notamermaid

The Ems is a river that like most starts with a tiny whole. Here the stream just a few hundred metres from its source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ems_(river)#/media/File:Ems_nahe_Quelle.jpg

River cruise ships can sail on the Ems, but that is only possible since modern man has altered the river. For the transport of the ocean ships the river is artificially dammed so much that ships of a draft of up to 8.50m can use it. This thing does it: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emssperrwerk#/media/Datei:Flug_Leer_nach_Emden_2010_252.JPG

Would love to see that - flat land, sheep, all quiet and then this massive monster of a ship is coming past.

notamermaid

Making waves - Danube waves

Okay, one wave actually. The Donauwelle is a cake with a wavy pattern and containing cherries. Have a look at the photo and try it when you are sailing on the river if you like: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donauwelle

Of course you could bake it yourself, there are recipes on youtube with full instructions.

notamermaid

I use this map: https://www.pegelonline.wsv.de/gast/karte/standard

and via this website you can get to the countries you need: https://www.doris.bmk.gv.at/en/fairway-information/water-levels/international-water-levels

Hope this helps.

Have a great cruise.

notamermaid

From Romantic poets to modern day infrastructure. We have talked about it before, but here is a short bit of info on the next stage of repairs at Iffezheim lock. Last year a gate was hit by a ship, check the footage in the video in this article. The engineer is using his little 100g hammer he says to hear the difference in sound in the concrete which occurs when there is damage. Currently the chamber is dry so they are doing all kinds of maintenance including dismantling the gate chains. Fortunately they have suffered only little damage. Work is on schedule and the chamber ready in November.

https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/baden-wuerttemberg/karlsruhe/rhein-schleuse-iffezheim-reparatur-schiff-unfall-100.html

notamermaid

It is cold in Germany with the clouds bringing rain from the Baltic. A return of snow brought by "Väterchen Frost" from the Baltic (and Russia). This so far has not made the river rise, most of the rain has stayed over the Rhine while the snow is retained in the Vosges mountains. These will then drain their water mostly into the Moselle when the temperatures rise.

Here is a webcam of Metz, the square at the Cathedral: https://metz.fr/decouvrir-partager/webcams/place_armes.php

notamermaid

It has been a cold day with gusts of wind and rain, a mix of sunshine and clouds. But the air was clear and visibility good which of course is good for taking photographs. Snow may return to my state on Wednesday but only to the high hills. It snowed this morning in the Eifel region which has mountains of over 600m. The Hunsrück, that is South of the Moselle and West of the Rhine, contains the highest mountain in Rhineland-Palatinate with 816m.

It has also snowed in the Vosges mountains which you can see from Strasbourg and Colmar. The highest summit is the Grand Ballon with 1,424m.

notamermaid

2 minutes ago, RDVIK2016 said:

I do really like the snows of winter, but I will be in that area soon and had planned to get up to a location at over 1,000m and had not planned on weather like this. 

That is unfortunate for you. The weather will continue to stay cold for a few days so at that altitude the snow will most likely stay on the ground for a bit. This is the forecast for Wednesday evening:

You can look at the weather in Lower Bavaria (Niederbayern) here:

https://www.br.de/wetter/action/bayernwetter/bayerntabelle.do?regio=Niederbayern&id=0

Or look at the more detailed page for searching for a place here:

https://www.br.de/wettervorhersage/wetter-bayern/bayern/

It will not be raining as much in Rhineland-Palatinate and minimally warmer so the chance of snow is there but it will not be near the rivers, just in the far high hills.

notamermaid

On Thursday I mentioned that the river is rising and we would see a level at Kaub of close to 300cm. This basically still stands as a forecast, with the level now reaching 300cm to 310cm most likely. The current figure is 292cm. Further upstream the level is also good. Maxau gauge forecast says the level will most likely stay below 600cm next week.

59 minutes ago, Cleopatra99 said:

how soon we will get a sense of what we can expect with river levels in mid June

That would be 1 June for a proper forecast with the reliability increasing every day and being fairly good four days out. If the levels reach a critical point either way - high or low water - then a few hours can make all the difference. For June low water is a negligible risk, high water does not happen often.

