notamermaid

The river cruise itinerary that I had wanted to post is not available this year. But we still have the Excellence Pearl that could sail up the river to the town of Dinant - which I was alluding to. Before we get to that, here is the for me exciting news that the relatively new company Viva Cruises has decided to offer a cruise that spends a bit more time on the Meuse. Here is the itinerary on the Swiss Ruby. https://www.viva-*****/en/cruisedetail?id=414&adults=2&pref=2023-07-30 Notice the stop at Emmerich, a port rarely used by international cruise lines. On the German market the port is used sometimes by a couple of companies although not on that many itineraries. A first as far as I know is Cuijk. I had never heard of this town before. It may be a short technical stop in the evening but a stay of two and a half hours warrants the question if the company offers anything in that port. If you have been to that town on a river cruise I would be pleased about a short post. notamermaid

Yes. Snow and the subsequent snow melt directly influence how the river behaves in Spring. Rain of course, too, but in a different way. What happens upstream from and directly at Lake Constance gives the Federal Institute of Hydrology an idea of what this year will bring. Lake Constance is the natural reservoir of the Rhine and keeps the level up but snow in the Alps is crucial for refilling the Lake so that the Upper and especially Middle and Low Rhine have to rely less on rainfall in summer and autumn. The authority monitors this but details will not be available now. The fine tuning of the rivers levels if you like is done by the weather patterns later in the year so a low water table is not good but whether that leads to proper low water problems or not cannot be deduced from it, it makes the risk greater though. Have not looked at details yet but overall we have had not much precipitation recently my feeling tells me. It is drizzly here and more rain is forecast so river levels will go up. Not enough for winter flooding. Which again does not mean much as downpours can cause mild flooding later in the month or in February. Lake Constance looks a little on the low side in the figures so I do not anticipate much flooding. A couple of modelling scenarios by the institutes computers say otherwise so it will stay interesting. We have gone into the New Year with storms and warm weather rather than freezing temperatures. notamermaid

Reading your avatar name and place I guess you are in England. Riviera is your own UK line while Viking is American. That is reflected to some extent in food, feel and passenger mix. I will try and word this carefully, while my impressions from what others have written lead me to believe that there is a notch more luxury in the river cruises with Viking I get the impression that the price tag is a little higher than the extra bit of luxury warrants. I see the ships on the river and would prefer to sail on a Riviera ship. I second Daisis suggestion of talking to a travel agent familiar with river cruising. Ask around among the people you know if they have been on a European river cruise. I have a big caveat as regards the Grand European. You will be on the rivers for a long time and that is not for everyone. The Grand European with Viking can be let us say problematic when the water levels are low. Riviera Travel I cannot comment on with details, but their ships have a slight advantage over the Viking ships when sailing. I highly recommend reading the roll call for the Grand European with Viking for 2022. I myself would never sail the Grand European with Viking in late summer or autumn. There is much to consider with river cruising, insurance is another thing and payment. Being in the UK gives you more favourable consumer rights but nevertheless I recommend getting travel insurance not from the river cruise company. Again, a travel agent should be able to help you with that. Have fun planning. notamermaid

A few random thoughts... While 2021 already saw many ships back on the river, only 2022 brought a full return to operations (almost I think, I am not sure if all ships actually left the winter harbours, demand was not fully there in the first half of 2022). Koblenz saw 90 percent of dockings compared to 2019, according to the tourism board there. I was happy to see my river so busy again. And a few new names or renamings appeared, too. The Viva One is now a regular spotting, doing so many short trips up and down the Rhine. The number of Viking ships I saw was staggering, I had all but forgotten how many there are. 2023 will see more ships from various companies entering the market. Spring will see the Viva Two being christened in Düsseldorf. A-Rosa is supposed to get a new ship. Talking of which, the Sena was an exciting newcomer to the industry and attracted much attention. With her size she can only sail on the lower Rhine so I will never spot her in my realm. I enjoy seeing every ship, but have a particular liking for the MS Grace and the MS Edelweiss. The latter has an alpine theme in the decor which I think I will not feel that comfortable with for a week. Indoors I prefer the splendour of the S.S. Antoinette and the MS River Queen is a delight all around. As a new regular port we have been able to welcome Wesel in the itinerary calendar finally. Viking established it and the regional paper announced that Wesel will see another regular stop in 2023. Not sure what they mean, perhaps another itinerary by Viking or the itinerary of a German company that I found by chance? I have been a bit disappointed with itinerary variety this year - again. But there have been a few developments, Koblenz being the embarkation port for a few cruises by Viva Cruises for example. And the slightly different itineraries by Tauck with their exclusive excursions continue to please me. Viking being the busiest fellas on my river have added another landing stage at Koblenz. I am not sure if I am so happy about that. The longships and other long ships ran into problems again. Low water became a problem in the unusual month of August. Which makes me wonder if we will see a company add a 110m ship in 2023. I have not looked yet. Low water - the river will continue to keep us guessing what will happen in the Rhine Gorge at Kaub. The engineers have been busy in the background studying the effects of the planned alterations to the river bed and have been consulting with the public as well this year. Things will improve in the future but expect them to be busy with computers and diggers or dredgers for a few more years. In the meantime we will plan and then take it as it comes. 2023 has come and you may be busy planning a cruise on my river - or not. I have nothing planned, but perhaps one fine summer day this year you will see a woman waving madly from an excursion boat as you pass on your large river cruise ship. That will most likely be me. notamermaid

