notamermaid

Pfelling gauge at 296cm - stabilized then? According to the forecast the level could hold or at least stay above 290cm today and into tomorrow. But Pfelling is Pfelling so I would not bet on it. If the weather is a bright along the Danube as it is with me on the Rhine you are having a great day of sailing the Wachau valley or exploring towns and cities. notamermaid

No matter how often they have done this before it will always be a logistical challenge for them to get the best done for all passengers when things need to be rearranged. No idea how they manage to organize this, really admirable. A pity there was not a bit more rain to keep the level at Pfelling satisfactory for a little longer. It is not too low for sailing as such but Uniworld can clearly see where the river's level is headed. notamermaid

The river is certainly presenting a challenge this early autumn. It appears that the Czech authorities have let some water through again so we see a spike in the graph, albeit a really small one. The level at Dresden is down to 67cm again. Rain is not due to hit the area before Thursday afternoon and it does not look substantial. notamermaid

Yes, bad luck. Pfelling has already dropped to 298cm - faster than I had feared. So you are going through Pfelling twice and the captain wants to make sure his ship is back at Passau before it gets too low and I suppose could ruin the next sailing? Picking up the next passengers at Passau rather than Nuremberg or Regensburg I mean. notamermaid

More out of curiosity than necessity (we know the Rhine is doing fine) here is a quick look at Kaub gauge.The figure now is 139cm, forecast for tomorrow is stable with perhaps an added centimetre or two. After that we will see a decline in figures - splendid warm and sunny weather is the reason - with the figures staying above 100cm for the rest of the month. First week in October may well see the 100cm being reached but for now no problem in sight. We will leave it at that and review this in a few days time. notamermaid

Looks as if the rain is through now and the majority of Europe is under the influence of this high pressure weather. Should continue until well into Wednesday when clouds will come to the continent via Brittany, turning into the Netherlands and then sweeping East into Germany. Rain along the Rhine the night into Thursday. Probably reaching the Danube Thursday afternoon. notamermaid

I suspected it - but did not want to post the level forecast last night as it has been not accurate enough in the past. Yes, Pfelling gauge has fallen, and fast. It is now at 304cm. The forecast suggested 310cm for lunchtime. So the river runs below that figure already. Tomorrow 300cm as the forecast says or even less seeing that the river is close to that already? If you are on the river I hope you have been enjoying the early hours of this morning and can bathe in the sunshine of this (in the list) cloudless sky: ☀️🙂 notamermaid

As forecast, the weather has improved and this is what this early evening just after the autumnal equinox looks like in Bavaria: Pfelling gauge has risen well and is now at 334cm. But this appears to be the plateau. Weather forecast for tomorrow morning says there could be mists with these even turning to light fog in the river valleys and the visibility may be as low as 150m. Great for atmospheric photos! notamermaid

[Shouting down the hallway] "Anybody here?" A bit deserted at the water cooler lately. We can play, the cat is away, folks! [mischievous grin] Host Jazzbeau is on holiday. @Host Jazzbeau Have a great river cruise. It is cooler during the nights now and I think we will get some autumn mists soon. I am a bit too busy for going places like festivals, etc. Tourism has really picked up compared to last year (also in the official statistics) and I meet a few more people from overseas again, i.e. another plus compared to last year. Talked to a couple from the US during my previous shift at work. Just stopping by here really to say hello. I am off to try and get some delicious fruit for pudding. notamermaid

Time to have a look at what the rain did to the river around Pfelling. Yes, it was enough rain, figure is 304cm. Weather calming down, most showers now in the North of Germany. Tomorrow should be pleasant with the temperatures due to rise again and latest day after tomorrow hitting 20 Celsius in Bavaria again. notamermaid

