Rhine water levels 2019 and similar topics

[daveil]

Thanks Notamermaid for the detailed explanation of the differences between the two rivers and their sources.  I hope you take your own advice in your earlier message for this week and go to a lounge and sip a beer to beat the heat.

 

One other question I have on the Rhine.  Is their a map that shows where the locks are between Basel and Amsterdam?

 

Daveil

[sbjornda]

14 minutes ago, daveil said:

One other question I have on the Rhine.  Is their a map that shows where the locks are between Basel and Amsterdam?

 

Daveil

Here's a rather large map of Europe's inland waterways. You can zoom in and see where the locks are along that stretch.

https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/main/sc3/AGN_map_2018.pdf

 

Sterling

Edited June 24, 2019 by sbjornda

[notamermaid]

Thank you for your advice, yes, decide not to go out in the heat much, not much beer possible, but water and some lemonade will do nicely, fortunately not much work to be done this week!

 

A map, not sure... perhaps a past cruiser can help.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

18 minutes ago, sbjornda said:

Here's a rather large map of Europe's inland waterways. You can zoom in and see where the locks are along that stretch.

https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/main/sc3/AGN_map_2018.pdf

 

Sterling

yes, that one is the best I can find in my online library. Thank you for thinking of it. I was wondering if there is one with more detail and just the Rhine with the canals but I cannot find one.

 

On this page you can look up the ones for the on the Upper Rhine with the kilometres at which they occur. The list is headed "Schleusen am Hoch- und Oberrhein". No map, though: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinschifffahrt

 

notamermaid

 

Edited June 24, 2019 by notamermaid
added link

[notamermaid]

Imagine blissfully sleeping in your home tucked away in the quiet hills, away from the big towns, herds of tourists, noise, etc. Suddenly you are awaken by this loud bang and the earth moves as from an earthquake! This is what happened to the people in a small village outside of Limburg in the Lahn valley, part of Hesse, in the hills sort of East of Koblenz. On Sunday morning they noticed the noise had come from a field nearby which was presenting a large crater to the puzzled citizens. The police was called in - the bang had indeed been registered as a small earthquake at the nearest monitoring station - and the mystery solved after a few hours. A WWII bomb had exploded by itself. Eek!!

 

Here is the story: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48746557

 

I know Limburg and its Dom (cathedral) perched high on a hill but while doing a bit of research on the story, came across an unusual war story surrounding Limburg I had never heard of. The basics go like this: in WWI German officials tried to exploit the resentments of the Irish against British rule and recruit them - i.e. change sides from fighting for the British to fighting for the Germans. There was supposed to a German-Irish regiment. The plan did not work well. The prisoners of war who died in the camp at Limburg were buried nearby - the first one being an Irishman, followed by more Irish and other nationalities. To commemorate the Irish victims a cross was erected, the only Irish high cross in Germany. There is more on the story on German pages, but I leave you with this article from an Irish newspaper: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/german-village-to-commemorate-irish-prisoners-of-war-1.3107101

 

Going to Limburg while on a river cruise? Certainly possible. While I cannot see Limburg becoming a standard outing from Koblenz, it has got its merits - the Dom mainly - that deserve a closer look. Limburg is a 40-minute-drive by car from Koblenz, taking the more scenic Lahn valley route could taken up to 90 minutes. This is Limburg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limburg_an_der_Lahn

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[GeorgaRambler]

We are flying to Vienna on July 4 to take Uniworld's Alluring Amsterdam and Vienna cruise. Probably our last trip out of the US as we are both in our 80's. More concerned about water levels than heat as it has been HOT here for the last month, with temps in the 90's but some days in the 80's. 

Last year our second cruise to Eastern Europe was cancelled just as we finished our first in Bordeaux. Uniworld offered us a choice of alternatives or a full refund. We probably should have taken the refund as stayed in Budapest for a week or so. Have relatives in Bratislava and they would have been happy to take us around, but we didn't. The cruise was a good one, but we had done it before so not quite as exciting second time around.

Hopefully everything will go according to plan this time. Appreciate your hard work trying to keep us all informed. Incidentally, we have those nasty Asian mosquitoes as well, I understand they came over in used tired. What I really dislike about them is they will bite you more than once. I have the welts to prove it after gardening.