The Moselle is not really afflicted by low water thanks to the locks but it can of course flood.

notamermaid

As it is cold it has been snowing in Bavaria (of course), it is just a bit statistically unusual to have snow as low as 400m in altitude on 20 April. Still, it can happen at the beginning of May. Snow cover in the Bavarian Forest: https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/weitere-schneefaelle-im-hoeheren-bayerischen-wald,UAU77ww

The report mentions Freyung. That is here, only 40km from Passau:

It is the temperature that means when docked in Vilshofen or Passau or Linz, you will have rain but could potentially have sleet on the roads when taking excursions into the hills. Weather report says that snow is possible in Salzburg.

notamermaid

notamermaid

The poem that saved a mountain

The Drachenfels is a mountain at Königswinter and part of the Seven Mountains range, the Siebengebirge. There are actually over 50 mountains and hill formations in the range. Curiously, I could only find two that have the word -ley or -lay in it. That is different from rock faces further upstream that are often called Lay. So Lay is an older word, the term that is only used in modern High German is Fels. The Drachenfels has the dragon legend attached to it but the name is probably derived from the stone that the Drachenfels is made of - Trachyte. This volcanic rock is perfect building material which can be sculptured well. The Romans used it and famously Bonn Minster and Cologne Cathedral are made from the stone quarried in the area, the latter being to a large extent made out of the Drachenfels itself.

When Lord Byron looked at the mountain he saw the ruin of the castle and on another part of it stone was still quarried. It is believed that part of the castle ruin further disappeared due to the quarry. Rock is known to have come loose and having caused land slides. Tourists had come to the area before Byron but his poem was an instant hit in Britain and drew the crowds to the Drachenfels. First it was the painter William Turner, then other writers followed. The "conventional" tourists flocked to the Rhine valley from the 1820's, especially when the first steamers made travel easier and faster. The Drachenfels was in danger of disappearing from the landscape if large-scale quarrying had continued. Disputes between the locals who wished to preserve the sight and the quarry owners already started in the 1820's and continued until the Prussian king himself stepped in and bought the "mountain" and gave it protected status. The mountain made famous by Byron's poem was saved. Mining in other parts of the Seven Mountains range continued until 1930 when all of it became protected.

notamermaid

On May 11, 1816, Byron and Polidori (the latter wrote a diary with dates and descriptions of places) passed the Drachenfels mountain but curiously did not actually visit it. They travelled upstream on the left bank of the Rhine so went from Bonn to Remagen and then Andernach. "The castled crag of Drachenfels" is in the third canto of the epic poem "Childe Harold" and I have quoted only the first verse.

At Rhine kilometre 644.1 (left bank) you are supposed to have a great view of the Drachenfels.

The Drachenfels is to the Lower Middle Rhine valley a bit what the Lorelei is to the Upper Middle Rhine valley. Heinrich Heine (yup, him of the Lorelei poem) went to the Drachenfels in 1820 and - what else - wrote a poem about it.

notamermaid

1 minute ago, Canal archive said:

Byron was also a ‘very naughty boy’.

Lady Caroline, herself not quite an innocent woman, called him "mad, bad and dangerous to know".

John Polidori by the way started the genre of vampire stories during that meeting in Switzerland.

notamermaid

Ouiii, happy surprise. I did not expect the Wall Street Journal of all publications to remember Byron on this day. And I fully admit that I had not thought of Byron had I not read an article in an online publication on Byron a couple of days ago.

notamermaid

Although a baron, Byron is usually more referred to as Lord Byron, having been in the House of Lords. Ada Lovelace was his daughter and a brilliant mathematician. Wish I had the brain cells she had for that field of research. She is credited with being the first computer program writer. If you are interested look up the "Difference Engine" by the inventor Charles Babbage. Father and daughter sadly parted ways early in her life due to unhappy circumstances with society and her father's conduct. When Byron left Britain he travelled through Europe and ended up in Greece. There he took part in the Greek War of Independence. He died at the age of 36. Who knows what he may have achieved and written had he lived on. He was a husband, a father, a dandy, a writer, a revolutionist, invented mass tourism on the Rhine (only slight exaggeration) and posthumously saved a mountain from destruction.

The other references: Mary Godwin, later Shelley, wrote Frankenstein after a leisurely evening together with Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Polidori in Switzerland, where they had gathered together. It was the "Year without Summer" and the mood was a bit down, with all that rain and the weird colours in the sky. Those were the inspiration for William Turner's paintings a year later, but that is another story. Byron and Polidori had travelled along the Rhine, as one did in those days as a gentleman, to get to Italy mainly. After Napoleon's defeat the Rhine valley was open for travel again and so regained interest. Yes, it was the Romantic period in literature and Byron described the Rhine valley in dramatic words. I will explain more about the clue of the mountain saved by a poem in another post, but here is said poem about said mountain, the Drachenfels, part of the Seven Mountains range:

The castled crag of Drachenfels
Frowns o’er the wide and winding Rhine,
Whose breast of waters broadly swells
Between the banks that bear the vine,
And hills all rich with blossom’d trees,
And fields which promise corn and wine,
And scatter’d cities crowning these,
Whose far white walls along them shine,
Have strew’d a scene, which I should see
With double joy wert thou with me.

notamermaid

"The poem that saved a mountain" is the last clue which you do not need anymore really...

