notamermaid

Pfelling gauge. The rain has not made it to the area in time. The river has struggled through the day on a relatively stable but too low level. Figure now is 278cm. Bands of thunderstorms with much rain are sweeping over Germany tonight. Forecast for tomorrow suggests the level will return to 290cm. notamermaid

It can be so much fun to stumble upon a local festival. Yesterday I deliberately went to a village fete though. Good to see, it was really traditional (apart from 21st century music from loud speakers). I was only there in the afternoon but judging from the crowd and the young couples that were the centre of attention (which is traditional) the evening was likely to be "feucht-fröhlich". Which means a happy event with laughter and quite a bit of beverage of the intoxicating kind... Intoxicating - completely forgot to mention in this thread that it is time for Weinbergspfirsiche again. Those are the peaches that originally grew among the vines. They are sometimes now specially cultivated on their own in orchards.I really like the liqueur made from them. Here is a page from a merchant in the Neuwied Basin (North of Koblenz) with explanation and photos: https://www.graeb.com/en/range/peaches-nectarines/maturity-table/roter-weinbergpfirsich-mosel/ If you are in or near Koblenz or on the Moselle look or ask for "Weinbergspfirsichlikör". notamermaid

See post #466. Now it is clear what is happening to the ship. It has been chartered by the German river cruise company 1AVista Reisen. After her christening in May 2024 she will sail the Rhine and the tributaries. https://www.1avista.de/schiffe/ms-gentleman/ notamermaid

Good thought, an extension to that famous spa town would be in order to recover. notamermaid

@pontac I must say I am pleased to read that Viking has chosen Ahr wines as the German reds. Not too may places that do really good red wines along the Rhine and Moselle. The Ahr valley is renowned for quality reds. notamermaid

A quick look at Pfelling gauge. 285cm is better than what had been suggested for tonight so that is good. Oktoberfest - or beer festival in general. We have talked about Vilshofen in the past and it has been mentioned that the embankment has been used by Amawaterways to hold a beer fest. This article I did not see at the time, in 2022 the new "Donauwelle", the name given to the area at the dock, was opened: https://sonderthemen.pnp.de/neugestaltung-der-schiffsanlegestelle-in-94474-vilshofen/passau/donauwelle-vilshofen-neueroeffnung-bierfeste-reederei-ama-waterways-173616 An Amawaterways ship was due to arrive on the first day of the river cruising season, according to that article. For the whole year the town expected 400 dockings. I wonder if that figure became reality. notamermaid

I see in your signature that your grand journey is now here. Have a great time. notamermaid

Looks like a memorial, doesn't it? If it had not been for several German words that took me to assume this was a poem I would have been searching including the German word for memorial. The vintner makes Riesling wines with much love and without much chemical stuff, it appears. There is wood on the cubical building with the letters, but in a modern design with ultramodern technology in the concrete structure with energy-saving in mind. Interesting stuff. Which company did you sail with? Did you have a tour in Winningen? notamermaid

Ah yes, Karlstadt. You had mentioned this a while back but I had forgotten. I am quite partial to a bit of Carnival but my worst experience was on a train to Cologne from where I connected to Essen. Happened to be on 11 November some years ago. Elfter Elfter - never travel on that day in the Rhineland on a train unless it is a high speed one and then choose first class. The train to Essen was more civilized and the passengers on board who appeared to have just arrived by plane at Cologne must have felt at unease. At least I did - what an embarrassing display and not what I would want a tourist to remember Cologne is like. The wine festivals tend to be a bit more civilized around here than the beer festivals. But avoid groups of travellers in the big hotels along the Moselle that have never tried Federweisser before especially when they have paired it with onion cake... Note to river cruise passengers: if you have the chance and bear in mind that this stuff is young wine that is still fermenting, do try some. You cannot take it home as the bottles are never corked. Here is some info: https://www.germanwines.de/knowledge/wine-more/new-wine-federweisser/ notamermaid

Yes, I know, you are the "un-enthusiast". We have people here on the Rhine who always go on holiday to flee Carnival - or avoid a festival in or near their town. Wanna come to the Rhine valley? It is nice and quiet away from Rüdesheim and such places - only five hours by train. But closer to your home I recommend the hills behind Würzburg. notamermaid