[notamermaid]

GeorgaRambler,

 

Thank you for your post. Sorry to hear that you were also one of those affected by last year's drought. It certainly looks better this year so far. With hardly any rain forecast the river level will fall but not much. After a dry five days rain will come down in the right areas, that is the Alpine and High Rhine. Looks really promising for the next two weeks.

 

The figures: Maxau 579cm, Kaub 249cm, Koblenz 224cm.

 

I have returned from work and must say that it is hot out there. It is still bearable at 34 Celsius, but tomorrow could see the Rhine valley and Frankfurt hitting 40 potentially. We have already recorded the highest temperature ever in a month of June - it was a small town in the East of Germany at 38.6 on Wednesday.

Still this is nothing compared to France where the temperature was the highest ever recorded in that country, yesterday at 45.9. Plain murderous heat: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48795264

 

notamermaid

 

[daveil]

Notamermaid,

 

Hope you can stay cool.  Is the temperature forecast to be lower next week on the Rhine?  We embark in Basel on the 9th.

 

daveil

[CharTrav]

I’ve been looking at weather forecasts for that area as well using Accuweather and it looks like by then the temps will have dropped alot. Check this out and look for a particular town and then ask for a 25 day forecast.   https://www.accuweather.com/en/europe-weather

Edited June 29, 2019 by CharTrav

[CharTrav]

On 6/24/2019 at 12:49 PM, sbjornda said:

Here's a rather large map of Europe's inland waterways. You can zoom in and see where the locks are along that stretch.

https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/main/sc3/AGN_map_2018.pdf

 

Sterling

When we did the Grand European Tour in 2014, we were provided a large handout that showed all 60+ locks between Budapest and Amsterdam. Perhaps I could scan it into a PDF and post to share? It's more readable. 

Edited June 30, 2019 by CharTrav

[CharTrav]

Back  to weather  - here's a link to the long range (July) forecast for Koblenz. Just change the location to do the same for other ports of call. 

https://www.accuweather.com/en/de/koblenz/56068/july-weather/171042. 

[CharTrav]

On 6/24/2019 at 1:07 PM, notamermaid said:

yes, that one is the best I can find in my online library. Thank you for thinking of it. I was wondering if there is one with more detail and just the Rhine with the canals but I cannot find one.

 

On this page you can look up the ones for the on the Upper Rhine with the kilometres at which they occur. The list is headed "Schleusen am Hoch- und Oberrhein". No map, though: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinschifffahrt

 

notamermaid

 

I'll scan the chart I got from Viking.  I also have two books I got then which include details on the locks on the Moselle, Rhine, and Danube. I'll scan those pages too. And post to my DropBox. 

[notamermaid]

7 hours ago, CharTrav said:

When we did the Grand European Tour in 2014, we were provided a large handout that showed all 60+ locks between Budapest and Amsterdam. Perhaps I could scan it into a PDF and post to share? It's more readable. 

That sounds good. Thank you. I wonder if it would be of such general interest that you could put it in a separate thread. Those travelling only on the Danube might not see it here.

 

daveil,

 

As CharTrav said, the weather is indeed looking to be more pleasant from Tuesday onwards with temperatures in the 20's Celsius. I am looking forward to it. And I suspect my neighbour's cats, too. They are getting rather slow, barely making it from one flower bed to another before dozing off again. 😀 

 

notamermaid

 

Edited June 30, 2019 by notamermaid
Spelling

[CharTrav]

Will do. And as I said in my other post I have two books we got from Viking River  - that between give a nice km by km list of the locks on the Danube, Rhine, and Moselle. Will scan them all later today and provide a link here plus a separate thread.  

[CharTrav]

Sorry about the double whammy with the posts earlier today.  No idea how it happened. Anyway -- as promised -- have just finished scanning a bunch of material regarding not just locks on the Rhine but on the Moselle, Main, and Danube.  If you look in my signature box under "Resources available... General Viking Stuff" you'll find a link to the folder where all this material has been posted .. along with instructions for how to download single files from this folder. Note that what I've posted is from a handout and two very nice books we received from Viking River in 2014 when we did the Grand European Tour.