You are right @Canal archive Lord Byron it is!

The poet died 200 years ago today, far away from home in Greece.

A few explanations to follow.

notamermaid

10 hours ago, RDVIK2016 said:

When travelers wonder what they should pack one has to say to be prepared for anything. 

It is a bit unusual even for April to jump so much in weather conditions. Still, the month is notorious for being unstable. "April, April, der macht was er will." is the saying, "April, April, it does want it wants to do". [at a whim]

I put my winter jacket back on this morning and went shopping in driving rain. We have temperatures that are a little bit higher than in Bavaria right now, not a lot and the wind makes it feel really cold and unpleasant.

notamermaid

Third clue: Ada the mathematician.

notamermaid

Those projected images look amazing, albeit a strain on the senses potentially.

1 hour ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

It would be nice to visit the museums in London without the public!

You may actually find the Turner and Constable ones to be more approachable, i.e. you can get quite close, compared to the other paintings in the gallery. When I was in London - in winter, mind you - I found enough space at my Turner favourites to enjoy them. People crowd around Monet, etc.

notamermaid

Second clue:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein#/media/File:Frankenstein_1818_edition_title_page.jpg

notamermaid

Another short quiz just for fun. Looking for a man and his anniversary. Related to the Rhine of course. Revealing the solution tomorrow afternoon or evening (my local time). Clue one:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Lords#/media/Datei:House_of_Lords_Chamber.png

notamermaid

To the present day. We have had some rain so the level at Kaub is rising again. Going into next week we will likely see figures close to 300cm. A good level. With temperatures rising again and drier weather the level will return close to the long-term mean a few days after that.

notamermaid

To the present day. With the change in weather we have had snow return even to Rhineland-Palatinate. In Bavaria snow is still falling above 500m altitude. The temperatures will rise again soon. The rain has made Pfelling gauge rise to 411cm. That is a good buffer for spring days without rain.

notamermaid

Hmm, looking at the list of ports in the thread "Beyond the standard ports" I notice Neuwied again. They are still no further with their plans from what I have heard as there are legal hurdles I did not know about. Those have been explained to me recently by a local. The details had not made it into the newspapers.

So back to the statistics. Autumn is the most likely time to have low water on the Rhine, but it can happen from July onwards. For commercial traffic low water is declared when the level on Kaub gauge reaches 150cm. You may see articles in business papers reporting on it. That has no impact on sailing for river cruise ships as regards draft, which means other than perhaps going a bit more slowly and carefully and having the odd difficulty at a low landing stage things will be fine.

Kaub gauge goes down further basically every year, sometimes a lot. I do not want to go into details but just in case someone says to you "I went on a river cruise in 2018, it was awful" I would like to explain this most abysmal year for river cruising (whoever says to you "awful" is right). 2018 has been the worst year ever in river cruising and commercial traffic had an awful year, too. Apart from the curiosity factor (no consolation) the year was bad for locals, too. We had the driest and hottest weather for a long, long time and in that autumn Kaub got a new historical record for low water. River cruising came almost to a standstill. No ship of 110m(!) length made it through the Rhine Gorge for days and the 135m ships, well, I do not remember details, but they did not sail for some time. No chance. The river being so low the shallow section extended further than Mainz. This is the year at Kaub, the second half of 2018 the figures were in double digits only for a long time:

Just to explain again, these figures are the gauge, a marker at the side of the river. To get the depth of the navigation channel, captains "translate" this into the real figures.

The record was declared by the authorities on 22 October 2018 to be 25cm.

notamermaid

5 hours ago, Izengolf said:

I have broken 2 of your points of advice with my itinerary by going through the Rhine Gorge twice as we go from Frankfurt to the Moselle and back on a 135m ship. The anticipation is part of the adventure!

That's right, just ignore advice! Seriously, most of the time things go well and the comfort of the ships and the delight of seeing the Rhine Gorge is worth the risk. An adventure that will most likely be an amazing trip without interruption, especially as you are going in July. I hardly ever spotted the Crystal ships on the river so I guess it will not look too weird to see the ex-Crystal Bach on my river with her slightly changed livery. Luxury in store for you in July.

If anyone is interested in the takeover: https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/Uniworld-charter-two-former-Crystal-river-ships

The stop in Karlsruhe is unusual on your itinerary, one of those places I called "beyond the standard": https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2516698-rhine-beyond-the-standard-ports/

notamermaid

Pontac, you posted several wines of differing origin that you had with your meals. Were they part of your drinks package or the standard fare? Were you happy with them either way?

notamermaid