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notamermaid

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  1. Remember I put this on the back burner? I had given you an answer but wanted to provide more details. I was looking at the report's section for river cruising so checked if they provide a graph or pie chart on cargo, so among other stuff this is what I found: Taken from https://inland-navigation-market.org/chapitre/2-freight-transport-on-inland-waterways/?lang=en I had forgotten how much sand and gravel is transported, raw materials for concrete, etc. In 2018, building sites actually ran into problems as the reduced transport lead to supply chain problems. notamermaid
  2. Good news! Pfelling gauge at 260cm. I think you will hear the gravel under the hull... Fewer people (tiny, tiny bit) and perhaps less water in the tanks (more than a tiny bit),which I reckon they have done, should help you along. You could ask the crew if they have reduced the water in the tanks but first deep breath and no disturbing the captain. notamermaid
  3. It has rained and not little, in many parts of the valley! With high hopes I looked at the river levels this morning. So where are we? A fast and nice reaction at Maxau gauge. Not that much but we are grateful for every centimetre more that does not disappear within an hour in the graph: The geography again: Maxau is near Karlsruhe in the Upper Rhine valley and past the last lock, that means free flowing. It is still very warm in the valley and we need more drizzle and cloudy days to stop the river from falling to the low levels we saw at Maxau in the two previous days and in August. More rain and a slight further rise at Maxau is anticipated for tomorrow and Friday. Now to Kaub gauge: 69cm. That is a drop from yesterday and understandable but a reaction to rain may be in the graph reflected as the level was even lower this morning. It is not clear if we will see centimetres added during the afternoon and evening or if this may be all the improvement we will be seeing today. Perhaps a few more centimetres tomorrow? The forecast does not think so and puts the improvement into Friday. But it does more look like a pittance than a pound, i.e. we need 40cm rather than 4cm to get us to really decent river levels that get us through autumn and get the landscape to look like it should in September in my opinion. Figure for Friday 68cm after a tiny loss tomorrow. Let us hope the forecast is wrong and we will at least see 70cm. Saturday may well look a little better but I am still skeptical about the 78cm that is suggested for that evening. notamermaid
  4. Thank you for taking the time to post from your cruise. More vineyards, more castles on the Main! Okay, definitely not in that density. Spotted at Rüdesheim, the MS Treasures is docked and the Vista Sky is just arriving: notamermaid
  5. Thank you for joining us here on the river boards before your cruise and taking the time to post during your river trip. Have a safe journey home. I hope you enjoyed your time on the Moselle and Rhine with Amawaterways. notamermaid
  6. You are right, not looking too good. Thanks for the photos. That is a lot of concrete exposed. Pfelling gauge update: 258cm. Scattered rain over Bavaria this morning, just leaving Germany towards the Czech Republic now. Does not look too promising for new clouds forming during the afternoon. Not sure how much rain came down overnight. notamermaid
  7. @pontac Thank you for the very detailed long review. Lots of reading for me to do! Just a few things I have picked up so far and the photos of castles and wine cellars have really increased my wish to see this corner of France. notamermaid
  8. Good to read from you again. Hope you are keeping well and and the Dessau area is a bit greener than the Rhine valley. notamermaid
  9. I like that. And yes, much sailing is during the evening and at night, so with reduced daylight, fabulous autumn sunsets can be had, but there is also less landscape to look at. During the day, depending on water level and docking location, the cabin view can be - concrete. But October often brings lovely days that can be enjoyed on the sundeck. I can only repeat what others have said: ramps, steep slopes, stairs to get over rafting ships. Docking not always in prime location. In short, I recommend talking to the cruise line before you leave and taking the walker. Have a great time on the Danube. notamermaid
  10. Thanks for the info, have just read the press release coming through this German website: https://anbord.de/luxus-auf-der-donau-das-neue-flusskreuzfahrtschiff-riverside-mozart/ notamermaid
  11. I can sort of relate. I have been to the British Museum in London six times now I think and I still need lots to take in at my next visit whenever that may be. Three hours sound sufficient to fill a brain with images. Does the museum have a kind of "principal things to see on a short visit" guide? I found this quite useful at the British Museum. notamermaid
