notamermaid

Not a fan of the idea of "have a not so good cruise and we will ask for your money again so you can have a proper cruise but we graciously reduce the cost of that one by 35 percent". It is good that you have insurance. Perhaps this site is helpful: https://www.cestlagreve.fr/ In Germany there is a (strike) peace over Easter - our strikes are of a different nature anyway - but I would not rely on France doing it that way. Hope all goes well and you have a great experience on the Rhone river. notamermaid

The Viking Modi (see post #115) has turned round and is headed for Budapest. notamermaid

Never knew that a German immigrant designed the Brooklyn Bridge. Have looked him up and an Erfurt city website says that there is a August-Röbling-Strasse in a suburb. Apparently Johann August Röbling had studied mathematics in Erfurt and then architecture, etc. in Berlin. He emigrated to the US in 1831 and designed several bridges, the Brooklyn Bridge is his most famous work, which he sadly did not see completed. Apparently he was already very interested in suspension bridges in Germany, but his designs were not built. What an important man. We still build cable-stayed suspension bridges with wire robe. Wikipedia says that there is the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge over the Ohio river. notamermaid

Have a great cruise. Ships are going up and down the river, the season is now in full swing. Would be fun to hear from someone currently cruising. Yes it could rain a lot, no way of knowing yet what May will bring. The river could be a bit on the low side, which you would then read about in the business papers, but that is not real low water for river cruise ships. It refers to barges reducing their load. notamermaid

I guess it is the opposite of planned obsolescence. Built to last or hold as long as possible and with forethought in mind of what the future will bring. Or just plain the best that you can do. Striving for genius not for "should last a while". Look at Pont du Gard. the aqueduct has had some repairs and no longer carries real traffic or water but it still stands proud after over 1900 years. France has got a lot of amazing old structures, that one is one of my favourites. notamermaid

I see in the notification for shipping that there is an update. One lock will stay closed longer on the Main Danube Canal. But it is only a day or two and does not affect the overall fact that the Canal will only fully reopen on 8 April when Berching lock resumes service: Regensburg and Bad Abbach are still scheduled to reopen on 5 April 1800 hours. notamermaid

There has been an accident of a river cruise ship on the Main. Last night it hit the road bridge at Kostheim sailing downstream. Five passengers were slightly injured, one of them was taken to hospital. Police report says the ship was sailing at the wrong speed, hit the bridge and then a landing stage. The road bridge is open for traffic as usual. Name of ship not disclosed. notamermaid

Thanks for the link, Daisi. That looks a very interesting website to roam around. The iron foundry's metal casting hall is a design by Prussian mining expert Carl Ludwig Althans, built in 1828: https://www.erih.net/i-want-to-go-there/site/sayner-huette-iron-works A river cruise company offered an excursion to there a few years back, I think it was either Avalonwaterways or Amawaterways. Have not been there since they finished renovating. notamermaid

My father worked in steel, in a company that made steel/iron into products that is. Some years ago I got a bit more into the history of iron refining processes and steel-making. A story that has fascinated me is the first railway in Germany. Nobody knew how to do it properly in 1835, they had to get most of the knowledge and equipment from England. The Ludwigseisenbahn in Bavaria gave the order for the rails to a company in Neuwied on the Rhine, they were the only ones able to supply what was needed in length and strength, i.e. the rails. The company had learnt from English engineers and their workmen going to England. The engine and engine driver came from England directly as there was no one in Germany able to build and ride a locomotive at the time. If you are ever on the Rhine near Koblenz and have a bit of time, check out the former iron works at Sayn. It is like a cathedral of iron and glass, an early example of that architecture used for factories. notamermaid

Yes there are locks. These are the locks along the whole Danube: https://www.doris.bmk.gv.at/en/services/locks-along-the-danube Vilshofen is at kilometre 2249. notamermaid

Regensburg water level is now stable on a plateau, both Pfelling and Passau look to have peaked. It is not clear if the situation at Regensburg will have any effect further downstream still, it looks non-existent in the forecast. All in all looking rather good. Rain has mostly stopped. Now we just need the last few locks to reopen so that ships can get into the Main Danube Canal. The Viking Modi is still signalling in Regensburg. notamermaid