A new ship has come to the Plantours Kreuzfahrten fleet! The German company welcomes the Lady Cristina who will sail from May. Okay, you really need to speak German to get enjoyment out of Lady Cristina's itineraries but I post this here for your general interest and a few of you seasoned river cruisers will remember her - she is the former Amadagio (the current one actually being her fourth name): https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/news/plantours-charters-lady-cristina-adds-23-itineraries-next-year Since the article went online, Plantours has put the ship info on the website https://www.plantours-partner.de/ms-lady-cristina-neues-flussschiff.html and you can see her itineraries leaving from her base in Frankfurt, an unusual city to have a river cruise ship starting almost all cruises from: https://www.plantours-partner.de/ms-lady-cristina-flusskreuzfahrten.html I love the idea of short Christmas shopping on the Main river. Will certainly look at Plantours during this year. It appears that in the last three years Frankfurt has gone up at least two levels in popularity for starting a river cruise, not just for European lines. An interesting development. Frankfurt being a passenger train hub and having an international airport this makes perfect sense. Apart from Frankfurt having much to offer as regards sightseeing and having a nice Christmas market, too, in my opinion. Perhaps in the future more international lines will add even more convenient itineraries for the Main. I hope so, especially for winter. notamermaid

Funnily enough, I was going to say the Moselle with Beilstein village and Burg Eltz visit immediately as well. However, from what others have said, I think the Douro could be good, especially as you are sailing only in daytime. I found the Saar and Saarburg surprisingly attractive, but it is not easy internationally to find a river cruise that is only on the Saar and Moselle. Ever thought of doing a bike & barge tour? They are much on canals but often visit the smaller towns. CroisiEurope has some great ones that are not focussed on bike tours, but are on luxury barges. You can of course get barge cruises on the rivers, too. notamermaid

Here is a last look at the river levels at Kaub. December went like this: The month started with pleasant levels but went down to around 100cm by 15 December. Fortunately it was not low enough to cause problems and wet weather that followed brought the level up again. Shortly before Christmas due to a rise in temperatures, snow melt with rain made the river rise fast. As this event started from a relative low it did not lead to flooding. At Kaub the level did not reach M_I (flood mark I). At Maxau further upstream where the rise was even more pronounced, the flood mark I was reached, luckily the relative low beforehand kept the river from causing problems other than a short time of slowed traffic for safety reasons. This was Maxau: This concludes 2022. The Rhine being "my" river I may stick around here for a bit but the trips and info that I have not got round to posting I will now carry over into 2023. Thank you all for contributing to this thread in 2022. notamermaid

Just to add to hihandycap's post, here is the celebratory look at it: https://germanfoods.org/german-food-facts/celebrate-three-kings-day/ We do not eat the cake around where I live. Several years ago I was invited to join into a festive eating of the French version. A lovely afternoon it was. notamermaid

Here is a last look at the Elbe river level at Dresden. This was December: Ups and downs throughout the month until 20 December on pleasant levels above 100cm certainly kept the ships afloat. Remember that there is a lock and dam system in the Czech Republic which has skewed the levels in several months of the year to being not the norm on the Elbe and may have influenced the ups and downs in December as well - which I cannot confirm but just want to give you the info that the level at Dresden can show influences of humans interfering upstream. Snow melt and rain, just like on the other rivers in Germany, made the level rise close to Christmas to a level above the mean but not close to flooding. The level peaked and went down after that run-off, keeping at good high levels since. The thread on the Elbe naturally tends to be much shorter than the ones on the Danube and on the Rhine but for 2022 we can also say that this is due to the levels of the river having been much better than average. Maintenance work in the Czech Republic completed, we can only guess what 2023 will bring. Thank you all for contributing to this thread in 2022. notamermaid