  12. Interesting. Certainly an unusual time. We are on UTC+2 now in Germany, you are right. What exactly was going on only the people on board and the harbour master would be able to tell you but I think it is a good scenario that you have suggested, dropping people off in Düsseldorf for Cologne. Coach rides from Zons into Cologne to safe time (make up time that was lost due to slow sailing) or Speyer/Mannheim/Ludwigshafen scenarios for the Heidelberg excursion as a routine on itineraries are seen. notamermaid
  13. Update for Pfelling gauge: 262cm. Mild rain along the Alps this morning, drizzle forecast for today and tomorrow. Substantial amounts of rain forecast for Bavaria for Thursday. Temperatures very warm again today, set to rise to 25 and 27 in towns, the Rhine and West of Germany are likely to be even a bit warmer than the Danube valley. notamermaid
  14. On balance I would go with "aquarium class" although swans sounds more graceful. Sounds as if for many people seeing the full birds is not possible as the windows are too high. For a proper aquarium feel you would need to have larger windows of course but safety makes it impossible. Not sure that I would want to be able to see what goes on in the murky waters of the Rhine, I mean it is not the clean "Sea Life Centre" experience. Talking of seeing into the water, you can watch the migrating fish (when they come, not guaranteed) in the fish pass centre at Koblenz on the Moselle: https://www.mosellum.de/en/index.html I have never been but it looks to be interesting, at least for a different perspective of the river. Update on Kaub gauge: 75cm. As I expected, a bit better than the forecast had suggested for today. New forecast for today: stable, the tiny wave passing through, lower figures for tomorrow, probably 70cm and a little below that. As a reaction to the rain forecast for tomorrow, the probability chart puts the figures above 78cm as the most likely scenario for Sunday with the outlook for Monday and Tuesday certainly being promising for a further rise, 90cm is a real possibility. But first, we need to see if the rain does come down in the right places and take it from there. notamermaid
  15. No I am afraid I do not. To be precise I need to say that the Main Danube Canal is officially up to just after Kelheim, not Regensburg. I have always assumed that the locks further downstream, i.e on the Danube up to and including Straubing would keep the level sufficiently high near and in Regensburg. The really shallow stretch is only considered to be between Straubing and Vilshofen where the Danube flows freely. I may be mistaken with the locks. Or Viking has logistical reasons for doing this, you may certainly be right there. notamermaid
  16. Thanks for that info. I remember now reading this in the 2018 drought. As the two cities are quite close to each other generally speaking for itineraries this should not be too much of a problem, but logistics may be a bit awkward. Hope everything went smoothly for you. Kaub gauge update: 70cm. Forecast ignores the little wave at Maxau yesterday, put shows stable figures between 71cm and 68 cm. Sounds as if at least the level will not fall further. I am not fully convinced about that modelling today. We will need to see how it develops. And also: I have not looked at details but rain with thunderstorms are forecast for Wednesday in Germany. That could be isolated showers or a bit more widespread rain but it again sounds like a short affair. Swapping a ship in the rain is a weird thought, isn't it? But unfortunately, this can happen if the rain comes when the water is very low. It could of course mean the ships two days later do not need to swap anymore. Have a great cruise. notamermaid
  17. Ah, yes. That is the town called Bogen and near it is the Pfelling gauge station (orange marker, as Pfelling is officially low). Thank you for the info and have a good transition to the Rolf. Update on Pfelling gauge: stable at the low level of 256cm. notamermaid
  18. Speaking of the Gersemi. Apparently she had an emergency stop at Braubach this morning. There was a technical fault in an electrical system in the engine room it seems which caused the fire detection system to alarm the crew. The ship had just left Braubach and managed to stop and dock there again. Everyone was evacuated and is unhurt. There was no open fire. The German news article made it sound as if the Gersemi was soon on her way again but I cannot verify this. Back to your question. Hopefully someone will answer soon, but some people are happier to only post in the roll calls so you may want to have a look there. notamermaid
  19. See post #951. No rain of note today. Update some time tomorrow, latest Tuesday. notamermaid
