notamermaid

Just saying hello to report that I have enjoyed another glorious sunset. Our snow is still on the ground. It is lovely. I am finishing off the last biscuits and other goodies from Christmas. Our temperatures will rise so the snow will go soon. It may be the last proper snow for this winter but we can get some up to and at Easter in a year when the Feast Day is early. notamermaid

The temperatures are around zero in warm areas of Bavaria but colder during the night. Passau is a relatively warm spot so there is no snow on the ground now. Passau has a high quality webcam: https://www.feratel.com/en/webcams/germany/passau.html In the next 48 hours we will see a short and not strong rise of the river levels. All good. Next week the temperatures will rise and rain is forecast. notamermaid

The level at Maxau has jumped, the gauge now shows 679cm. 650cm denotes official flooding. It is unlikely to reach 700cm. Which is good news for the Middle Rhine valley. notamermaid

Good. Where the cluster of Viking ships appears with blue dots is the winter harbour that ural guy mentioned. So you were also in Niehl during your particular cruise. I see that the Tialfi is indeed near the Dom. Welcome to Cruisecritic. Missed that it was your first post. Have a great cruise. notamermaid

I cannot know that for sure. But I can say that with few ships sailing and the river being at a good level, Viking is very likely to be able to dock near the Cathedral. You can check where the Viking Tialfi is today: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:7.1/centery:51.0/zoom:11 notamermaid

A standard German company, a standard river cruise ship. But this itinerary is not standard at all. Imagine a river cruise in Germany that does not sail on the Rhine or Danube, or the other major rivers. And not on the Elbe or the Neckar either. Aah, canals! - No, not them either. This is a river cruise by 1AVista Reisen on the Junker Jörg along the coast line of East Germany and in Poland. Here is the route: https://www.1avista.de/detail/flusskreuzfahrten-ostsee-fruehsommer-2024-ms-junkerjoerg/ While this is most likely not a river cruise for you, it shows though what is possible and what the lesser known companies offer. A similar route is offered by other companies. The Junker Jörg is only 94.8m long, which means she can sail in a few places in addition to the regular rivers. notamermaid

Ah, yes. Then Limburg will most likely please you more than Marksburg. I think it is about 50 minutes one way in a coach. Probably a bit over an hour if you go along a few Lahn river bends along the way. Mainz Lovely! A good alternative to Frankfurt. And the overall more attractive city in my opinion. notamermaid

Well equipped for our winters then. Just minus four here at night (colder in the high hills) and the snow with me is about 12 centimetres high. notamermaid

The Viking Tialfi is at her usual dock in Koblenz and I am sure the passengers enjoyed the snow-covered hills of the Rhine Gorge this afternoon and the lovely sunset. I did not see the hills but very much enjoyed the sunset. I did a bit of online ship spotting and found the Viking Tialfi at this time stamp approaching Bingen and Rüdesheim: The jetties are part of Bingen harbour, Rüdesheim is on the other bank of the river. This itinerary does not have a port stop at Rüdesheim and the ship sailed straight into the Rhine Gorge. Ten minutes later, approaching Mouse Tower: That is the entrance to the Rhine Gorge. The Viking Tialfi was caught on camera just after sunset when she arrived at Koblenz and her captain turned her to dock: It will get warmer soon so just a couple more days to enjoy the snow in the valley. notamermaid