From Prague to Deggendorf it is a good deal further than from Munich to Deggendorf, in kilometres a fair bit, depending on whether you look at Munich airport or Munich itself, also as regards logistics. What makes the really big difference is that apparently the roads from Prague are slower. Getting the transfer from Avalon should eliminate all worries from either direction. A train connection from Munich to Deggendorf is relatively straightforward, not sure about Prague. Deggendorf has not been a port that we have talked a great deal about on CC (yet). Quite frankly, I would be spoilt for choice, both Munich and Prague are great cities to explore. Difference is language and culture. Would you prefer German/Bavarian or Czech? I have been to Deggendorf, stayed a few hours and vaguely enjoyed myself, I got into a storm with downpour, so no really good memories. I did not even know that Deggendorf used its port for river cruise ships until about three years ago. For planning, perhaps this info (although in German) is helpful for directions: https://deggendorf.travel/media/deggendorf-travel-schiffsanlegestelle.pdf Deggendorf is in the stretch of Danube notorious for low water issues but is not as bad as Straubing or Regensburg embarkation. Vilshofen would be better but I am sure Avalon Waterways has got a plan for any issues that may arise with embarkation. Not a great worry but something to have in the back of your mind. May is not a typical month for low water but you never know these days. Have fun planning I am sure you will have a great time with Avalon Waterways. My tip: if you do not go for the Prague add-on, spend an extra day in Budapest if you feel comfortable with a bit of DIY. The city is fabulous. notamermaid

Time to have a last look at the river level at Pfelling on the Bavarian Danube. This is what the river did in December: The beginning of the month saw Pfelling at pleasant levels but it went briefly down on 15 December, generally speaking too low for many large river cruise ships. This fortunately did not last long. A surprising dip we saw on 20 December when the level fell a little below 290cm, meaning it may have caused a slight problem for the odd ship or two. Rising temperatures with snow melt and rain brought the level back up and gave a sharp rise just before Christmas. As the river started on a relative low this did not lead to official flooding. Further downstream we also saw the plus side of starting snow melt from a low level. Passau gauge: The level rose one and a half metres in about 24 hours. That is a lot but as it stayed below 630cm and did not cause a problem with passage under the low bridge in Passau. Pfelling gauge has ended the year at a good level. I think that is it from me for the Danube for 2022. If you are planning a river cruise you may want to have a look at the monthly summaries to choose your preferred month for sailing. But always remember, nature does as it pleases and no year is the same as the previous one. In other words, plan but be prepared for changes. If you have been on the Danube this year do say hello and keep on posting, photos always especially appreciated, perhaps even from a Christmas market. Thank you all for contributing to this thread in 2022. notamermaid

Almost all Christmas markets are closed - a tiny minority actually run into the New Year - but we are still in the Christmas season until Epiphany. Plenty to catch up on from my day trips, hope to get some photos posted before the sixth, but while I sort out my camera, I will post a video from Nicole Edenedo, who I think has done a great job this year reporting on river cruising, showing us her experience on a Christmas market river cruise. She is in Frankfurt in this video and I must say the market looks as pleasant as I remember it from many years ago: https://www.travelweekly.com/Media/Christmas-markets-return-to-Europe @loriva Thank you for taking us along on your trip to the more unfamiliar region of the Elbe in winter and further East into Poland. Keep on posting photos, folks, if you want to share impressions from your trip, any river or canal that you sailed. notamermaid

Happy New Year to all. @Daisi Thank you for your wishes I saw your post just before getting ready to welcome my guests. One unfortunately did not come, but that meant more pie and and dessert for the others. We had a lovely evening, food turned out well and fireworks were plentiful in the sky. I managed to burn myself with a lighter but the pain subsided quickly (possibly helped by red wine intake...). Would like to babysit a cat some time. Sigh. After a lazy day without a long walk this time I am getting ready to round off the water level threads. I just could not remember the name of the village where I took the Eifel photographs but really wanted to leave you with a tip for the area so have looked it up again. It is here, outside a village called Wassenach (sounds Scottish to me, you know, like the sound in Loch): I have taken a screenshot with the Rhine and the town of Andernach. The blue shape is an "eye of the Eifel", The Maria Laach volcanic lake (Laacher See). The red marker is the Kapelle auf der Lay, which means Chapel on the Rock. You can access this area from Koblenz and Andernach well. Avalon Waterways has offered an excursion to there in past years, I do not know if they do in 2023. Famous beyond the region is Maria Laach Abbey, a Romanesque Church with monastery. notamermaid

