notamermaid

It is potentially a little complicated. Perhaps a past cruiser has compiled such data. You can get an idea by looking up where the ships are on a ship tracker site. Or we can just give you a notion by saying "close to", "needs a coach ride", etc. It varies on the Danube and will be slightly different in almost every port. Passau and Vienna are the two ports that now appear to have the greatest variety of location. Many river cruise ships use the prime spots but there can be exceptions. In Vienna the basic difference is city centre or Nussdorf district. If a past cruiser confirms one or the other for the respective company, this will normally be the spot they dock at. But I would not rely on it that this will be 100 percent the location all the time. Some locations are on the cruise companies' websites with addresses. notamermaid

You are going to take us along on your journey! Thank you. I look forward to it. A not quite so frequent embarkation port and slightly unusual route. Have a safe trip and great cruise. notamermaid

Oh nice. Not a fan of nutcrackers but I would love to see their baubles range. Perhaps I will find some time between now and Advent to hop in the car and drive there. https://www.kaethe-wohlfahrt.com/en/kaethe-wohlfahrt-ruedesheim-en/ I have walked past the shop in York, the one in Riquewihr and the one in Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Never had time to browse. Personally I like many of the designs of Inge-Glas, which you can get online and in some good home accessories shops. Probably also on some Christmas markets. But back to autumn. It is a delight to walk to the greengrocers right now. Chestnuts, autumn fruits, pumpkins in all colours and shapes. Even saw butternut squash which is not a standard offer but seems to be coming more to my area these days. The first bottles of Federweisser (young wine). And I nearly bought some Weinbergspfirsich, the peaches from the Moselle, but would have been too busy to prepare them. Maybe on another day. Nearly forgot: Kaub is at 107cm. notamermaid

I reckon this Christmas market cruise has a different schedule then. That makes sense when it leaves from Düsseldorf. You get to see Baden-Baden, I am sure that will be lovely. All the other stops sound good of course, too. A pity that I cannot see the details for each day. That is download via giving personal details only. Christmas markets and castles - oh I cannot resist looking at such photos. Here is an upcoming event at Satzvey castle in the Eifel hills. I recall giving info to a past cruiser on Satzvey but I do not remember which company offered an excursion to there. https://www.rlp-tourismus.com/en/veranstaltung-1/event/20221210/Burgweihnacht-auf-Burg-Satzvey_Mechernich5/event.html Namedy castle (also originally moated), which I posted about a few days ago, also has a market on one weekend. Small but cosy. It is so close to Andernach that a taxi ride is worth the price to see it I find. Date given is 27 November, admission is 5 euros. Music, food, handicrafts and high quality gifts for the home and clothes accessories are on offer. I would not go out of my way to see the place but if you happen to be in Andernach it is a nice experience. notamermaid

Pfelling did drop further yesterday and for a moment it looked as if a problem could arise. But rainy, cool weather means that overnight the level rose from 308cm yesterday lunchtime and is now at 315cm. There is rain coming from the West which has now reached the Danube catchment area in notable amounts. notamermaid

Have a good flight and I hope you have a great meet at Frankfurt airport with your sister. Looks as if the weather could be a bit rainy and cool when you arrive in Germany. But I am sure it will be great to see the castles along the Rhine and Moselle nevertheless. This kind of weather adds drama to the hilly landscape. Have a great cruise. notamermaid

I think the excursion is a standard with Tauck, only with them I believe. I recall reading about Schloss Ehreshoven with them before, but have so far not seen it mentioned with another cruise line. The Schloss East of Cologne: https://www.castle-ehreshoven.com/index.php/start.html It is an area rarely explored by a river cruise line. There are tons of moated castles, or let us say Wasserschloß (plural is Wasserschlösser) because the term describes it better, around Bonn and Cologne. I had mentioned those a bit earlier in the year. Must get back to that topic some time... notamermaid