For Kaub gauge the end of the month is coming into view in the long(ish) term forecast (14 days). As opposed to the Danube the level of the Rhine is doing okay for river cruise ships. I would call it a perfectly expected situation for autumn, i.e. standard low - and if I may add, a bit higher than I thought it would be at this time of year. The figure right now is 135cm. So looking ahead we see a drop in the level due to no rain and warm temperatures. The lowest figure is forecast for Wednesday but the level should get no lower than 100cm (range is 108cm to 120cm approx.) After that we are likely to see a rise and if we trust in the computer modelling the level of the Rhine at Kaub till the end of the month should be well above 100cm. With the computer modelling being adjusted almost every day, we will look at this again of course. Yesterday the event "Rhine in Flames" took place at St. Goar. It was the last one for this year, the new dates are already on the website: https://www.rhein-in-flammen.com/ September into October - wine festivals and harvest celebrations as well as annual markets (Jahrmarkt) all around! Perhaps you will get the chance to join the locals for a few hours on your cruise. notamermaid

The "wobbly week" is drawing to a close and today we see the level at Pfelling back down on 285cm. Enough for all ships still? Or will the information on the ground for captains mean they will need to avoid the passage through the shallows this evening? We may of course see a slightly higher level as the day progresses but the forecast suggests that the river is on the "down slope". On a happier note: we have the "Oktoberfest" in Munich coming up! And the spin-offs, i.e. the fun without the tradition fests, in other towns in Germany. But there are other traditional autumn festivals apart from the one in Munich of course. In my area along the Rhine we go for wine - wine festivals and harvest festivals as well as traditional "Kirmes" days coming up. Wonder if there is a time to cruise when you can stagger from Oktoberfest, beer festival, wine festival, Kirmes and annual harvest market to another on a Grand European cruise? 😁 😁 notamermaid

Pfelling gauge went as high as 299cm this morning and is now at 295cm. Just a short wave to "ride" on? A bright sunny day and a further rise of the temperatures in Bavaria could bring the level back down again. Much rain is forecast for some parts of Southern Germany late on Monday. notamermaid

Yes, not looking good: These in orange are statistical low levels. Dresden is at 67cm. It has been a bit up and down in the last few days - unreliable. Not sure if this is good enough for Viking. notamermaid

I had a look at images and this appears to be a modern extension with ornamentation on a wall at the Weingut Heymann-Loewenstein. It is kind of aphorism/poem stuff about wine and life - what I can tell from the German letters. This is it: https://winningen.de/weingut-heymann-loewenstein-vdp/ notamermaid

There was a short high at Pfelling, around midnight, of 287cm. That may have been all that was needed to ease/allow the passage. Fluctuation happens so the gauge shows 285cm now. It is warm again. And it is staying interesting. Or as I called it earlier this week: "wobbly". notamermaid

We were late this year with our school holidays in Rhineland-Palatinate so the children have not been back for long. Summer holidays not long ago and it is still summery around here. Lady at the local bakers said last week that she was not keen on putting up the autumn display yet, kind of too warm. Shock, horror, my local supermarket has already moved on to gingerbread!! Walked past the biscuits aisle yesterday and there it was. Spekulatius and Lebkuchen. Ha, I will refuse - again - to buy any before 1 November! Back to the topic of my trip to the Lahn. Eerily weird, I talked to my travel companions about taking the train through the Lahn valley some time, as it is so interesting with the landscape, all the bridges and tunnels. Two days later, the place gets torrential rain and hail, with railway traffic interrupted for hours... If you are interested, have a look on Google images for Kloster Arnstein, Nassau Lahn (you need the river otherwise you get Nassau on the Bahamas) or Balduinstein. That gives you some impressions of the valley. I will get to my photos of Oranienstein shortly. notamermaid