The forecast for the weather was about right for the Middle Rhine valley. The rain has stopped today, it is sunny and on the cool side in the mornings. Forecast for the river has been adjusted downward. Kaub is now expected to stay below 360cm tomorrow and peak some time during the morning. The levels will also fall a bit faster, so Kaub is very likely to fall below 200cm next week. For the next ten days this looks all rather splendid. There will a bit of wind and rain but it looks to be a settled week overall and I think we can look forward to good Easter weather. So let us have a look at Mainz again, the Roman Mogontiacum. The city is over 2000 years old and when the Romans first came to the area they encountered the local tribe. The Romans just took the established word "Mogon" used for the place and changed it to their needs. If you want to take a deep dive into Roman history have a look here: https://www.livius.org/articles/place/mogontiacum-mainz/ Otherwise, let us just say that Mainz continued as an important cultural centre after the Roman Empire ended and also became a religious centre, just like Trier and Cologne. And that is where the recent excavations in the big hole for a new shopping centre (actually a rebuilt after the old one was knocked down) come in. It attracted media attention beyond the standard archaeological realms. Explanation to follow. notamermaid

Thanks for the responses. It is interesting how some things grow somewhere else and are used and some not. Cranberries we hardly use for example. Partly because we have our European Preiselbeere which is similarly tart and used to accompany savoury foods. Tonight I went for British and made beef pie. I have been a bit busy reporting on water levels and all sorts of news on the other threads. Some time in between that I realized that my anniversary is coming up - the 10th anniversary of my river cruise! Still have not been on another one since. Something always seems to get in the way. Perhaps I can be on the river to celebrate just for an hour this week. Or even just a ferry for ten minutes. Will not send a message from onboard as my smartphone is still not working. And I am quite happy without that machine doing smart things apart from being a simple phone. notamermaid

It is April, time to look at what the Danube did at Pfelling in March: The month started with a pleasant, though not high level. Heavy rain and - later - rising temperatures resulted in a sharp rise with two peaks. It is important to note that with locks not being too far away, a slight effect may be felt from that depending on how much the dams can regulate the flow while keeping the level required by order of the authorities to ensure good conditions for river traffic. I am not familiar with how the big the effect can be. The level returned to the mean (MW) and stayed around there. Much rain in the last three days has made the river rise fast again. 463cm is not flooding and it appears that much higher levels are not expected within the next 24 hours. Rising levels are still expected at Regensburg where the Regen river is bringing much water as it is on flooding level 1 further upstream. The Regen will yellow dots: Which leaves the question: what about that bridge in Passau? Passau has risen to 524cm. That leaves a metre of headroom still until, according to the authorities, the first river cruise ships can get problems with passage under one of the bridges. 630cm is the exact figure they give. This is the official text: notamermaid

Yep, that looks really tight. The Main is really the river where low water is rarely ever an issue, but high water can be, from such photos I reckon more than on other rivers. Certainly more than on the Middle Rhine (which has very few bridges). notamermaid

I can understand that. Normally things go well, but there is always a tiny risk. You can check a lot of things and plan an itinerary that is least likely to be impacted by anything. But you can only do this so much. And then there is what Daisi has mentioned - a rather unfortunate knock-on effect from the river cruise on your ship before you not going as planned. My river cruise went without a problem but the I think third one after that on the Belvedere did not. And then there was the flooding at Passau the following month after that. Oddly, as I have hinted at before, the barge sinking in the lock was a mishap with luck involved - it would have been worse on another day and potentially worse had it been outside of the lock. notamermaid

It is April, time to have a look at what the river did at Dresden in March: Basically, a good month. Towards the middle of March the river reacted to heavy rain and rising temperatures. It went back to a lower, very pleasant, level. The last three days have been wet again which brings the level up and it is still rising. We may see a rise to 300cm again on 4 April but not much further. notamermaid

That would be interesting. It could of course be that Avalon does not have a "Grand European" journey scheduled for this week yet. If they have a Danube itinerary that goes to Nuremberg, then that should not be a big deal. Short-ish coach ride. notamermaid