Eltz Castle. We have talked about this magnificent edifice in the small valley of the Elz river several times. The small stream has a picturesque waterfall that you may want to see if you happen to be in the area. Here is a description. The video does not load properly with me, but you can access the video via youtube directly as well: https://www.europeanwaterfalls.com/waterfalls/elzbach-wasserfall/ Nearest ports are Alken (23min. by car) and Cochem (25min. by car). notamermaid

Thinking of booking a Christmas market cruise at short notice? Hurry, but if you are flexible you can still get some cabins, according to the article: https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/Insights/Christmas-market-river-cruises-in-Europe-selling-fast notamermaid

Andernach on the Rhine is geologically kind of the eastern end of an active volcanic area, the Vulkaneifel, although there are extinct volcanoes on the other side of the Rhine as well. Those are much older and belong to a different geological era. I say active as recent years have shown much activity deep down in the ground. Notable for us casual visitors to the area are the bubbles in lakes and the (cold water) geysers. This is the Vulkaneifel: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulkaneifel#/media/Datei:Eifel_-_Deutsche_Mittelgebirge,_Serie_A-de.png West of Andernach, i.e. in the hills behind, you can find the typical buildings made of the volcanic stones and museums dedicated to volcanism. But the different types of stone are also actively mined. So that is the stone, what about the beer that I mentioned in an earlier post? This is a story about the special relationship between the geology of the area and the brewers that took advantage of it. I leave it to a presenter of the regional television station SWR to tell you the story. SWR has kindly subtitled the series about special stones in Rhineland-Palatinate with English (or French, or Dutch) subtitles. Here is the Eifel stone, basalt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o_-IqTznfU Recently, experts have started recording the volcanic activity in the Eifel region with new methods and appear to come to the conclusion that the Eifel is more active than previously thought. Therefore the term "extinct" is no longer used for the whole of the Eifel volcanoes. A minimal rise in elevation has been detected in the whole area, meaning there is pressure from within the earth's crust, from the lava plume deep down. A disturbing thought? The centre doing the mapping reassures us that there is absolutely no hint of an eruption any time in the future that may be relevant to us. A German article about the seismic measure mapping project: https://www.vulkane.net/blogmobil/vulkaneifel-seismische-messkampagne-gestartet/ As a result of all the CO2 making its way up through the ground, mineral water companies and producers of carbon dioxide for industry are major employers in the area. notamermaid

Hmm, interesting. Not sure that I would want the cuckoo and the chime at the same time... It may also depend on whether you want to mix woods or look for a similar grain and shade. That waterfall is probably the one at Triberg, really beautiful area: https://www.europeanwaterfalls.com/waterfalls/triberger-wasserfalle/ notamermaid

The level at Kaub has gone up a little earlier than expected and there has also been rain overnight in the Middle Rhine valley. Kaub gauge now reads 101cm. Good. And the rain has come in time to keep the levels on the Lower Rhine dropping much further. It is good when this trend is halted. While the navigation channel is deeper beyond Koblenz downstream into the Netherlands, we nevertheless see the navigation channel depth at Cologne reduced to 255cm. That is good compared to Kaub which is 213cm (translated from the gauge saying 101cm) but it is always good to have a comfortable level at Cologne, seeing that landing stages can be low in the water and Cologne also has a tricky shallows area (I mentioned this in a previous post). The weather is a little on the cool side unfortunately, but we cannot have our cake and eat it, can we? notamermaid

A barge with crane has unloaded some of the cargo off the coal barge. Then shortly after that the ship could resume sailing, meaning the stranded barge was able to free itself without the help of another ship or tug boat. The authorities have allowed river traffic to resume. notamermaid

It has been a full year since the Spirit of the Rhine started sailing, so here is an article on the ship's life and sailings so far: https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/ship-operations/saga-marks-first-anniversary-spirit-rhine Some nice info in there, one thing stuck out for me: excursion to Lake Titisee. That sounds unusual to me. Titisee is a lake high in the Black Forest and therefore is quite a distance from the Rhine. An hour by car from Breisach will get you there. The Black Forest is a standard area for excursions from Breisach of course but the Lake is rarely mentioned here on CruiseCritic. Am I right in assuming North American lines go to other areas of the Black Forest, like Triberg and around Freiburg? notamermaid