  20. With the air refreshed from yesterday's rain and very warm but not hot temperatures it has been a very pleasant day in the Rhine valley (at least in my region) crowned by a glorious sunset. What a sight this must have been live on top Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, the webcam was great to watch already, a snapshot time stamp 7:56pm: But as promised I will have a look back at a difficult month on the river. The levels at Kaub gauge in August: The Danube at Pfelling was already at a critical low for river cruise ships by the end of July and a few days later the Rhine at Kaub followed but at the beginning of the month the impact was not as severe as on the Danube. By the second week of August the problems had increased and one by one the large river cruise ships stopped sailing in the Rhine Gorge. The third week then saw the disruption of itineraries for some smaller vessels as well. Always remembering that length does not equal draught nor equal not sailing but as a general idea it works to distinguish between 110m and 135m ships. And the second week saw altered itineraries not just because passage of the Rhine Gorge became increasingly too dangerous but also because landing stage and ports further away could not reached or not in decent time due to slow sailing. These are general comments and may not apply to your particular cruise on a specific day. The heavy rain sweeping over mostly the Southern half Germany gave the Danube a high wave of water and we see the corresponding (in time line) wave at Kaub. However, the volume of water actually reaching the Rhine basin was not as high as in the Danube basin. On the other hand, the distribution of rain, especially over the natural reservoir that is Lake Constance, meant that the Rhine Gorge and within it Kaub could profit a little longer and more sustained from the rain than the Danube in Germany. The level is back to an unpleasantly low level for large river cruise ships and we need rain to back up what is left over from the rain and keep the level at this height. Could the rain yesterday help? As I said in my previous post, the computer does not think so. Let us have another quick look tomorrow. Have a good week. notamermaid
  21. Brief update on river levels. Maxau in reaction to the rain showed a nice rise of 15cm but peaked at lunchtime already. Means a small wave is coming towards the Rhine Gorge but not before tomorrow, not clear how many centimetres that will give at Kaub - if any. Kaub gauge dropped to 70cm this afternoon but is now back at 72cm. Forecast does not put this little wave into the modelling, suggests 66cm tomorrow afternoon and falling further. Seriously puts the term "ship swap" back on the table for some. notamermaid
  22. Pfelling gauge update: 256cm. Little change from yesterday so keeping stable for the time being. Isolated patches of rain in the Danube basin this afternoon. notamermaid
  23. So this is your pre cruise time. Enjoy Munich and have a great cruise on the Danube. notamermaid
  24. It has rained with us as well, finally properly! I mean, it does rain and we get regular thunderstorms but the few excuses for thunderstorm with rain in August I missed, mainly because I was asleep. They were nothing to speak off. I have seriously seen proper rain for the first time since a downpour on the Main river at the end of July! Over one month ago. I watched the sky turn grey and weirdly blue like it does before it rains, it was almost a novelty. When it started raining I was so chuffed about it I nearly ran down the stairs just to stand in the rain and get really wet. I looked out the window and thought "look there is a puddle in the yard". Bonkers. But dinner cooking coming up I decided not to stand in the rain. It will be interesting to see what happens to the river levels after this. August was so bad. I will revisit the past month with a summary in another post. notamermaid
  25. It is September and time to look back at August river levels at Pfelling gauge. Basically very bad for 18 consecutive days and as such also too early in the year. 36 hours of more or less heavy rain quite likely saved the month from being completely free of 135m river cruise ships (and some of those of shorter length) in the shallow stretch in Bavaria. Here is the graph: The RNW line (290cm) and above is where we want Pfelling to be. While many ships can sail below that every centimetre less makes it harder and the levels of 250cm and below are just abysmal and I know that they have stopped more than two 110m ships. Length does not equal draught equal not sailing but it generally speaking helps to have the shorter ship. Other factors play into this. But that is not all, August I mean. The graph starts on 1 August on my copy/screenshot but you can see that the blue comes into the month at a very low figure already. This is one I copied earlier: I have not saved earlier graphs when the level was higher, but we can safely say that from 29 July until 18 August the river at Pfelling was impassable for a large chunk of the modern river cruising fleet. That is 21 days in a row. A record? I would say at this time of year yes, in 2018 in autumn, that is September/October, it may have been for longer. If you want to be brutal to yourself, go back to that thread and check what I posted at the time. Warning: not fun reading! notamermaid
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