You should be okay if you stay with the group and only take the excursions with them. However, I prefer now, knowing what happened on my river cruise, to be able to contact the ship if needed. In Bratislava we had just an hour or so spare time, but nearly took a wrong turn while walking not knowing the town. It was not tight for all aboard time, but could have been. If you go out on your own for longer you really should have a phone number. For example, rarely, but it can happen, your ship may need to move or leave early. It would come in handy if the ship could contact you. The Grand European needs to "cover a lot of ground", i.e. the ship uses the time while you are out and about to sail to another port, I think it is twice or three times. That is part of the itinerary and not established the evening before as far as I know. But you will hear all the plans in detail in the briefing the evening before. Some people prefer just posting in the roll call sections, where they share finer details of the cruise. You could also look in the 2022 roll call. Great info in there by river cruisers sailing last year. Have a great cruise. notamermaid

Signals coming through well from Regensburg. Screenshot of the vessels on vesselfinder.com: I mentioned a few posts back that the Viking Modi is on route to Amsterdam. Which I reckon means she will signal from Regensburg for a few more days now unless she turns around. Wonder what is happening with those passengers and what Viking has decided to offer them. notamermaid

Here we go. This is March at the gauge at Kaub: After a low in the figures rain set in and made the level rise fast to mean (MW line) and beyond, but did not reach flooding level. After the peak the level returned to the mean. Warm temperatures led to at least a bit of snow melt (the meteorologists can judge this much better than me) and the level remained pleasant. Rain in the last few days has made the level rise again and a high volume of water is coming from the Main right now. This will continue and we will also see the prolonged rain of yesterday and today in a part of Baden-Würrtemberg have an affect at Kaub. It is not enough to make Maxau gauge in the Upper Rhine valley rise to high levels (it is due to peak later today), also seeing that more will drain into the Rhine downstream from that gauge than upstream from there. Kaub will rise in the early hours of 4 April to a level above 380cm most likely. For now this looks still okay, flooding mark I is at 460cm. Rain is forecast to stop and while the day temperatures could still reach double digits the nights will be cold again and early mornings in some parts of the valley may be frosty. Get the gloves out again for those 8.30am excursions! notamermaid

We have slightly unusual constellation right now as regards weather and river levels. Mild flooding is happening along the Main. All the water is now draining into the Rhine, making the Middle Rhine valley levels rise, but the Upper Middle Rhine valley not in equal measure. Overall, the Rhine is doing fine though. To give you an idea of what I mean, here is a screenshot of the area: The individual dots are the gauges, green is normal, yellow is elevated, orange is not good, red is bad, purple is abysmal (my laywoman terms). None of the latter two in the area thankfully. Should ease during today and tomorrow. More details and round-up of March to follow. notamermaid

Many gauges are going up along the Main, here is the current situation at Würzburg: Flood mark I is at 270cm, so not too bad yet. The overall impression I get from reports is that this is not going to get much worse, the weather should improve soon. The problem on the Main for river cruise ships are the low bridges. But that is something I can only mention and any problem arising from the high water levels will depend on an individual ship's height of the superstructure. notamermaid

Wonder if that is the scheduled Viking trip ending in Regensburg or the Grand European. Good to read that you have been able to make other arrangements. Hope you have a great stay in the cities. They are fabulous to explore. What a pity that Scenic has no arrangements for the Rhine Gorge, it is not always easy to get a ship at short notice. I do hope you have a satsifactory outcome as regards refunds for missed cruising. All the Best, notamermaid

If I understand the rules correctly, the machines are not turned off while sailing, but I cannot be certain. There seem to be fewer or less strong masts (or whatever they are) for picking up the signals in some parts along the Danube in Bavaria and making them appear in real time on marinetraffic and others. Thankfully, somewhat, the lock at Regensburg does not affect the docking there, that is on the other side of the Danube. It means that ships going upstream only need to go through the lock when they want to leave Regensburg for Kelheim and the Canal, etc. But if several ships need to wait a day or two for passage, then there will not be enough space at Regensburg I guess. Apart from the locks at Regensburg and Bad Abbach, a few more are not open yet in the Canal or on the Main, scheduled opening is tomorrow mostly, i.e. after the delay that was announced on 27 March. Tricky. I have not made up my mind how much blame I should lie on Scenic for the tight schedule. They were notified (or informed their people responsible for the itinerary timing) many months ago, the lock closure dates were announced in 2022 (see data sheet some posts above) and if everything had gone according to plan, the lock at Regensburg would have been open for at least 48 hours before Scenic was due at Regensburg on 2 April (today). At lot of fine print reading is in order for the disappointed passengers I would say. notamermaid