Viva Cruises as part of their winter cruises programme visits the Scheldt. This is the itinerary, the first one starting on 23 January: https://www.viva-*****/en-us/cruisedetail?id=392&adults=2 It is a little short but from Düsseldorf you can always make your way to Cologne for a pub crawl as a pre- or post-cruise experience, i.e. adding another day or two. notamermaid

The food is in the oven, preparations for my little dinner party are progressing and I have a little time to reflect and post. Got2Cruise in another thread asked where we are going next year. Sadly I have nothing booked and little planned. In 2022 I did get away a little but plans had to be changed at the last minute, a trip to England did not work out and to my embarrassment I have fallen way behind in posting about trips and suggestions in connection with river cruises. The Idstein trip in Spring report still needs to be concluded. 2022 was somewhat a worse year than 2021 although life returned to almost normal after April. I can say that at least I scrapped my half-serious plans to emigrate. But there have been good short trips. The year started with a walk in the Eifel hills, up a path to a chapel. Spring came with exploring unknown areas of Koblenz, the trip to Idstein and a return to other places in my area. I had a nice stay in the Würzburg area in summer, when I spent some time in hot and interesting Wertheim. Autumn came and went unspectacularly. A revisit in November to the Moselle was pleasant. Christmas markets I largely had to ignore for time and a car problem. The plan for a trip to France went down the drain (pun intended) due to the hiccups in the kitchen and workmen visiting. Some info on the Christmas markets I visited will go in another thread. Perhaps some of the nicest hours spent in December (outside of my home that is) were in the Westerwald hills in the snow at a small do in a bed & breakfast hotel. Such fun with English tea, mince pie and bag pipes. It almost made up for my non-trip to England! Bittersweet it all is, but no more moaning now - well apart from me complaining about it being so warm that there is no chance of my fingers getting cold lighting fireworks. That is not on! The path in the Eifel: What may be behind the horizon in 2023? Hopefully much light among the clouds: Time to clean the sparkling wine glasses. Cheers! 🍾 notamermaid

I am delighted that, after all the setbacks in the last two years, you were able to go and that you very much enjoyed it! Sounds like a great Christmas experience that Tauck got together. I am wondering how you liked the landscape. This was on rivers and canals but mostly in the relatively flat Netherlands and only slightly more hilly Belgium. Was it varied enough for you? Did you sail much during the day at all, i.e. did it seem more or less than Rhine and Danube or about the same? notamermaid

Look towards the European lines, there are a couple that do not include long excursions in the basic product. You can buy the basic product and add excursions. You need to looked around a lot though to find a "sailing only" cruise. It is generally the case that excursions are included in the price even with European lines. But you do not need to go with an excursion of course. I tend to agree. The savings will not be substantial on an eight night river cruise that includes a walking tour for each port. Half day or even full day excursions are of course more expensive and that is were you could save money. Indeed. The excursions are great for getting to know a place and if you go with a line that guarantees walking in small groups you may find this to your liking. It is not like on ocean cruises I have been told. notamermaid

Earlier this month Riviera Travel revealed the Christmas time and New Year sailings for 2023. Itineraries are from five days upwards, so if you have limited time, the company may be an alternative for you to look at: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tourism/riviera-travel-reveals-christmas-2023-river-cruises The cruises may also be interesting if you prefer a different embarkation port to Amsterdam, as Riviera uses Cologne. You could fly into London and go by Eurostar to Cologne and have a stop in Brussels along the way - for example. Or perhaps look at their Danube sailings. notamermaid

It would be lovely. Thank you for rounding up the year and all your contributions throughout 2022 from the East of our fascinating country. I will be closing the season with a short graph of the river level in December at the beginning of 2023. Bis zum nächsten Jahr. Guten Rutsch! notamermaid

As you mention the Rhine - interestingly on the Main you have also the case that the train lines go along the river and not, depending on section. And there is also a difference between the fast track and the slower trains. But details I would put in the Main thread should this topic come about. The Rhine Gorge is great for transport hopping. You can get a train, cross over on a ferry, take a bike with you, take an excursion boat. The only thing you cannot do is cross the river frequently in a car or coach - there is no bridge and you need to check which is the car ferry and which is only for foot passengers and bikes. There is also no railway bridge, the crossover between the banks happens near Koblenz. The Moselle works slightly differently, it has more bridges but only one railway line that connects Koblenz with Trier, while the Rhine Gorge is served by two distinct lines, one on the left bank (fast and slow trains) and one on the right (regional trains). As we are on the subject of trains, everyone: if you book a river cruise from Trier or a Luxembourg port but you start the pre-cruise in Paris you can consider not taking the coach from Paris to your ship but take a train. A couple of companies also offer train ride instead of coach within their package. Or indeed fly straight into Luxembourg if you prefer that. notamermaid

