Water Levels - Rhine/Moselle

[birders]

General question - non-specific to any particular river cruiseline:

 

How are the water levels on the Rhine and Moselle as the summer progresses? We sail the last week of August from Amsterdam to Basel (with deviation down the Moselle to Trier), two weeks on Avalon Tapestry.

 

Any issues with high water/low water???

 

(Sailed the Danube in 2005 - lovely cruise.)

 

THANKS

[steamboats]

birders,

 

Currently you won´t have any problems. But no one can tell you right now what´ll be going on in August. We have a storm front passing over Germany with severe weather warnings and heavy rain. But usually this is just a shorttime raise of the water levels.

 

As you can see in my signature I have a cruise on the Upper Mississippi river coming up by the end of August. Currently this cruise is not possible as the river levels are too high. But they are dropping. Right now I think we could go up as far as Hannibal, MO, but then there´s a bridge we can´t pass. But anyway there´s no place to land in St. Louis and all the way up to Hannibal.

 

So all I can do is wait and see and pray for dry weather in the Mid West!

 

steamboats

[eadien7]

Steamboats, I think you'll be fine for your Mississippi River Cruise in August. I'm from the St. Louis area and cross the river every day. The river is dropping rapidly. Barge traffic has resumed, the casino on the St. Louis riverfront is expected to open this week.

[paul929207]

River levels vary from year to year, and they can change rapidly if there is heavy rain.

[steamboats]

eadien7,

 

Thanks! I´m checking the river gages online every day. And the American Queen is now scheduled to start her first trip out of St. Louis on July 19th. The Delta Queen was just rerouted to Cincinnati instead of St. Louis as currently there´s no spot to land. Currently it´s 26.01 (according to http://www.rivergages.com). I haven´t seen any recent photos of the St. Louis riverfront. I just saw the Gateway Arch Riverboats have resumed their operation this weekend. BTW I don´t really mind where my cruise is going as I´ve done this cruise twice.

 

But now I have another concern. Lufthansa might go on strike during the next weeks :eek:! No risk, no fun!!

 

As for the Rhine and Moselle rivers they are still at normal stage although we had pretty much rain during the last few days.

 

steamboats

[lsbauer]

We will be on the Rhine and Mosel with GCT starting 9/1 and, of course, are interested in this thread. Steamboats, I checked you rivergages link but it is only US (of course, for your trip). Is there a similar site for European rivers?

 

Larry

[steamboats]

Larry,

 

Yes there is. But it´s German only:

 

http://www.elwis.de/gewaesserkunde/Wasserstaende/Karte/index.html

 

Click on the area on that map where the river you´re travelling on is located. Then another more detailed map opens. There you can click on the towns with the red dots. There you get the river gages. But I fear it doesn´t help much as you won´t understand anything without being able to read the German text.

 

There are much better websites for all rivers in Bavaria and for Austria (Danube river).

 

steamboats

[HDS]

Stemboats,

When you have time please will you share the Danube river heights site with us.

Thank you.

[steamboats]

HDS,

 

Here they are

 

http://www.hnd.bayern.de/ (Bavaria, green dots are o.k., yellow is still o.k., orange/red/purple may cause problems to navigation)

 

http://www.land-oberoesterreich.gv.at/cps/rde/xchg/SID-3DCFCFC3-6178767F/ooe/hs.xsl/was_internethydro_Online_DEU_HTML.htm (Upper Austria from Passau to Grein)

 

http://www.noel.gv.at/Externeseiten/wasserstand/wiskiwebpublic/maps_Q_0.htm (Lower Austria from Grein to Bratislava)

 

http://www.povodia.sk/dunaj/en/index.htm (Slovakia)

 

http://www.hydroinfo.hu/Html/hidinfo/duna.html (whole Danube, but in Hungarian)

 

steamboats

[GlobeMan]

isbauer,

We just returned from a Rhine cruise last week. Water levels are fine. Not to high or too low to have any negative impact right now.

[DonfromNC]

We were on the Viking Sun, Antwerp to Basel the first two weeks of August last year. The Rhine was rising quickly the last few days of the trip and we cleared the bridge at Strasbourg by inches. The ship stopped long enough for the passengers to make a quick exit to the buses for the Strasbourg tour and hurried back under the bridge while it was still possible. We docked at a commercial dock off the main river for the remaining couple of days. The only downside was it added a couple of hours to the bus ride for the Black Forest tour, and my wife and I missed Basel. Others with later return plans were able to take a bus into Basel.

 

We were on the Viking Neptune Budapest to Amsterdam in August of 2005 and all river levels were fine. It's all part of the river experience.