Rhine water levels 2024 and similar topics

[notamermaid]

To the present day. We have had some rain so the level at Kaub is rising again. Going into next week we will likely see figures close to 300cm. A good level. With temperatures rising again and drier weather the level will return close to the long-term mean a few days after that.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Another short quiz just for fun. Looking for a man and his anniversary. Related to the Rhine of course. Revealing the solution tomorrow afternoon or evening (my local time). Clue one:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Lords#/media/Datei:House_of_Lords_Chamber.png

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Second clue:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein#/media/File:Frankenstein_1818_edition_title_page.jpg

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Third clue: Ada the mathematician.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

All I can come up with is ‘Lords’ Ladies as is a Countess the  Romantics as in Poets, Byron & Shelley oh and maybe a bit of lace. I’m no good at these so most probably way off or Drachenfels.

Edited April 19 by Canal archive

[notamermaid]

"The poem that saved a mountain" is the last clue which you do not need anymore really...

 

You are right @Canal archive Lord Byron it is!

 

The poet died 200 years ago today, far away from home in Greece.

 

A few explanations to follow.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[Canal archive]

Drachenfels sadly because I quite like it is not considered one of his best poems and I really  had not connect Aida and Byron until now, why I don’t know. What a huge gap in my education. Thank you Notamermaid it certainly woke up a few brain cells.

[notamermaid]

Although a baron, Byron is usually more referred to as Lord Byron, having been in the House of Lords. Ada Lovelace was his daughter and a brilliant mathematician. Wish I had the brain cells she had for that field of research. She is credited with being the first computer program writer. If you are interested look up the "Difference Engine" by the inventor Charles Babbage. Father and daughter sadly parted ways early in her life due to unhappy circumstances with society and her father's conduct. When Byron left Britain he travelled through Europe and ended up in Greece. There he took part in the Greek War of Independence. He died at the age of 36. Who knows what he may have achieved and written had he lived on. He was a husband, a father, a dandy, a writer, a revolutionist, invented mass tourism on the Rhine (only slight exaggeration) and posthumously saved a mountain from destruction.

 

The other references: Mary Godwin, later Shelley, wrote Frankenstein after a leisurely evening together with Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Polidori in Switzerland, where they had gathered together. It was the "Year without Summer" and the mood was a bit down, with all that rain and the weird colours in the sky. Those were the inspiration for William Turner's paintings a year later, but that is another story. Byron and Polidori had travelled along the Rhine, as one did in those days as a gentleman, to get to Italy mainly. After Napoleon's defeat the Rhine valley was open for travel again and so regained interest. Yes, it was the Romantic period in literature and Byron described the Rhine valley in dramatic words. I will explain more about the clue of the mountain saved by a poem in another post, but here is said poem about said mountain, the Drachenfels, part of the Seven Mountains range:

 

The castled crag of Drachenfels
Frowns o’er the wide and winding Rhine,
Whose breast of waters broadly swells
Between the banks that bear the vine,
And hills all rich with blossom’d trees,
And fields which promise corn and wine,
And scatter’d cities crowning these,
Whose far white walls along them shine,
Have strew’d a scene, which I should see
With double joy wert thou with me.

 

 

notamermaid

 

 

Edited April 19 by notamermaid
name corrected

[Host Jazzbeau]

With perfect timing for this Byronic subthread, the Wall Street Journal website just published an essay "How an English Poet Became a Greek National Hero."  [I included the link, but it's protected by a paywall; sorry]

[Canal archive]

Byron was also a ‘very naughty boy’.

[notamermaid]

Ouiii, happy surprise. I did not expect the Wall Street Journal of all publications to remember Byron on this day. And I fully admit that I had not thought of Byron had I not read an article in an online publication on Byron a couple of days ago.

 

notamermaid

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

A brief excerpt from the essay:

Byron was a political radical who identified with an oppressed people fighting for freedom. Back home in England, he had sympathized with the Luddites—weavers who smashed the new automatic looms that threatened to put them out of work...

The same spirit inspired the description of the Greeks in “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.” Byron mocked the idea that they should “be grateful to the Turks for their fetters, and to the Franks for their broken promises and lying counsels…to the artist who engraves their ruins and to the antiquary who carries them away.” That last phrase was a pointed reference to Lord Elgin, who denuded the Parthenon of about half its sculptures, destroying much of the building in the process. The Elgin Marbles still reside in the British Museum today.
 

[notamermaid]

1 minute ago, Canal archive said:

Byron was also a ‘very naughty boy’.

Lady Caroline, herself not quite an innocent woman, called him "mad, bad and dangerous to know".

 

John Polidori by the way started the genre of vampire stories during that meeting in Switzerland.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

On May 11, 1816, Byron and Polidori (the latter wrote a diary with dates and descriptions of places) passed the Drachenfels mountain but curiously did not actually visit it. They travelled upstream on the left bank of the Rhine so went from Bonn to Remagen and then Andernach. "The castled crag of Drachenfels" is in the third canto of the epic poem "Childe Harold" and I have quoted only the first verse.

 

At Rhine kilometre 644.1 (left bank) you are supposed to have a great view of the Drachenfels.

 

The Drachenfels is to the Lower Middle Rhine valley a bit what the Lorelei is to the Upper Middle Rhine valley. Heinrich Heine (yup, him of the Lorelei poem) went to the Drachenfels in 1820 and - what else - wrote a poem about it.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

I can think of a few guys I’ve known or know who were or are still that wonderful quote ‘mad bad & dangerous to know. Plus Byron coped with the world with what was then classed as an awful deformity.