• The Rhine Km-by-Km:  lists all the major sites, locks, rivers passed, etc. on the Rhine starting from Amsterdam and ending in Basel: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3nayex7c4a4ji7f/The Rhine - Km by Km.pdf?dl=0
• Graphical depiction of all the locks traversed from Amsterdam to Budapest -- all 68 of them.  Giles, our cruise director, gave us an entertaining talk on the history of the canal system and by the end had a room of full-grown adults shouting out "68 "! when he asked (for the umpteenth time) how many locks we'd go through between Budapest and Amsterdam. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ddajfuw7rrk5vcp/Amsterdam to Budapest Locks.pdf?dl=0

Hope you enjoy it.  No DropBox account is required.  Also --the orange and yellow highlights are mine -- in anticipation of the trip we'll be doing in a little over 2 weeks from Basel to Trier.  Yellow for ports of call; orange for locks.  

 

And .. as suggested by Notamermaid.. I'll be creating a separate thread to advertise all of it - as well as a posting on the Paris to the Swiss Alps 2019 thread.  Geneva here we come!

[daveil]

Thanks CharTrav!  Locks always fascinate me.

 

daveil

[notamermaid]

CharTravel,

Thank you for all the time you have invested in compiling this.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Although it is very warm again, now at 1.40pm, one can tell already that the extreme heat is over. It had been forecast for yesterday that the temperatures in Germany might hit 40 Celsius - they did not. But yesterday saw the highest figure ever recorded in a month of June in Germany.

 

It was 39.6 in a town in Saxony-Anhalt called Bernburg on the river Saale. Joint second place goes to Bad Kreuznach on the Nahe river (a tributary of the Rhine) and Frankfurt on the Main airport with both at 39.3.

 

Good news is that while the soil is already drying out and the overall water table is falling, the Rhine is in better shape than last year at this time which is promising and makes me confident for July.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[CharTrav]

4 hours ago, notamermaid said:

CharTravel,

Thank you for all the time you have invested in compiling this.

 

notamermaid

 

You're welcome. And it wasn't that much work . Just an hour or two. it's fun to do. 😎

[Host Jazzbeau]

30 minutes ago, CharTrav said:

You're welcome. And it wasn't that much work . Just an hour or two. it's fun to do. 😎

 

That what makes Cruise Critic great: so many people who gladly devote 'an hour or two' and find it fun! 

[Host Jazzbeau]

Speaking of what makes Cruise Critic great, I must thank notamermaid again for all that she does in keeping us posted on water levels and enticing us with new cities to visit.  Her name is belied by these 'siren songs' 

 

By way of thanks, I saw this in a gift shop in Bar Harbor this afternoon and thought of you:

 

[CharTrav]

10 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Speaking of what makes Cruise Critic great, I must thank notamermaid again for all that she does in keeping us posted on water levels and enticing us with new cities to visit.  Her name is belied by these 'siren songs' 

 

By way of thanks, I saw this in a gift shop in Bar Harbor this afternoon and thought of you:

 

You should have added a good hearty Maine Downeaster "Ayuh!"  to that!  

[Host Jazzbeau]

Just now, CharTrav said:

You should have added a good hearty Maine Downeaster "Ayuh!"  to that!  

 

But then I would have had to call it "Bah Hahbah" 

 

And BTW, big bummer this year: no free parking anywhere in downtown BH.  Thankfully we stay on the 'quiet side,' and I foresee that our visits to BH will be few and far between this year.  

[notamermaid]

6 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Speaking of what makes Cruise Critic great, I must thank notamermaid again for all that she does in keeping us posted on water levels and enticing us with new cities to visit.  Her name is belied by these 'siren songs' 

 

By way of thanks, I saw this in a gift shop in Bar Harbor this afternoon and thought of you:

 

 

Oooah.

That resembles the sound I make when I see a cute cat in its element of dozing, meaning enjoying life, or I hear a heartwarming story. Add to that my eyes moistening, sitting here over breakfast.

 

That is so kind of you, thank you.

 

notamermaid

 

[sharkster77]

11 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

 

But then I would have had to call it "Bah Hahbah" 

 

And BTW, big bummer this year: no free parking anywhere in downtown BH.  Thankfully we stay on the 'quiet side,' and I foresee that our visits to BH will be few and far between this year.  

 

Apologize for being off-topic Jazz, but I have to ask, having been to BH every year for the last 30--is parking not available, or is it available for a cost?  We always park in the lot at Albert Meadow, the park that is along the shore path (down the street from CJ's Big Dipper ice cream shop) , or, if early in the AM, on the municipal pier.

 

We are skipping BH for the first time in 30+ years to go on our first river cruise, on the Rhine!

Edited July 2, 2019 by sharkster77