I cannot see it yet, but it can happen at Passau that the river level rises fast and ships cannot pass under the bridge. For now, in Germany all good of course. One may wonder if we will see high water levels later in autumn, despite scenarios and the press in August having made us worry about the contrary lasting into November. Thankfully at the moment it does not look as if a scenario like the one in 2018 will accompany us through October. But who knows... Pfelling is at 324cm, i.e. in slow steady decline. Light rain is sweeping over Bavaria. Passau is at 441cm which leaves over 150cm till the bridge becomes a hazard in high water. notamermaid

Update. It is a double-length barge, a so-called Verband. No wonder it is blocking the navigation channel. River traffic is still halted as of now, the plan is to free the barge during this evening. Will try and post when I know that river traffic has resumed. The river cruise ship suffered "no" damage and was able to sail on. I cannot find out which ship it was. https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/rheinland-pfalz/trier/schiffsunfall-auf-der-mosel-100.html notamermaid

Accident on the river A river cruise ship collided with a barge in a narrow spot near Briedern on the Moselle, the barge turned and hit the embankment. This lead to stones on the road causing a car to have an accident. No injuries reported. It happened last night. River traffic had to be halted. I will try and find out if traffic has resumed by now or if the barge is still blocking the navigation channel. notamermaid

That is nice to read. Thank you for the pre-cruise tip. Kaub gauge has gone done further, now at 94cm, which puts it close to the official low water marker. That means at 93cm the green dot on the gauge map turns to orange. That is not a worry yet. I just like to keep an eye on it. It has not rained yet but the weather is cloudy and a little on the cool side. We should not see the level drop much further. But it is all very well me giving my impressions, what is the forecast saying? It gives no figure lower than 92cm and an up tick on Tuesday. I can imagine the level falling to 90cm today. But overall, one can reasonably say that we will be spared really low levels before the river rises again. The rain forecast makes for a confident look into next week, at least in the computer modelling. 130cm is a strong likelihood during the week, with 150cm likely towards next weekend. So, back to Andernach and the Eifel volcanoes. notamermaid

I did not even know that the scheme had been abolished. https://www.ft.com/content/74420b1a-a0b5-4048-8acd-450de9cbfbbc Oh it would be nice if I could use it to pay for my tea and biscuits. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to bring sausages and cheese home anymore. If the scheme only works for high end stuff then, well, it does not work for me. notamermaid

It's CLIA cruise week! Tomorrow (24th) you can win an Amawaterways river cruise. https://cruising.org/en-gb/cruise-week notamermaid

The folk on Binnenschifferforum have uploaded some great photos: https://www.binnenschifferforum.de/showthread.php?112345-Rheingold-KFGS&p=447498#post447498 notamermaid

I am looking forward to all the glittering lights and adorned buildings but first it is harvest season with celebrations, annual markets (Jahrmärkte) and wine festivals. Some have already been of course. Due to the heat in Summer they say that the grape harvest will not be plentiful but the quality of the wine will be very good. Brief update: Kaub showing the slow decline as expected, now at 103cm. notamermaid

Found it. This is the event at Koblenz: https://www.christmas-garden.de/koblenz/ notamermaid

It is lovely when people do that. I have seen a private building that did this for charity, i.e. you could come to the house, enjoy the display and leave some money that they would donate. This year the electricity bills have gone up so much that we expect to see fewer displays. Apparently there was some controversy around this Lumagica. People complained about the event as we are supposed to save energy this autumn/winter. The organizers needed to explain that the lights use little energy and other events may use more energy. It is going ahead as planned. Some people are real spoil sports in my opinion... notamermaid

48 hours have passed so what has happened? A considerable drop but as expected nothing to worry about, Pfelling gauge is at 373cm. As the weather is dry we will see the level fall further during the weekend. Right now it looks to be a slow decline. The forecast gives us 350cm and I am willing to believe that. I think Saturday will give us a better idea of what the absence of rain will do to the river levels in the area. Rain is forecast for Monday. notamermaid