Thank you for saying hello. This was just referring to going up to Ehrenbreitstein in winter. It is dark by 5.30pm now, so with the cold and the darkness I do not find it an attractive place to be. It will be great in June! Coming from Australia, if you have not seen a castle before, Marksburg Castle is a very attractive option. It is great, but you need to be aware that the area within the castle is not good for those with mobility issues. It is a little strenuous. If you are not sure about that one, check youtube for videos. A river cruise company has put together a nice video I find: https://www.vikingrivercruises.com/video/destination-insights/iconic-marksburg-castle/play.html A walking tour of Koblenz is certainly nice but having been so close to it for much of my life I cannot be enthusiastic about it. When all this is new to you it is great to just wander around. There is fascinating history to learn and the city has got nice squares with some good shops. Lovely to sit in a café in warm temperatures. Limburg!!! I am excited as it is the first time that I have read about a company offering this. I mentioned the town - not sure - three years ago as a place that a company may consider as it is interesting, just a bit far away for a short excursion. I like Limburg, the Cathedral is lovely to look at. The town is still nicely Medieval (not wow Medieval but really nice) and if there is no such other place offered on the cruise a good place to go to. I like it also for the ride, the scenery is hilly with much forest. Not sure if there is enough time to go up the Lahn in the coach for a bit, they may take you mostly over the hill autobahn. Limburg is on the Lahn river but going along the undulating valley road would take quite a bit of time. This is quite a nice private video which gives you an idea of what to expect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Qh6OzewZQ I like your schedule, in spring and summer this sounds very doable. Castle or Medieval town? Difficult to decide but Limburg is a unique excursion (I believe) so on Marksburg Castle you will be among foreign tourists most likely while Limburg is a bit more off the beaten track for foreigners. Have fun planning. notamermaid

My pleasure. Thank you for coming to this year's thread. Exciting weeks for you in anticipation. The Viking Tialfi is in Koblenz right now. Will get back to that later. I have been out and about today in boots. That worked well. I am steady on my feet and still nimble but it is good to have those thick soles, especially on some modern pavement in my neighbourhood that is surprisingly more slippery than cobblestones. I wonder what excursion Viking offers in Koblenz. Marksburg Castle is only an optional one these days. Not sure that Ehrenbreitstein Fortress is that exciting after 5pm now. Guess it is just a walk through town? Or does the ship dock overnight? notamermaid

Oh right, interesting. Same is done from I think the Gutach river onto the Rhine. That is somewhere in Baden-Württemberg. It used to be a big industry on the Rhine, you know for the Netherlands towns an shipbuilding. Could be a nerd question: how many German forests and mountains are there built into the Netherlands? 😁 notamermaid

On the Main the alterations to make it more commercially viable go back about 200 years. The Main was partly shallow and in summer lacking water so compared to the Rhine it could not sustain regular traffic with ships of a deep draft, although it has always been used for transport and was of importance for market ships, i.e. trade from one market town to another. In the 19th century the Rhine was far ahead with that. However, measures where taken to alter the river so that more load could be carried. Problem was twice the opening of a competing railway line. Being in the middle of the country, the Main does not have a source in very high mountains and meanders slowly towards the Rhine - at least compared to the Douro. Still, if you take the source of one of the two source rivers as measure, the Main has an altitude difference of 805m to cover before it meets the Rhine. @Canal archive the Main was also used for wood transport, taking it in floats from the forests along the Upper Main to the Lower Main and Rhine. This ended in the 1950s. notamermaid

At Maxau gauge we can now see the steep rise of the river's level. It will cross the line of navigational flood mark I before midnight most likely. By tomorrow morning this rise should bring the graph above the figure that will put Maxau on official flooding status, 650cm. This is a regular occurrence in the course of winters, and does not mean an automatic impact on river cruising. However, flood mark I is important for navigation as regulations kick in and instruct river traffic how to navigate during the higher levels. The Rhine valley is covered in snow. A lovely sight. notamermaid

Oh, that was meant to refer to the bussing. Nuremberg city is not on the canal, the harbour is industrial and out of town. Itineraries that start in Vilshofen are more favourable as regards docking. By the way, also better if you want to avoid potential issues with low water. notamermaid

