The Elbe river 2022 - not just water levels

[notamermaid]

Here is the thread on the Elbe river for 2022.

 

Join us again this year with comments and tips. Hopefully 2022 will be a good one with plenty of water - but not too much - in the Elbe, from its upper reaches in the Czech Republic all the way to Hamburg.

 

Safe travels.

 

notamermaid

 

[texanapat]

My daughter and I will be doing this cruise in July, Berlin to Prague.

 

[notamermaid]

13 hours ago, texanapat said:

My daughter and I will be doing this cruise in July, Berlin to Prague.

 

Will you be on Viking? Then I reckon you are going on the river cruise with a difference. We have dubbed this the boatel. Here is some info in last year's thread: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2771441-the-elbe-river-2021-not-just-water-levels/

 

I seem to remember that you had mentioned your plans to us not so long ago, memory failing me a bit.

 

You will see some fascinating places on this itinerary. Would love to go and see the Elbe myself, so far only crossed it a few times on my way to the East of Germany and Poland. Hang on, need to correct that. I have seen the Elbe in Hamburg. But like all rivers with a substantial length, the Elbe in its lower section looks quite different from the rugged landscape upstream.

 

notamermaid

 

[texanapat]

8 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Will you be on Viking? Then I reckon you are going on the river cruise with a difference. We have dubbed this the boatel. Here is some info in last year's thread: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2771441-the-elbe-river-2021-not-just-water-levels/

 

I seem to remember that you had mentioned your plans to us not so long ago, memory failing me a bit.

 

You will see some fascinating places on this itinerary. Would love to go and see the Elbe myself, so far only crossed it a few times on my way to the East of Germany and Poland. Hang on, need to correct that. I have seen the Elbe in Hamburg. But like all rivers with a substantial length, the Elbe in its lower section looks quite different from the rugged landscape upstream.

 

notamermaid

 

Yes we will be cruising with Viking.  Since we have booked Viking renamed it the Elegant Elbe.  We are excited.  This was booked after our cruise in 2020 was canceled.

[AnhaltER1960]

New year, new luck. Viking have changed their itinerary in 2022 again and offer "Elegant Elbe" cruises (which are real cruises between Wittenberg and Decin) and "Christmas along the Elbe" later in the year. Their programme "Cities on the Elbe", which is a bus trip with some overnights on the ship is not on offer in 2022. To avoid the low-water season, Viking does not cruise the Elbe between beginning of July and mid-September at all. Let us see, if they are correct - in 2020 and 21 there was not much of a low-water season at all. Ships did not sail for well known different reasons.

[CPT Trips]

Interesting article about  The Green Vault theft and trial.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/28/trial-opens-of-six-men-accused-of-daring-95m-dresden-jewellery-heist

[slidergirl]

Someday I hope to do a cruise on the Elbe.  I spent time in Dresden when I was in Altenberg for some bobsled events (an official, not an athlete).  Beautiful city!  

[CPT Trips]

I received an unsolicited email today with a link to this cruise. It’s a very different itinerary from most of what I’ve seen with the US oriented lines.

 

https://www.croisieuroperivercruises.com/cruise/prague-dresden-castles-bohemia-spectacular-cruise-elbe-vltava-rivers-classic?utm_source=top20elbe&utm_medium=email&utm_id=dunhill#

[notamermaid]

Thank you for the link. Very different indeed. I vaguely remember seeing this itinerary "in passing" when looking at CroisiEurope's European pages. The company is known for unusual itineraries, even sailing some waterways and rivers hardly offered by anyone else. Not many non-European lines and tour operators sail on the Elbe and then often use a chartered ship including those of CroisiEurope.

 

Viking is the big US company that sails with its own purpose-built ships on the river, but even though the standard itinerary is Berlin to Prague in the brochures, those cities are the end points without actually being reached on the ship. Viking never sails in Berlin or in Prague. They are reached by coach. Both cities are fascinating to explore of course and have the airports.

 

CroisiEurope can sail into Berlin and does so on several itineraries that are offered on the German market. Through short-term or single charter arrangements with the company, international tour operators also make these itineraries available to anglophones. But CroisiEurope also do that themselves.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Everything orange - and some red!! DWD - the official German weather experts - shows the whole of the country on storm warnings today. It has been quite a stormy night here and it woke me up several times. Lots of ripples on the Rhine. @AnhaltER1960 we are on level 3 but near you there is level 4. Look after yourself.

 

We also got a lot of rain and the river is rising. But we should be fine. I hope the weather does not lead to flooding on the Elbe.

 

notamermaid

 

[CPT Trips]

Who said river cruising is smooth sailing. Although the Elbe at Hamburg is dramatically wide open . . . Not the same river as at Dresden.

 

https://www.firstpost.com/world/watch-enormous-waves-wreak-havoc-by-crashing-through-a-ferry-window-on-germanys-river-elbe-10395091.html

[notamermaid]

58 minutes ago, CPT Trips said:

Not the same river as at Dresden.

Different indeed. Hamburg is regularly flooded during storms when the winds push the North Sea waters up the Elbe. That ferry was hit in storm Ylenia, then came Zeynep this past night was Antonia. All within less than a week. We in Germany are on different counting in the alphabet, The European names are different. The damage from Zeynep in Europe: https://www.dw.com/en/europe-reckons-with-cost-of-storm-zeynep/a-60823280

The first photo in the gallery is of Hamburg.