 

[notamermaid]

The poem that saved a mountain

 

The Drachenfels is a mountain at Königswinter and part of the Seven Mountains range, the Siebengebirge. There are actually over 50 mountains and hill formations in the range. Curiously, I could only find two that have the word -ley or -lay in it. That is different from rock faces further upstream that are often called Lay. So Lay is an older word, the term that is only used in modern High German is Fels. The Drachenfels has the dragon legend attached to it but the name is probably derived from the stone that the Drachenfels is made of - Trachyte. This volcanic rock is perfect building material which can be sculptured well. The Romans used it and famously Bonn Minster and Cologne Cathedral are made from the stone quarried in the area, the latter being to a large extent made out of the Drachenfels itself.

 

When Lord Byron looked at the mountain he saw the ruin of the castle and on another part of it stone was still quarried. It is believed that part of the castle ruin further disappeared due to the quarry. Rock is known to have come loose and having caused land slides. Tourists had come to the area before Byron but his poem was an instant hit in Britain and drew the crowds to the Drachenfels. First it was the painter William Turner, then other writers followed. The "conventional" tourists flocked to the Rhine valley from the 1820's, especially when the first steamers made travel easier and faster. The Drachenfels was in danger of disappearing from the landscape if large-scale quarrying had continued. Disputes between the locals who wished to preserve the sight and the quarry owners already started in the 1820's and continued until the Prussian king himself stepped in and bought the "mountain" and gave it protected status. The mountain made famous by Byron's poem was saved. Mining in other parts of the Seven Mountains range continued until 1930 when all of it became protected.

 

notamermaid

 

[Cleopatra99]

We don't cruise till mid June (Amsterdam - Zurich on Rhine and Moselle with Scenic) but are curious about current water levels and how soon we will get a sense of what we can expect with river levels in mid June. Thank you for any advice and information.

[notamermaid]

On Thursday I mentioned that the river is rising and we would see a level at Kaub of close to 300cm. This basically still stands as a forecast, with the level now reaching 300cm to 310cm most likely. The current figure is 292cm. Further upstream the level is also good. Maxau gauge forecast says the level will most likely stay below 600cm next week.

 

59 minutes ago, Cleopatra99 said:

how soon we will get a sense of what we can expect with river levels in mid June

That would be 1 June for a proper forecast with the reliability increasing every day and being fairly good four days out. If the levels reach a critical point either way - high or low water - then a few hours can make all the difference. For June low water is a negligible risk, high water does not happen often.

 

The Moselle is not really afflicted by low water thanks to the locks but it can of course flood.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

It has been a cold day with gusts of wind and rain, a mix of sunshine and clouds. But the air was clear and visibility good which of course is good for taking photographs. Snow may return to my state on Wednesday but only to the high hills. It snowed this morning in the Eifel region which has mountains of over 600m. The Hunsrück, that is South of the Moselle and West of the Rhine, contains the highest mountain in Rhineland-Palatinate with 816m.

 

It has also snowed in the Vosges mountains which you can see from Strasbourg and Colmar. The highest summit is the Grand Ballon with 1,424m.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Just a quick note Notamermaid although Byron was a Baron his honorific address was ‘My Lord’ so Lord Byron is fine. It’s not considered rude if you don’t know the titles of those you meet so don’t use the honorific, it’s never worried me at all!

[notamermaid]

From Romantic poets to modern day infrastructure. We have talked about it before, but here is a short bit of info on the next stage of repairs at Iffezheim lock. Last year a gate was hit by a ship, check the footage in the video in this article. The engineer is using his little 100g hammer he says to hear the difference in sound in the concrete which occurs when there is damage. Currently the chamber is dry so they are doing all kinds of maintenance including dismantling the gate chains. Fortunately they have suffered only little damage. Work is on schedule and the chamber ready in November.

https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/baden-wuerttemberg/karlsruhe/rhein-schleuse-iffezheim-reparatur-schiff-unfall-100.html

 

notamermaid

 

[TrippleP]

Hello all, getting ready to embark on the Viking Mimir for the Grand European on May 10 from Budapest to Amsterdam.  I would love to get links on where to get real time information on the water levels.  Thanks!

[notamermaid]

I use this map: https://www.pegelonline.wsv.de/gast/karte/standard

and via this website you can get to the countries you need: https://www.doris.bmk.gv.at/en/fairway-information/water-levels/international-water-levels

 

Hope this helps.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

On Sunday I had a trip out into the Eifel region. A cold day, but the reward was some lovely cake and - a reminder of a special day in local history. If old machinery, technical details and history is your thing then mark "Day of Mills" in your calendar for your river cruise or land trip. More on that soon.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

River levels. The level at Maxau did stay below 600cm. The level at Kaub went to 314cm and is now stable. All good.

 

A bit exciting: will it snow in my state tomorrow? We had a bit of hail yesterday and it is cold for this time of year for sure. No snow in the valleys but we may see a bit in the Eifel region. Snow guaranteed in North Rhine-Westphalia. The state has - perhaps surprisingly - fairly high mountains. They are a nearly two hour drive from Cologne.

 

There is snow in the South of Germany of course, in the mountainous parts of the Black Forest.

 

notamermaid