Welcome to Cruisecritic. You asked about bussing specifically. Between the two rivers I think you cannot go wrong as regards feel and experiencing Europe. As regards being right in town or bussing I think there is not much in it between the two. Avoid Nuremberg, which you will if you sail Vilshofen to Budapest. I struggle to find something that could help with your decision. Also Ama or Viking, not much difference as regards ports or itineraries. It would be details that could make the difference and sway you in one direction or the other. Personally, I would never book Viking due to their payment policies. Have you got any special interests? Do you speak French? Do you like windmills? Like canal boats? Do you want to see one of the biggest cathedrals in existence? Do you want to see a fortress? Go for the Rhine. Fancy seeing a majestic town with castle at three rivers? Like "The Sound of Music"? Eat an authentic Wiener Schnitzel? See three capitals of Europe and look at what used to lie behind the Iron Curtain? Go for the Danube. Have fun planning. notamermaid

The two Viking ships, the Astrild and the Beyla, are still in odd places, i.e. not the usual winter harbour at Tangermünde. The Astrild is in Hamburg, the Beyla in Dresden. The Elbe Princesse of CroisiEurope is surprisingly actually sailing and headed for Decin. I guess this is her winter harbour. So no actual itineraries. But I said I would check the German companies and I have. Just to mention their ships: on the Elbe we have the Swiss Ruby, the Katharina von Bora, the Sans Souci, as well as the Swiss company Thurgau Travel with the ships Thurgau Saxonia and Thurgau Chopin. I think I have missed one. So if you are happy conversing in German then you have a perhaps surprisingly large choice of companies and ships. Viva Cruises and her Swiss Ruby are happy to greet you in English as well on several cruises. But what about an itinerary on the Elbe in winter? Yes, that is a rare occurrence but it does happen. I have found one, i.e. just one. Two if you see them as different itineraries rather than two versions of one. First the company: Viva Cruises. They operate something that they call a Krimi-Kreuzfahrt. It runs in two directions, Berlin to Bremen and Düsseldorf to Berlin. If you are not familiar with the geography of Germany I will explain briefly that you can traverse the country in the North via the Havel, Elbe and several canals. As an extreme example - you can sail from Berlin to Budapest! But I digress... Second, the sailings: Here is the English description of the two river cruise itineraries offered, starting or ending in Berlin: Both itineraries have to use the Mittellandkanal to get from West to East and vice versa. But the Elbe runs from South to North, right? Yes, that is where we will examine the route and do a bit of "nitpicking". For that I have taken the route description from an online travel agency: The Mittellandkanal comes from the left in this screenshot and goes to the Elbe. From there the ship goes onto the Elbe and then leaves the Elbe to join the Elbe-Havel-Kanal. So the Swiss Ruby does indeed sail the Elbe on this tiny stretch in February and March, three itineraries fall into winter, i.e. before the Spring Equinox. You could sail this itinerary without the Elbe stretch, but we assume of course that the online description on the map is correct. So a river cruise on the Elbe while not really on the Elbe as you know from the sailings from other ships does happen in winter. notamermaid

Treacherous conditions today for driving and no way would I try and go up a hill to a castle today. And sun deck staircases are not the best place to be right now either I should think. Yes, I am still not convinced that winter sailings are a good idea. The lock at Iffezheim will be closed almost a full day tomorrow. The reason is that the right chamber is not usable due to the accident last year. The left chamber now needs work doing so there will be no river traffic through that lock tomorrow. According to a local newspaper the lock at Gambsheim is also closed tomorrow but I have no details on that. Edit: If you are interested, this is the notification for skippers as issued by the German authorities: Oh, and the farmers are still busy with protests, a few days ago Alsatian farmers crossed the river and joined the German farmers in solidarity. But as of now I have not heard about disruptions that would directly impact cruising, just road blocks and demonstrations on a minor scale so excursions should be okay as well. There have been solidarity protests by commercial river traffic (it is about Diesel subsidies) but so far this sounds to have been minor. There is the hint of flooding again from Basel coming via a few tributaries, indicated also at Maxau gauge. But for now it looks to be a minor one, no big deal. We will look at that again tomorrow or so. notamermaid