Back to cranes. Further upstream, just outside the Rhine Gorge, is the town of Bingen opposite Rüdesheim. There you can find the oldest crane between Mainz and Cologne standing on land and serving the Rhine ships. The foundations date back to1487 but the wooden construction you see today is from 1787 with much restoration as it had been damaged during WWII. The crane is actually functioning and is operated for tourists, demonstrating how the mechanism of the tread wheels works. Here is a video (you do not need to watch all of it to get the idea) that shows it in operation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjsmfzbCFj4 notamermaid

Two (old) new ships for A-Rosa Unexpected news comes from the German company A-Rosa. The have issued a press release saying that two 110m ships built in 2009 will join the fleet in 2024 - apparently due to high demand mostly for the Rhine. Well, it sound to me as if A-Rosa found a couple of ships standing idle and to be had for a bargain It was all a bit at short notice. The ships will be called A-Rosa Alea and A-Rosa Clea and operate the Rhine during that season. They are according to German sources the Avalon Creativity and the Avalon Affinity which are indeed not sailing now. They were last operating in 2019. The press release of A-Rosa: https://www.arosa-*****/fileadmin/media/presse/PM/2023/KW38/PR_A-ROSA_New-Ships_21.09.2023.pdf notamermaid

It is raining a lot here along the Rhine as well. The heaviest rain along the Danube was actually over the Isar river and the Alps during late afternoon which does not do much for Pfelling but it should still be a good amount for the river before Pfelling (the Lech river also comes from the Alps for example). The other band of rain is feeding the Upper Danube and tributaries and is sweeping in the right direction. Current situation: . Pfelling gauge has dropped to 265cm. This is definitely temporary with all the water coming... Forecast suggests a fast rise and a figure of more than 310cm by tomorrow evening. notamermaid

We are having some rather windy weather. It has not been confirmed yet, but it is believed that a tornado hit a small village in the Southern Eifel region. I looked at the sky during my late shopping trip decided to hurry up. It was quite dark and menacing. Made it home in good time. Radar image: This means the river will rise - as the forecast suggests - and I am afraid we are firmly headed for autumn now. Not all regions of the Rhine valley will get to 20 Celsius tomorrow. The night into Saturday could see some areas going down into single digits. Autumn mists are not far away. notamermaid

My apologies, Trier, as the link says, has actually got two old cranes! A note on the Moselle wines. At the suburb Trier-Ruwer the river Ruwer flows into the Moselle. The Ruwer valley is also used for growing vine. Until 2007 the wine region was called Mosel-Saar-Ruwer but was then changed to just Mosel. The Romans brought viticulture to the Mosel and that is an interesting bit of trivia that spans 2000 years of shipping on the river. I will explain in a following post. notamermaid

Pfelling gauge has dropped to 282cm. Of course, captains know their ships with all the little intricate details of how they behave in low water. Sounds all promising and good. Cooler weather and some rain coming. Welcome to Cruisecritic. You are right that we mention almost only the stretch between Straubing and Vilshofen as that is where the low water levels happen first. From Vilshofen to Budapest we have the situation that the Danube is either regulated by locks or deeper than further upstream. Budapest can be low but this does not happen as frequently as upstream from Vilshofen. You can read a few pages back in this thread where we have posted a few more details but the short version is: your cruise will most likely not be impacted by low water levels. notamermaid

So things are not looking too good on the Elbe. And if it does not rain substantially it must mean that the Czech authorities will keep much water in the country. Since Sunday the level at Dresden has been at 70cm or lower and if we are to believe the forecast it will stay this way for the next 36 hours. CroisiEurope are due to sail from Prague to Berlin on 28 September. The are currently doing the itinerary on the Elbe lower section and northern German canals.This of course avoids the low water areas upstream. notamermaid

