Rhine water levels 2024 and similar topics

[notamermaid]

35 minutes ago, Izengolf said:

We just booked Uniworld's second sailing for the Magnificent Moselle on the SS Victoria on July 6.

Good to read you will be coming to my realm, West Germany. Magnificent Moselle I suppose means that there will be a focus on that river. But you are sailing the Rhine Gorge as well? Sounds good, how long is the itinerary? Any place that you are especially looking forward to?

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Izengolf]

It is a 9 night (or 10 day as they always advertise) cruise return to Frankfurt. I'm looking forward to a full first day cruising through the Cochem Valley, the Roman ruins at Trier then ending with Baden-Baden. Every stop looks very interesting though!

 

Edited March 1 by Izengolf
Typo

[Izengolf]

Notamermaid, the itinerary is actually called the Magnificent Moselle AND Rhine, I was too excited when making my post. Last year it was on the River Queen. 

[notamermaid]

6 hours ago, Izengolf said:

Notamermaid, the itinerary is actually called the Magnificent Moselle AND Rhine, I was too excited when making my post. Last year it was on the River Queen. 

Great stops on this very unusual itinerary as regards the route. I like this one a lot. It would be great if this was on the River Queen, she is one of my favourite ships on the rivers, I mean the design. But I am sure your ship will be great, too.

 

Frankfurt and Trier are so very different from each other, two German cities that one could reach within just a few hours by train, but quite apart in history and feel (and architecture). If you listen carefully to the locals you will also notice the difference in dialect.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

The flooding of 1784 affected so many lives. Looking briefly at Bonn again, the day of 27 February saw a family in the old town moving their belongings up one floor, the mother having been used to flooding from her childhood home in Koblenz-Ehrenbreitstein. But as the day progressed it became clear that this was not going to be enough. With water and ice approaching the family escaped through the second floor windows with the help of a ladder and through the back yard reached safety. The story only came to light much later when it was published by the owner of the building in Rheingasse 7. The 13-year-old boy who had the lucky escape in 1784 had never talked about it himself. He would have had plenty of listeners as he got around in the world, at that young age already well-known but soon rising to lasting musical fame. The boy's name is Ludwig van Beethoven.

 

notamermaid

 

[Shamrock 12]

Looking forward to following this thread. Booked for Viking Rhine Getaway in mid May of 2025. Trying to get the pulse of the River. Not worried about low water in May , rather concerned now with high water disruption.  I am a bit of a nervous Nellie and Mother Nature can be an unpredictable date. 🤣 

[notamermaid]

Welcome to Cruisecritic. Than you for saying hello.

12 hours ago, Shamrock 12 said:

Booked for Viking Rhine Getaway in mid May of 2025.

The very popular itinerary in a great month to see the river, landscape and towns. You are right, low water is not a concern (hardly ever), high water occasionally.

 

Today has been a sunny day with a fast rise in temperatures, kind of Spring-like almost. The daffodils are already out and blooming well where it is warm. Overall winter has been warm and rainy, more than in other years.

 

We are going into the river cruising season with plenty of water in the river and in the ground.

 

12 hours ago, Shamrock 12 said:

Trying to get the pulse of the River.

Interesting thought. "My" river is what they call a major artery of Europe, a transport highway - a "bl**dy motorway" as one captain called it compared to other rivers.

 

Basel to Amsterdam takes you along so many kilometres that for me it is sort of three rivers. My avatar photo is taken at a ferry crossing in the Upper Rhine valley. A wide, tamed, partly lock-controlled, channel-like river (the French canal-section is nearby there). Quite different from the river where it is naturally "channelled in" by hills and meanders along, what may be seen as the most picturesque part. Then past Duisburg it becomes the wide river again, this time naturally deeper and spreading out as it leaves my country and forms the delta, feeding the canals of the Netherlands (Amsterdam is not on the Rhine at all).

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

That is just my take on the itinerary from Basel to Amsterdam of course. If you wanted to get deeper into this you would need to see where the river comes from and the wild and unusual journey it takes before it becomes a river cruising river - the high Alps and a huge lake. For those with a lot of time I recommend this series on the Rhine. Five parts, well researched and beautifully filmed I find, this is part one:

notamermaid

 

[Shamrock 12]

Thank you for all your great reports and assistance. We had the lowest amount of snow in recorded history here in my corner of the USNortheast. Bulbs are coming up and we raked some winter debris today A bit of snow expected later in week however 
Looking forward to next year and experiencing “your River”. I find Mother Nature has a rhythm , (even with locks) I image rivers , mountains , oceans  forests …as ecosystems to be revered. I see the Rhine is a workhorse , a Lifeline full of history. 
Visiting our favorite islands again this year. Aruba for fun in sun  and Ireland for family, hiking and falcons. 
catch you on the River. 
 