That is indeed the case. There are bus lines along the river where the train line goes through the hills and there is a short stretch of a train side line that connects to a section of the river. This the layout of the main train line: https://www.moseltalbahn.de/freizeit/strecke-moseltalbahn Between Cochem and Wittlich is Bullay from where trains head down to the Mosel and end in Traben-Trarbach, the line is the RB 85: https://www.moselwein-bahn.de/de/fahrplaene-strecke/fahrplaene The main line is the 690. To give you an idea of the frequency of trains, both fast and slow, here is an old timetable: https://winningen.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Fahrplan-DB-Trier-Koblenz.pdf notamermaid

Yes, a more normal year would be nice. For me it will start busy with family commitments and the car going into the workshop to finally have the windscreen replaced. The crack in the windscreen has got bigger. I have actually been busy more with family than work but thank you for thinking of me. Work has been back to normal for several months and all in all, winter and Christmas markets have been less disrupted than we anticipated would happen in September. Now I have got a week off work, the office is closed, or let us say my team is not working office hours as tourism is quiet here now. No winter sports in my mild valley, although above 400m altitude we do have a little not too far from where I live (just not right now, too warm). It is good that I have time off. The pipe has been fixed, hooray, praise to the fact that we have a couple of people ready to work at short notice. Now I am clearing up things after them but have had to phone the plumber to have the hot water boiler serviced which means clearing junk out of the small boiler room... Work in the yard continues after New Year so more days of walking over muddy cobblestones. Oh the fun! But all in all life is good around here, hope with you water cooler visitors and other river cruising friends and folk, too. notamermaid

I return to the Main thread briefly for a report of the saving of a cow on the river at Würzburg. The cow is made of metal and carries the name "Mainkuh". The stationary excursion boat is a restaurant and was in danger of being hit and most likely badly damaged by a barge whose steering failed and turned sideways. It happened over Christmas. It was quite dramatic but the barge has been turned and the river is free, traffic is running again smoothly - if you have been on a Christmas river cruise you may have been delayed by the incident - and the restaurant can greet guests again. A German news report with sped-up video: https://www.tvmainfranken.de/querliegender-frachter-ist-weg-main-in-wuerzburg-wieder-frei-308712/ notamermaid

We are now back on high water, which is basically what is considered to be a level quite a bit above the mean water level. Flooding always sounds a bit dramatic but it is obviously a multi-faceted scenario, I mean a wide range of river level figures and in mild form is a normal occurrence every year with little impact save for subways and a few streets lining the river bank (and some unfortunate people with deep cellars in their houses, the consequences of which owners and long-term tenants are aware of and reckon with). Flooding has official statistical values divided into occurrence like once every year, every two years, every five years, etc. It is mapped, highly monitored and posted online, announced where applicable, etc. in 15 minute updates so that everyone who works with the river or lives along it can plan accordingly. But what this looks like on paper will be clearer when I post a monthly report of what the Kaub gauge looked like in December. Still a few days to go. As I have kind of hinted at, a few river cruise ships sail beyond New Year's Day but by 10 January virtually all itineraries are over. Viva Cruises was the first company to offer specific long river cruises in winter in Western Europe, i.e. actually not having a winter break, they have proven popular according to the company so will happen again in January and February 2023. Both CroisiEurope and Thurgau Travel (Swiss company) have a few themed cruises in February for Carnival. So if January is the only time when you are free to have a river cruise and do not fancy the Nile, rejoice, you now have the choice and can go to Germany instead. I actually like this following itinerary. Beer! Return trip Düsseldorf through Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands: https://www.viva-*****/en/cruisedetail?id=392&adults=2 notamermaid

Now that looks certainly inviting! I see you spotted and captured the "Stadt Bonn" on camera. I was not sure so I looked it up, she sails for Personenschiffahrt Gebrüder Kolb, that is the big excursion boat company on the Moselle. Here are the ships: https://www.moselrundfahrten.de/trier/unsere-schiffe You can switch to English language to read about the trips they offer. If one fancies DIY a trip on the Moselle as an extension to a river cruise - I mean throwing in an excursion boat rip and exploring a stretch of the Moselle - is a nice idea especially if your river cruise is relatively short like the ones offered from Frankfurt to Basel (which would a be pre-cruise Moselle trip in that case) or something ending in Cologne. Trains are so easy to use in the area, which adds to the appeal. notamermaid