No news is good news, they say and that is certainly true here for the river levels of the Rhine. All good, most debris from the thunderstorm has been cleared, public transport is (close to) normal again and we are enjoying a perfect warm late summer day. Good news and hopefully a happy ending to a - dare I say - drama with soap opera is coming from the realm of excursion boats. You may recall that I mentioned the sinking of the "Carmen Sylva" in spring and her recent auction when she went finally received a new owner that resides in Andernach. It appears that she will be privately renovated and used. With her in Brohl harbour and more or less unharmed by the accident is the smaller excursion boat "Schloss Engers". Both where in temporary ownership by a bank after the insolvency of the owner(s). A few days ago it was the smaller boat's turn to find a new owner in an auction. The successful bid came from a company so we can assume that the "Schloss Engers" will join that fleet. For 145,000 euros the vessel was sold to a passenger shipping company operating around Würzburg. While the company has not been named, the name Henneberger in Miltenberg has been passed around on the internet. Which means the excursion boat will leave her home Neuwied, her temporary abode Brohl harbour and move to the Main. Oh, and the autumn edition of "Rhine in Flames" happened on Saturday around Oberwesel. Here are some nice photos courtesy of Binnenschifferforum: https://www.binnenschifferforum.de/showthread.php?115829-Rhein-in-Flammen-in-Oberwesel-am-09-09-2023 Oberwesel is one of my favourite places in the Upper Middle Rhine valley. The town wall has a walkway: https://oberwesel.de/feratel/?id=6b5fad7e-bc0c-4402-8059-7fc2489d9b4c&t=poi notamermaid

Welcome to Cruisecritic and thank you for reporting from the Danube. I hope the cruise has been great so far. An unfortunately curtailed end. Yes, a bit too low for some ships, Pfelling gauge has disappointed so far today and remains annoyingly stable under 290cm. Current level is 283cm. notamermaid

Narrowboat - that type should fit through the canals. Just to mention it again: unfortunately, no river cruise ships sail into France that are of standard modern lengths, that is 110m to 135m (happy to be proven wrong with the odd exception). The Excellence Pearl, one of the few ships that sail into France, is 85m long. Then there is the odd smaller bike & barge itinerary, those are mostly on converted barges. The "Iris" is one such barge. Last year the river cruise ship MS Sans Souci, sailing for Plantours, made a rare appearance in Metz and Nancy-Frouard. She is 82m long. notamermaid

Pfelling gauge at 283cm, forecast suggests 290cm for tomorrow evening .The trend is definitely going in the right direction. notamermaid

I wondered what the route would be to get to Cannes by boat so checked the map. Slight misunderstanding on my behalf, the gentleman did not mean Cannes directly on a river, but a route to the Mediterranean and Cannes. Getting to the Mediterranean is actually fairly straightforward if the vessel is small enough: From the Rhine through the Canal to the Saone and Rhone looks easier than via the Moselle and the Canal. When you think about it, this means you could also do a river cruise on the Rhone, then hire a small boat through the Canal to take you onto the Moselle, take a river cruise from Luxembourg to Amsterdam and voilá! You have traversed the continent in a South to North direction on water from the Mediterranean to the North Sea. notamermaid

Another unusual ship is sailing the river today and by now has left the Moselle already and turned into the Saar. The "Bissula" is the reconstruction of a Roman ship. Since its construction in 2019 has only been sailing the calm rivers but after sailing to Dillingen on the Saar river will be transported by truck to Cannes. There the vessel will be tested on the waters of Cannes bay to obtain knowledge about ancient shipping and its routes. One could take a small boat all the way to Cannes on canals but the Bissula is a bit too wide for the French canals. A few photos to give you an idea of the endeavour: https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/rheinland-pfalz/trier/roemisches-schiff-bricht-von-trier-nach-cannes-auf-100.html notamermaid

Aahh, Saarbrücken. All calm there now. Nice place. Checking out the river cruise dock, if I may ask? The city is the base of the agent (which cannot be named) for CroisiEurope. notamermaid

It was pretty heavy last night for our standards but the worst just about evaded us this time. Electricity stayed. All fine as far as I can tell this morning. Last Spring it hit Andernach and Neuwied, Worms was hard hit by hail this time. https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/rheinland-pfalz/mainz/unwetter-worms-schaeden-ernteausfaelle-winzer-schule-klinikum-rheinhessen-100.html They expect heavy loss of wine (grapes). notamermaid