[Cleopatra99]

9 hours ago, notamermaid said:

 

 

We are going into the river cruising season with plenty of water in the river and in the ground.

 

 

 

 

That is good news. We board in Amsterdam (.. to Basel) with Scenic in June and will be following your updates over coming weeks and months with great interest. Thank you for all the information you provide. Cheers C99

[ural guy]

On 3/3/2024 at 1:35 PM, notamermaid said:

That is just my take on the itinerary from Basel to Amsterdam of course. If you wanted to get deeper into this you would need to see where the river comes from and the wild and unusual journey it takes before it becomes a river cruising river - the high Alps and a huge lake. For those with a lot of time I recommend this series on the Rhine. Five parts, well researched and beautifully filmed I find, this is part one:

notamermaid

 

Thanks for posting this, great series, watched 4 episodes so far with spouse (retirement is nice).  Very well put together, beautiful camera shots, and tells more stories than just the river itself. 

 

The young Sheppard watching over her flock (in between semesters of Chemistry), mineral composition and perfect slope angle for vineyards, a guy running a pedestrian ferry outside Colonge for over 30 years, all great stories. 

[Izengolf]

I agree, we have watched the first 2 episodes and it is a terrific series. Thank you for the link notamermaid!

[notamermaid]

Thanks folks, good to read that you are enjoying it. Have re-watched some minutes but currently busy with other stuff. Spring is coming to the Rhineland fast it seems, although it is a bit cold today. Sun getting stronger and magnolia tree nearby getting ready to blossom. Last year I saw the difference in temperatures between valley and hills well. Magnolia tree here was budding, 100m higher in altitude magnolia trees were three days behind ours.

 

Recap of February coming soon. Spotted first river cruise ship in weeks on the river, i,e, not many about yet and me not being that often directly at the river. The Rhine is as busy as ever with barges and tankers.

On 3/4/2024 at 12:33 AM, Shamrock 12 said:

I see the Rhine is a workhorse , a Lifeline full of history. 

I like that. Good description.

 

Season on the Elbe starting this weekend by the way, both Plantours and Viking. And all our rivers here in Germany and adjoining countries look pleasant for sailing as far as I can determine.

 

notamermaid

 

[RDVIK2016]

7 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Season on the Elbe starting this weekend by the way, both Plantours and Viking. And all our rivers here in Germany and adjoining countries look pleasant for sailing as far as I can determine.

notamermaid

We'll see the Elbe later this year, but from the train and on foot in Dresden. Maybe I was looking at cruises at the wrong time on the Elbe (Labe on the Czech part), but I saw too much low water and a substantial amount of bus travel for the Berlin and Prague legs of the travel packages. I'm afraid the only river cruising we will do will be a couple hours on the Spree in Berlin and maybe an evening dinner cruise on the Vltava (Moldau) in Prague.

[notamermaid]

32 minutes ago, RDVIK2016 said:

a substantial amount of bus travel for the Berlin and Prague legs of the travel packages

Indeed. On Viking river cruises on the Elbe, the beginning and the end are nowhere near an Elbe river port. Berlin and Prague on the itinerary become a much more integral part of the whole experience it feels to me, i.e. the trip is not a worthwhile one without the large cities for that company and Viking cannot sail with their ships into either city which are great to explore and so convenient for the airports. The Spree in Berlin is nice for sailing, I am sure you will enjoy it. The Berlin river cruise port is in Spandau, just after the mouth of the Spree on the Havel river. The Havel flows into the Elbe, so that is how CroisiEurope gets from Berlin to Prague actually sailing (there is a canal involved also, I believe). Cruises on the Elbe are a different thing from cruises on the Rhine. And it is an altogether different feel over there in the East I find. It is all German culture of course, but we on the Rhine are Roman influenced and close to France whereas there are no Roman direct influences on the Elbe and Berlin is close to Poland.

 

Dinner cruise in Prague sounds great. That by the way is something you can do in Cologne. Not as much as in Prague I expect but KD does have such offers with drinks and snacks/meals. For those interested: https://www.k-d.com/en/cruises/evening-panorama-cruise-cologne

Similar offers are available in a few other towns.

 

notamermaid

 

Edited March 7 by notamermaid

[RDVIK2016]

1 hour ago, notamermaid said:

 

The Berlin river cruise port is in Spandau, just after the mouth of the Spree on the Havel river. The Havel flows into the Elbe, so that is how CroisiEurope gets from Berlin to Prague actually sailing (there is a canal involved also, I believe). Cruises on the

 

notamermaid

Thank you for this. I never realized there were river cruise ships that actually sailed from a dock in Prague all the way into Berlin! I figured maybe an old style barge cruise, but not a "hotel ship". Is Croisi the only major line that does this? I looked at Nicko and they seem to rely on buses for the Prague part of the cruise.