There is still a storm warning along the North Sea coast tonight, but much of Northern Germany is returning to normal. The weather is forecast to calm down, i.e. no further storms for a week.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Let us travel upstream again, to Meissen, home of porcelain: https://www.dw.com/en/the-porcelain-makers-of-meissen/av-60200010

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Meissen - completely and utterly over top but absolutely beautiful in its own way, but still would not give it house room. Mind you worth a pretty penny!

[notamermaid]

Meissen has its Albrechtsburg, the castle that is actually the first castle or I would say palace in Germany - DW calls it castle. Confused? Yes, the distinction is a tricky one. It is the birthplace of the famous porcelain. There are many other castles and palaces in Saxony. Here is a short video of three, the ones DW considers the most beautiful ones: https://www.dw.com/en/saxonys-most-beautiful-castles/av-60853567

 

Meissen gets it right with "palace":

https://www.albrechtsburg-meissen.de/en/meissen-albrechtsburg-castle/history/

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

If I read it correctly, Viking Astrild and Viking Beyla start sailing on their first itineraries for this year on 11 March. Quite early and at still rather cool temperatures. But the East of Germany can look forward to a sunny week.

 

And the river levels? Looking pleasant: Dresden 184cm, Magdeburg 223cm. With little to no rain also further upstream in the border region these are likely to fall a little.

 

notamermaid

 

[AnhaltER1960]

@notamermaid ,yes you read correctly, Viking have started the 22 season on the Elbe. Limited success though, many cancellations because of the war zone further east.

[notamermaid]

A quick look at the Elbe at Dresden. Okay, just the graph. March has been a relatively good month. Other than the Rhine which surprisingly began to struggle, the Elbe has been able to keep a decent water level:

 

 

With the wet weather conditions also continuing in the Elbe basin, here I mean in the Czech Republic, this is looking promising.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

British company Saga's two new ships are now sailing the large rivers of Germany and on the Danube into Austria and beyond. Shortly after the christening, they announced that four more ships will follow, one each per year: https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/6843/

 

What is special is that one of those ships will be for the Elbe. Which means they will need to have a different design for this river which is tricky both for sailing for a full season and economically due to the notoriously low water levels in some months. Few companies tackle the Elbe with newbuilts and not many companies sail the river. But Saga is already on the Elbe as a tour operator chartering the Johannes Brahms, for example on this itinerary: https://travel.saga.co.uk/cruises/river/where-we-go/german-river-cruises/celebrated-cities-of-hamburg-and-berlin-with-the-havel-river-1.aspx

 

notamermaid

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

2 hours ago, notamermaid said:

British company Saga's two new ships are now sailing the large rivers of Germany and on the Danube into Austria and beyond. Shortly after the christening, they announced that four more ships will follow, one each per year: https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/6843/

 

What is special is that one of those ships will be for the Elbe. Which means they will need to have a different design for this river which is tricky both for sailing for a full season and economically due to the notoriously low water levels in some months. Few companies tackle the Elbe with newbuilts and not many companies sail the river. But Saga is already on the Elbe as a tour operator chartering the Johannes Brahms, for example on this itinerary: https://travel.saga.co.uk/cruises/river/where-we-go/german-river-cruises/celebrated-cities-of-hamburg-and-berlin-with-the-havel-river-1.aspx

 

notamermaid

 

Maybe they can put wheels on the bottom of the ship, to use when there's no water??? 🤣

[CPT Trips]

@notamermaid I must say that this itinerary total fascinated me. Fascinated to the extent I spent the best part of an hour trying, unsuccessfully, to figure out how they get from Wolfsburg to Magdeburg by boat. Do you know?
I am particularly interested in the area where this route crosses the former Inner German Border. Was this route used to transport freight into Berlin before reunification?

[notamermaid]

Ooh, that question calls for a map - and some history help from our man on the ground near the Elbe ☺️. Fascinating canals in the area. Will get back to that.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

On 4/10/2022 at 3:07 AM, CPT Trips said:

how they get from Wolfsburg to Magdeburg by boat.

The canals in the area a major transport routes, occasionally used by river cruise ships. Of course, private and hired motoryachts also use them. From Wolfsburg to Magdeburg it is a section of the Mittellandkanal, in its entirety it is 321km long. Good graphics: http://www.wasserstrassenkreuz.de/mittellandkanal.html

At the Wasserstrassenkreuz the canal crosses the Elbe and then meets the Elbe-Havel-Kanal: http://www.wasserstrassenkreuz.de/anreise.html

 

As for the Hamburg to Wolfsburg stretch: the sweet little ship in the animation on the Saga website sails the canal, i.e. the Elbe from Hamburg and then switches to the Elbeseitenkanal which was built to bypass the Elbe for bulk transport, seeing that the river was in the GDR at the time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbe_Lateral_Canal

 

Which brings us to transport. I have no idea what the arrangements were for ship transit routes or transport other than that a transport along the Elbe (see above) was a tricky thing. Perhaps AnhalterER1960 knows more about this.

 

It would also be something that the DDR Museum may have records of.

https://www.ddr-museum.de/en

 

notamermaid

 

[CPT Trips]

Vielen dank!

[notamermaid]

A quick look at the month of April at Dresden:

Looks alright.

 

So let us move on, with a quiz question. Which city has more bridges than Amsterdam? Or Venice?

 

There is a little twist in the answer...

 

notamermaid