notamermaid

Good to hear you have been able to sail the Rhine Gorge and the logistics worked out for you after that tanker had delayed things. Basel will be impossible to reach, true, Strasbourg I am not sure what will happen in the time frame that your ship is looking at. It is a difficult, busy time for cruise directors to find the best solution. I hope everything works out well for you and you can see Strasbourg. notamermaid

That makes sense. You really need to see how far you can get and what the most sensible/comfortable/doable logistics will be. Hope you are having a great time in Cologne. notamermaid

Thank you for your wishes, I hope this is a joyful time for you. Knecht Ruprecht it is, but when I was young, the Nikolaus incarnations I encountered were often without one. The bad guy is mostly absent instead the Nikolaus mysteriously knows all your misdemeanours and that stern voice is enough. 😉 notamermaid

Hopefully someone sailing will be able to help. Meanwhile you could have look at the authorities' website. Right now part of the Rhone is showing elevated levels: https://www.vigicrues.gouv.fr/ Have a great cruise. notamermaid

Thanks for the info. The problem with the flooding is that you cannot just swap in the middle of the itinerary that is the Rhine Gorge. The problem is at the Southern end. So it will be interesting to see how that is managed. Bussing from Basel to Breisach can only partially work, meaning now, but not when river traffic is banned further North. Coming from Amsterdam you can go far on your itinerary, hopefully up to Mannheim. Last minute decision quite possibly. Hope all goes well for you and you have a great time. notamermaid

It was the plateau at Maxau gauge. Now down to 743cm. Back up tomorrow. The authorities expect flooding that occurs statistically every two to five years. At Maxau this means we will likely see 800cm. notamermaid

Passau has risen to 704cm and is now on flooding level 1. notamermaid

The level at Maxau is now steady at 746cm. Looks like this is the plateau for the time being, with a slight drop to follow. Then, at this point in time, the forecast indicates the 750cm and river cruise ban to very likely occur in 26 to 28 hours. notamermaid

Let us have a look at Metz and Trier Christmas markets: https://www.tourisme-metz.com/en/discover-metz-metropole/christmas-inspirations https://www.trierer-weihnachtsmarkt.de/en/ notamermaid

The situation on the Danube and the Rhine is not good for river cruising, we have mild flooding which is set to get worse during the next 48 hours. Perhaps a bit surprisingly the Elbe is almost unaffected. This is the flood warning map, green colour is good, yellow not so much, orange is not good at all: Only a few small tributaries of the Elbe have really elevated levels. notamermaid

It is a section of river that does not contain many ports that river cruise ships use. It is easier to say that ships are banned from sailing in that area. The section contains Karlsruhe: Depending on how far the flooding extends and the severity of it, we could see a river traffic ban from Rheinfelden through Basel, Breisach, Iffezheim lock, Speyer and Mainz up to Bingen. But we are not there yet. It is a probability. The (mild flooding) warnings have now been extended to Bad Honnef near Bonn. For the moment we have a wave that is a little less than expected. But more is to come. A river traffic ban at Maxau today is a cliffhanger. Current level is 742cm, only 8cm to go. Each section of river is a little different, so a ban at Maxau does not automatically lead to a ban further downstream. It depends on weather and the other tributaries and the geography of the river valley. The Moselle is not carrying a huge volume of water although it is high so that is good for the sections past Koblenz. Not sure what to make of the Main river situation for the Gorge. We will need to wait and see. The flood warning service is active, you can look up all the graphs in one place. This is it: https://www.pegelonline.wsv.de/webservices/zeitreihe/visualisierung?ansicht=mehrfach&pegelnummer=2310010&pegelnummer=23700200&pegelnummer=23900200&pegelnummer=25100100&pegelnummer=25900700&&pegelnummer=2730010&start=2023-11-10T00:00 When you click the coloured numbers top right, the figures for that respective gauge show up in the right column. Sorry folks, this is not looking good. Cutting out Basel and docking at Breisach may not be enough Plan B for a river cruise from Basel to Amsterdam. Not sure how else to mark it, so this arrow in the white field does it. Breisach in relation to Maxau further downstream near Karlsruhe: notamermaid

Sorry to read that. Yes levels are rising and I am afraid the Vils joining at Vilshofen has contributed to the volume of water at Passau already. Passau has made a jump and is at 683cm. Level to rise to over 700cm by this evening. It looks like we will not see ships going under the infamous bridge for a few days. notamermaid

Oh that is nice to read. I have thought for a long time that an overcrowded place like Cologne could be replaced by the smaller and quite frankly more atmospheric Trier market on an itinerary. Both very old towns but quite different from each other. Metz (France) extension, then Trier and down the Moselle to Koblenz, then through the Gorge and onto the Main to end in Frankfurt would be my Advent short river cruise of choice. Unless I could do one just on the Main. notamermaid

Advent, Advent, ein Lichtlein brennt. Erst eins, dann zwei. 🕯️🕯️ It has been a week where the news and the madness of this world have got to me a bit. But today it is time to light the second candle, so that is what I did after a busy day. It was time to do something different so the Christmas market visit of today was - to a museum instead. Watching the model railway in my local toy shop all those years ago is one of my really fond childhood memories. So I combined Christmas cheer with a railway museum. It is in Koblenz-Lützel. What fun it was. Today was Nikolaustag event, so a Nikolaus, not a Father Christmas, was there to talk to children and give them each a gift bag. There was food and drink in an old dining carriage and of course the huge engines and model railway to look at. I took no photos that I can post, but lo and behold my regional television channel was there as well and made a short video, you can get impressions here from 4:16 (just ignore the German commentary, the gist of it is the children and grown-ups have learnt something, have had fun and are happy): https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/swr-aktuell-rheinland-pfalz/sendung-19-45-uhr-vom-10-12-2023/swr-rp/Y3JpZDovL3N3ci5kZS9hZXgvbzE5Njg0Nzg Later we managed to have a brief visit to a Christmas market, but having kind of got lost trying to find a place to park, we needed to ask the way. What a happy answer we got, and there were more jovial people all around. Merry chatter and joyful music. Then, near home, already in darkness, it was my turn to show someone the way. At a street corner I noticed two ladies discussing the distance their smartphone was showing. I asked them if they needed help. They had been unable to find a space to park nearby and did not know the way to a church. The smartphone had helped but they were still unsure. So I told them that this was were I happened to be going as well and they could walk with me. We chatted the short distance and parted ways exchanging friendly wishes. Today has been a day of warmth and goodwill all around me and I am at ease with myself and the world is a peaceful place. I hope you have a peaceful week. notamermaid

