on that stretch of the Main Danube Canal I fond the wikivoyage page very good: https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Main-Danube_Canal It also has a height profile you can print out and that if you are really into locks. Interesting on that are the two water supply markings Rothsee and Dürrlohspeicher. They additionally help the Canal maintain its water level. The page says under Schleuse Hilpoltstein: "The surface of the water between this and the next Schleuse reaches a height of 406 m (1,332 ft), the highest point directly reachable from the ocean on a seagoing vessel in the world." Seagoing vessel? I mean, they are too big for the canal!? I had to think about that one for a bit. These days I do not think that any such vessels go far inland on the Rhine, but historically the first ever vessels to sail up the Rhine with an engine came across the English channel. One could have a small coastal barge or yacht these days and go along Waal, Rhine, Main into the Canal. You just need to know the dimensions of your ship, including the draft, and any regulations that apply. notamermaid

And CC has published this: https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/7294/ notamermaid

Just held, this is what it was about: https://cruising.org/en-gb/events/2023/march/riverview-conference-2023--vienna Article and video on travel weekly uk: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tour-operators/changes-in-water-levels-not-concerning-for-river-lines-says-amawaterways-owner notamermaid

It is a normal lock on the Rotterdam to Black Sea route, i.e. every ship passes through here. More specifically, the district is Pfatter, the coordinates are 48° 58.635' N 12° 20.629' E . In this video, the gentleman says that they are lucky somewhat that this has happened when the locks are all out of use anyway. By the time the maintenance work is done on the other locks, this one at Geisling needs to be free again so that it does not become the bottleneck, i.e. blockage between Regensburg and Straubing for all river traffic: https://www.pnp.de/nachrichten/bayern/havariertes-schiff-in-der-schleuse-geisling-bergung-laeuft-sehr-gut-10738262 For now it should not affect any river cruises. I assume that all river cruise ships are in position, seeing that maintenance schedules are known well in advance. notamermaid

Things are going well at Geisling lock under the circumstances. The water level was lowered by six metres and the divers sent down to the barge. Meanwhile a specialist barge with digger had arrived. This has been lightening the load since this morning. The wheelhouse of the barge has now reappeared, see photo: https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/gesunkenes-frachtschiff-taucher-inspizieren-schiffswrack,TYSDzpM It is not clear yet if the barge can be manoeuvred out of the chamber in one or in several parts. The whole procedure with damage assessment to the chamber could still take two weeks. notamermaid

As expected, Maxau has peaked and is already a bit down again, now at 578cm. All looking good for several days to come. The next rise is not expected for over a week and as of now does not look substantial. We need to get closer to the 18th to see what the 24th to the 26th may realistically bring in the Upper Rhine valley as regards water levels. Oh, and it has snowed in the hills again, down to an elevation of 200m in the Middle Rhine valley. The night was cold. notamermaid

With more rain sweeping over the Danube basin in Germany we see another rise in river levels. Crucial is the bridge at Passau, yet there the level fell a little during the morning. Another wave is coming, Pfelling has risen to 444cm. This fast rise does not automatically translate into a similar rise at Passau due to the geography there and the lock at Vilshofen. Passau forecast suggests it will stay well below any problematic figures. notamermaid

I think for me with locks it is that the novelty and excitement go but the fascination stays. Although I live here surrounded by many waterways, I only had a vague memory of huge river locks from teenage years before I went on my Danube river cruise in 2013. As a side note to dams and rivers: there is a river in Germany that is quite different from the other major ones - the Weser. When it is born it already is a German Federal waterway as it is made up of two almost equally big rivers joining and becoming the Weser. Apart from locks it actually has a huge dam and reservoir above one of its two source rivers that is used to regulate the level throughout the year. notamermaid

About the U-Boot: found the info! https://www.technik-museum.de/en/u17 It starts its journey on 28th April in Kiel. notamermaid

Thanks for the map. Quite different from Rhine and Danube I would say. Both the Rhine and the Danube basin are fed by water from the Alps and the springs/ground water and rain water that come with the other tributaries from the other hills and mountains. Plenty of moisture throughout the year, just sometimes a bit too little...Our weather is essentially made high up over the North Atlantic. In 2018 there was an unusual shift in the general weather pattern up there, which led to the catastrophically hot and dry autumn of that year. The Rhine system and the Danube system are right next to each other and both rivers are in the grand scheme of things, i.e. the distances you are used to in Australia, just a stone's throw from each other. Here is the map of the systems as they relate to Germany: The funny looking light blue blob at the bottom is Lake Constance. The red line separating Rhine and Danube is also the European watershed. That is an interesting topic we should talk about again, especially since you are going to traverse that on the "Grand European" itinerary, as I tend to call all Amsterdam to Budapest (or reverse) sailings. notamermaid

With the Main Danube Canal inaccessible at this time of year due to maintenance (see Danube thread) it is of course not possible yet to have a Grand European journey or even start a river cruise in Frankfurt that goes upstream to Nuremberg. Roaming offers on the Main river I actually found one river cruise that is starting in March. That makes sense with this APT itinerary as it leaves from Amsterdam and will be on the Main when the Canal reopens. APT calls it "Highlights of the Rhine and Main". I have said in the past that I would like to see a river cruise line focusing on the Main in an itinerary. This year we have the chance to sail only on the Main with Viva Cruises on a four night return trip Frankfurt. Available internationally, so certainly a nice short trip if you just want to see the Main river landscape or test out if a river cruise may be for you: https://www.viva-*****/en-us/cruisedetail?id=346&adults=2 Always having little time in between work; I would consider booking this for myself to just get away for a few days from home. notamermaid

So, more info and correction. The river was not on a very high level. The MS Annika lost some of the construction at the funnel, nothing from the sundeck or wheelhouse. Apparently she was not fully getting ready to sail for the season, just repositioning from Offenbach. According to Phoenix Reisen, repairs will take a week only and are considered "cosmetic". notamermaid

The weather is quite eventful this week as well. It has been really warm, well into the double digits in some places. But it is stormy again (well, was during the day here) and today it has been chucking it down. As a result we see another fast rise of the river's water levels. Maxau has risen by 80cm since midnight, now at 547cm. The peak will be tomorrow, possibly before lunch. It should remain below 600cm, so again stay under a level that could have a significant impact on a river cruise itinerary. The wave is forecast to reach Kaub during the early hours of tomorrow and peak Friday morning. No real flooding anticipated there either. notamermaid

So how are things at Geisling lock? Here is the report from this morning: https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/gesunkenes-frachtschiff-taucher-inspizieren-schiffswrack,TYSDzpM Video of last night says that the ship sank like a stone in seconds, there is no evidence of it having hit anything, all was normal procedure until it just basically started disappearing under water. The Diesel swimming on the water surface had been pumped off during the day (Monday). This means this morning the water level could be lowered so that divers can safely inspect what the situation is under water. The chamber is deep, meaning the water's depth is 11 meter which is too much for safe diving. Depending on how things go, the rescue operation could take some time. After today's inspection, the next steps will be decided. First all the water has to go, then the load needs to be hauled from the ship, then the ship taken out of the chamber. I guess the question is how, it does not sound as if the barge will be in any decent condition... notamermaid