Over in the Moselle thread the conversation moved to the stone industry in the Eifel region which borders on the Rhine and Moselle. The stones were shipped via the river(s). All cargo has to get onto the boat and to literally lighten the load but also to speed things up first swimming cranes were used and then stationary ones built. So, as a change to all those castles and palaces you can do some crane spotting while sailing. There are some old ones left apart from the modern steel constructions and they are industrial heritage of the long tradition of the Rhine as a mode of transport. They have protected status usually. To start, here is the one that I mentioned in the Moselle thread. The Alter Krahnen Andernach (the old German spelling with h) loaded millstones onto ships: https://www.andernach-tourismus.de/en/andernach/places-of-interest/old-crane There are some on other rivers of course - Trier has got an old one still, so has Würzburg. Here is a history fact that may not be so well known. According to (German) Wikipedia the cranes as we find them along the rivers today are considered an invention of the Middle Ages. Until fairly recently in history, around the Mediterranean habours stuck to the more labour intensive loading and unloading via ramps. One crane you may not recognize as such - it is hiding its old function - is the Pegelhaus at Koblenz. The name means it is the house with the gauge for the river level and it still shows the level on the blue clock. Check out the old flood marks when you are there: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegelhaus_(Koblenz) More to follow. notamermaid

Talking of old cranes. There are not that many left in Germany but Trier has got one: https://www.trier-info.de/en/places-of-interest/moselle-cranes notamermaid

Big pinch of salt was a good idea. After a rise during the night (297cm) the level at Pfelling gauge is back to 288cm. notamermaid

Indeed. Apparently already the Romans were active in the region. They transported mined stones via the Brohl valley to the Rhine and later - first on land but then put on ships - the millstones were transported from the Eifel to Andernach and via the Rhine to the North Sea. We are lucky or rather from an architectural and historical point of view the town of Andernach is fortunate to still have its old crane. A landmark: https://www.andernach-tourismus.de/en/andernach/places-of-interest/old-crane notamermaid

Ah, yes, I remember Avalon Waterways offering this excursion. Winningen and the Moselle at that point are worth skipping an excursion I find but this optional one is good and quite different to other places you can experience on a river cruise. Mendig is a small town at the Eastern end of the region with the volcanoes called Vulkaneifel. Mining for the stone basalt had been going on for several hundred years. It was once the largest mine for basaltic lava in the world. The mines were then ideal for storing beer due to the constant low temperature which means Mendig became the "brewery town of Germany" with 28 breweries but only 2,800 inhabitants. Only one brewery is left now. Under the museum "Lava Dome" you can go into the cellars/mines which appears to be what you do during that excursion. Nearby is the monastery Maria Laach at Laach Lake. A beautiful abbey of course made of local stone and that makes it interesting. This is the "Monks" part of the excursion. I was in England quite some years ago at an old mill. Imagine my surprise when I read that they had used millstones from (Nieder)mendig. It is less than half an hour by coach from Winningen to Mendig. The return trip to Koblenz is hardly any further. A find this to be a very nice opportunity to see an area with a different feel to the valleys. After all those vineyards and the wine tastings on the Moselle this beer brewing town is a nice change. notamermaid

On a different topic. Over in the Rhine thread @Canal archive mentioned a fun trip to a small town outside of Vienna. Vienna is perhaps best known for coffee and cake and Wiener Schnitzel but is also a big wine producer. Not in the centre of town of course but the Austrian capital is so large that it includes vineyards in the districts. It is interesting to look at this and I will get back to the topic. Throw in your comments any time. Also on other food and drink. By the way, had a Sacher Torte baked by a baker near Koblenz the other day. Not sure if it was close to the original but it was very good. 🍰 🍷 🥩 notamermaid

Pfelling gauge still "wobbly". Now at 287cm which is not brilliant but the small rise overnight was all that some ships will have needed. Potential to reach the 290cm and more is still there but the forecast now shows no figures over 300cm. Pfelling has got a "mind of its own" so we need to take the forecast with a big pinch of salt. notamermaid

Quick look at Kaub gauge. Yes, lowest figure still forecast for tomorrow (118cm), after that a rise to really pleasant levels. Should be good till the end of the month. No figure below 110cm appears in the probability chart. notamermaid