Edited March 7 by RDVIK2016

[notamermaid]

10 hours ago, RDVIK2016 said:

Is Croisi the only major line that does this?

All will be revealed in the thread on the Elbe. 😊

 

I have just checked: Rhine gauges mostly showing levels above or around the mean (long-term average). All very good for a pleasant start to the season.

 

notamermaid

 

[RDVIK2016]

5 hours ago, notamermaid said:

All will be revealed in the thread on the Elbe. 😊

notamermaid

 

Thank you for the gentle admonition to check out the Elbe thread [and keep to the subject on this Rhine thread]. (edited to add that part in brackets). I just signed on to follow it. Interesting info there already this year. 

RDVIK

Edited March 7 by RDVIK2016

[notamermaid]

39 minutes ago, RDVIK2016 said:

Thank you for the gentle admonition to check out the Elbe thread [and keep to the subject on this Rhine thread].

Aaahhh, not to worry, half meant in earnest. Was going to answer, but wanted to put some info in the Elbe thread anyway, so all over there. Thank you for following there. Interesting that you looked at Nicko Cruises. They have some nice itineraries. They are on the Rhine of course. For all those not familiar with the company - they have spread their marketing internationally but I have no idea how successful they are with that and what the international or at least-bilingual cruises are like.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

Time to have a look at what the river did in February. This is Kaub gauge:

 

We see highs and lows, coming and going, all due to rain basically, there has been no pronounced snow melt. It has been a mild winter all in all and temperatures in February did not vary much week on week. The winter has also officially been wetter than usual (which we may have guessed from the situation in December). The month ended on a level above mean water but far away from any level that would affect sailing. In the last week we have seen a further drop so we go into the river cruising season at a very pleasant level that is neither low nor high. Lake Constance gauge is running above the mean in the annual graph, so the Rhine's natural reservoir is filled well.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

The magnolia tree is doing well, already looking more pink than on Wednesday (see post further above). Kaub gauge long-term forecast is really looking good, stable and pleasant. Ships are getting ready to sail to ports to pick up their first passengers of the season, more by the day (the sailings that is). In Cologne Niehl the dock is still full with ships but they will soon leave one after the other:

 

One Viking river cruise ship left this popular winter harbour earlier today, the Viking Ullur. The S.S.Antoinette is docking in Cologne just North of Hohenzollern Bridge tonight. And exciting news: the Amina is signalling in Gendt! Not sure if she is still on test runs or now ready and out and about on the river proper. She is the new ship of Phoenix Reisen and will be christened in Bonn on 3 April. This her inaugural sailing is two nights, Bonn to Rüdesheim return, and is sold out. After that she will, typically for this time of year, sail the Netherlands on five day trips, before transferring on a long itinerary to the Danube, a sailing from Cologne to Passau in May.

 

notamermaid

 

[the_travel_locks]

Hello, we are planning on taking the Avalon Cruise "Enchanted Europe" from Basel to Budapest in July 2024 . 

Keen to follow your topic to keep up with water levels and other information about the rivers involved (Rhine, Main and Danube)  and this itinerary in Summer time.  

The ship for this cruise is Tranquility II

 

Thanks.

 

Edited March 12 by the_travel_locks
spelling

[fshagan]

We booked a Basel to Amsterdam cruise on Viva Cruises on the Viva One starting 17 Sep. It's our first river cruise so we are really looking forward to it! Hoping the water levels stay good all summer until then.

[notamermaid]

Hello to you in Melbourne.

13 hours ago, the_travel_locks said:

Hello, we are planning on taking the Avalon Cruise "Enchanted Europe" from Basel to Budapest in July 2024 . 

That is one of the itineraries that I put in the "Grand European" category, but it is an unusual one. Sailing from Basel to just before Mainz and then "turning right" to sail the Main and all the way to Budapest on the Danube is an interesting variation. Will there be a short trip into the Rhine Gorge either sailing or by coach? If you sail straight onto the Main river you will not see it.

 

notamermaid

 

[gnome12]

2 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Hello to you in Melbourne.

That is one of the itineraries that I put in the "Grand European" category, but it is an unusual one. Sailing from Basel to just before Mainz and then "turning right" to sail the Main and all the way to Budapest on the Danube is an interesting variation. Will there be a short trip into the Rhine Gorge either sailing or by coach? If you sail straight onto the Main river you will not see it.

 

notamermaid

 

I did Vienna to Basel with Uniworld in 2011. We did not go into the Rhine Gorge. We turned upstream on the Rhine to Basel.