Yes, the levels are rising. Regensburg is forecast to reach flood mark I tomorrow. This is the current map, yellow is flood mark I, orange is II, red is III: notamermaid

We have had the first small wave going through Hauenstein and Basel. A slight decrease in levels now. This will be followed by a stronger wave. It is uncertain how much stronger this will be. Maxau gauge is on flood mark I, running slightly below the forecast. It is at 691cm. The small wave coming from Basel will be in Maxau tomorrow. A river traffic ban is still likely tomorrow but the forecast is not as certain as yesterday about this. With the second wave it looks almost certain. The Neckar river has risen and the tributaries to the Main river will bring the levels of that river up. All this water will add quite a bit of volume to what the Rhine is bringing with it from the Alps. Levels in the Middle Rhine valley are therefore also already rising. notamermaid

A good move to avoid Basel. Breisach is near enough for Plan B logistics, hopefully the next river cruise downstream will work out well for the passengers. Hope you have a good day in Breisach and transfer to Basel. notamermaid

Basel is now rising fast and at Maxau gauge the rise has started. 700cm is expected for midnight there. Interestingly, authorities expect the Moselle not to be hit that much by the current rain. But the levels will rise there as well, just not like on the Rhine. Over on the Danube many tributaries to the river show elevated levels now. notamermaid

The rises both at Hauenstein and Basel are now forecast for during the night, which means Maxau gauge's higher figures have been pushed well into Sunday. Maxau may reach 700cm by tomorrow night. notamermaid

That is good to read. Yes, your weather ans river conditions over there have been favourable. I hope you have been enjoying the season so far. Do you eat Dresdner Stollen? There are those people who prefer marzipan and candied orange peel, or just the marzipan, or neither. I find that last version a bit boring. notamermaid

The temperatures have gone up already, the Rhine valley is well above zero and the sun is shining. Authorities are expecting the level to rise sharply at Hauenstein on the High Rhine this afternoon followed by Basel shortly after. The Aare tributary to the Rhine is on flood alert. The early warning has now been extended to the Middle Rhine valley. notamermaid

Away from the standard and a bit more individuality with - Scenic. Next year sees the Olympics in Paris so Scenic has put together a special itinerary and has added a few new things to its other itineraries: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tour-operators/sporting-legends-to-join-scenics-olympic-themed-river-cruise notamermaid

Let us have a look at how the Danube did at Pfelling in November: Heavy rain over Germany lead to a sharp rise also on the Danube and eventually put the river over the marker for river traffic being allowed. It was only for a short time. The level fell, but overall remained high and above the statistical mean. From now 472cm we could see the river rise quite high again. But before that becomes a problem usually the bridge at Passau will be the bigger obstacle again for river cruise ships. On this map you can see the Danube basin and Lake Constance. The Lake and some of the area around it drains into the Rhine. Stripes is pre-warning, orange is flood warning: Note that around Nuremberg is the Main Danube Canal which gives it excess water mostly to the Danube. The rises are expected to start late on Sunday mainly along the tributaries of the Danube and then continue to start on Monday at the gauges downstream from around Ingolstadt. notamermaid

Let us have a look at how the river did at Kaub in November: At Kaub the river was relatively high for the season, November started around the long-term statistical mean (that is several years). From that the river was then able to rise quickly after heavy rain to flood mark I and beyond. That was not good but not dramatic. But - hang on - wasn't there flooding and a river traffic ban on the Rhine? Yes, you cannot see it at Kaub, this was only the section further upstream that includes Maxau gauge, as well as Basel in Switzerland for a short time. This is the graph for Maxau: Although the figures more or less correspond in their rise, the situation at Maxau was more serious and the conditions on the river and along its banks made the authorities issue a river traffic ban. This happens at 750cm, the line marked with flood level II and HSW, this stands for the level which is the highest allowed for river traffic. The level at Maxau gauge fell but remained high throughout the rest of November and from there we now face another rise. The baseline being so high, the rain and snow melt give us the prospect of another river cruise ban. The newspapers are already reporting on the forecast and weather giving us a high risk of flooding. 750cm is almost certain and 780cm is very likely. This fast rise is expected to start in the early hours of Sunday and bring the river to 750cm and more within 24 hours. This is the map with the warnings for Southern Germany: At the end of the broken line at the bottom of the map is the Rhine knee at Basel, that is the sharp bend at which the Rhine changes course and flows North. notamermaid

That sounds nice. Have not bought any stollen yet, but found some local baker with a variety pack of Christmas biscuits, real traditional stuff. Not cheap and very good quality. I really enjoy what they have put together in the gold paper cardboard tray. The other day a very dear person went on an errand and I suggested: "while you are there could have a look in the big supermarket if..." So he did and got me a small pack of Wensleydale cheese. I was so happy. For the real English sausages I would have to travel to the Netherlands I think, to an expat shop. notamermaid