Here is a Christmas market that is off the beaten track for river cruisers, but it is on a navigable river, the Neckar in Germany. Stuttgart is a large city with an international airport: https://www.stuttgarter-weihnachtsmarkt.de/en/home/ I have enjoyed Stuttgart in another season. The Christmas market has been recommended to me. notamermaid

The Moselle has much recovered and the water levels are down. Looking really good. This is what the last 31 days at Trier gauge looked like: HSW is the line at which river traffic is suspended. Now the level is around the mean. A good base to start from when the water levels rise again. Yes, a rise will happen again day after tomorrow. 400cm is a given, we will see what that day brings in addition to that. Hopefully all will go well for the ship that is currently sailing on the Rhine and heading towards Remich in Luxembourg. I have never read about itineraries on the Moselle in winter and I do not think river cruise ships use winter harbours in the area. So I checked why the Viva Tiara is heading towards the Moselle. It turns out that she is the ship on which a tourism promotion event in Luxembourg will be held. This is it: https://www.acl.lu/en-us/news/voyages-loisirs/cruiseevent-remich-2024-a-bord-du-viva-tiara notamermaid

Now that is certainly newsworthy. Joking aside, we all assume that the Netherlands is very flat, which it is, but there are some real proper hills close to the Belgian and German borders. Up there many live at a higher altitude than me here and are bound to have more snow than me. Not saying where I am but parts of Limburg province are over 100m high with the highest hill being 322.4 metres. If anyone is interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limburg_(Netherlands) notamermaid

Let us kind of bring forward the flooding topic from December and have a look how that went. Koblenz: River traffic was halted when the level went over the HSW line. With the Middle Rhine valley on substantial flooding there was the risk of a ban being issued at Cologne. This is the timeline at Cologne: You can see that the HSW line is not there, the level stayed just below it, peaking at 823cm. Seven centimetres only, the ban happens at 830cm. So the two Viking ships, the Alruna and the Tialfi both were able to complete the inaugural winter itinerary for Viking. By the way, I find the itinerary a touch more appealing than the standard "Rhine Getaway". We now have cold weather, snow, and, as you can see, favourable water level. The hills are covered with dusting of white, that must look nice in the Rhine Gorge. So both those ships are running on itineraries throughout winter but they will pass other river cruise ships along the way. A few. Oh, and not all have returned to their winter harbours yet. Two Viking ships may have even been delayed in getting to Cologne-Niehl due to that lock incident on the Main. But they have arrived and the dock looks quite full... Currently the Avalon Imagery II is in Cologne and passing the Viking Alruna as I write: notamermaid

Which reminds me... Hi in German with the proper spelling and the German word pronounced a it should be is "Hai" and it means "shark". @Daisi I enjoyed the snow and we got some more yesterday, almost a mini storm. So it is still on hills and on the ground almost down to the waterfront in some places. Great to look at, I hope the current few river cruisers are enjoying it. Weather reports unfortunately now say that we will get more snow and really icy conditions with the temperatures dropping. I am sure you have even more wintry weather though. notamermaid

Not to worry, I meant my fellow Germans. I know Americans use the hi a lot. A lot of people say that English is easier to learn at the beginning and you can form coherent, correct, sentences more quickly than in German. I tend to agree. notamermaid

Thank you to mention that. I still think Viking does not have this quite right with the marketing. Or somehow at least it does not come across that markets are not open everywhere from 20 November or so. This past season we have also a mention in the Rhine thread that the Christmas market in Cochem on the Moselle closed on 17th December and Viking had the visit scheduled for the 20th (it was then cancelled at short notice). I enquired with Cochem tourism information centre and was assured that this was a one-off and 2024 will see the regular dates again (do check online in summer). I still think though that Viking could have been more vigilant and checked the early closure, which had been published online by Cochem. notamermaid