notamermaid

Rain with us was really heavy, hail hit Worms very hard. Stay safe. Pfelling gauge has dropped to 274cm. notamermaid

Great! Thunderstorms here. Torch ready just in case. notamermaid

Pfelling at 288cm. A tiny bit of a cliffhanger as to what will happen during the night. Further drop or not? Radar image: Pretty heavy with us in the Middle Rhine valley right now. notamermaid

Update: the bomb has been defused successfully. Everything went smoothly and faster than expected. https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/rheinland-pfalz/koblenz/fliegerbombe-bei-koblenz-urbar-entschaerfung-100.html Hopefully we can return to business as usual, with river traffic running as it constantly does and for river cruising pleasant water levels. Till the next bomb is (inevitably at some point in the not too distant future) found... notamermaid

That I would say is actually honest. Add commitment to banks, i.e. those giving the credits and owning the ships until they belong to Viking. They do this with you, dear friends in the US, because they can. In Europe: no. Viking Flussreisen, the German company, was closed down quite a few years ago now, as the North-American market was more lucrative. notamermaid

Pfelling gauge now showing 289cm. As Izengolf has mentioned rain is forecast. Today may be the last day of summer heat. Clouds are sweeping in from the Southwest (Vosges mountains/French-Swiss border) going Northeast. It is raining in the North of Germany. notamermaid

Bomb in the Rhine A bomb has been found near the island Niederwerth, that is close to Koblenz. The bomb will be defused tomorrow. For that reason the Rhine will be closed to river traffic in a short section downstream from the city. It is not possible to sail from the Moselle onto the Rhine in the downstream direction. 1,200 people will need to be evacuated. According to the notification for captains, the ban is in place from 8am to 3pm. Source for info: https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/rheinland-pfalz/koblenz/fliegerbombe-in-koblenz-niederwerth-gefunden-102.html notamermaid

The river is doing fine. Level at Kaub is now at 151cm (exactly in line with the predicted levels for today). Forecast now shows the figures staying well above 100cm for much of this week with little change for the worse when we look further ahead. Drop below 100cm as a probability is minimal. For the "Tag des offenen Denkmals" I left my river and went along the Lahn, so no report on that here. But as I returned home via the mouth of the river with the Rhine I got a long glance at Lahneck Castle. Always looking good, whatever the weather. 🙂 Amawaterways has excursions to the castle, I think they are exclusive. But as a private individual you can also see it. notamermaid

Always an individual decision of course. The captains know the river inside out and their ships how they react to low water. I had hoped and was confident that the level would stay good for the past week, me knowing that the heat and no rain would have a very quick effect at Pfelling. Glad to be proven right but for this week I can see a potentially wobbly situation. Pfelling now at 295cm. notamermaid

Turn for the worse. Pfelling gauge dropped to 300cm this afternoon. notamermaid

So it is finally here. What a wait you have had to endure. I am sure it will be splendid. Budapest is amazing. Have a great time. notamermaid

Oh, good question. That would be nice. No idea. I have heard that you can tell a British ship from an American ship by the fact that the British one has got tea-making facilities in the cabin. But that may just be a rumour. All in all though I would say the river cruise itineraries of Ama and Avalon are closer to what you and your family are looking for. notamermaid

Perhaps not something you should consider but you may want to be aware of the risk of low water impacting your cruise in the time frame you are looking at. It may or may not happen. This would most likely only affect the Rhine Gorge. Overall, Ama and Avalon do a tiny bit better as regards the draft of their ships than Viking. Way to more or less avoid the risk: choose a 110m ship. Way to almost completely avoid the risk: do not go through the Rhine Gorge. That means chose the Moselle and at Koblenz go downstream on the Rhine, or sail from Basel and then go on the Main. But, again, mostly not a big deal, just be aware and go with the flow and plan B of your company. Definitely a European company to look at. You may want to check if they guarantee English-speaking guides on your cruise. You could also look at Riviera Travel UK if you want to "be among the British". notamermaid

I really need some water from the cooler, so hot in Germany today! Have returned from my day trip visiting a monument on the occasion of "Tag des offenen Denkmals". I went to a "Militärischer Sperrbezirk". Yes, that's right, army base. And what a splendid one. The magnificent mansion that is called "Schloß Oranienstein" in Diez on the river Lahn. More on that when I have more time. Right, I am off again. Dinner. See ya. notamermaid

Pfelling gauge at 309cm. Another very sunny day. River loosing water in this heat. Forecast and actual figures identical this morning. Drop below 300cm likely for tomorrow. Dreaded 290cm not in the forecast yet. notamermaid

Ama Rivers and Castles. It is the itinerary route that came to my mind even before I read your choices. Remich (Luxembourg) to Nuremberg gives you the lovely Moselle with a bit of French influence, the Rhine Gorge and the Main with its cities and villages. If you can at the beginning, spend a day in Luxembourg or cross over the river into France. Connect to Munich at the end for another interesting German city. Alternative company to Ama: Avalon. Disclosure: I have a personal dislike of Viking (marketing and payment policy). notamermaid

Pfelling gauge at 313cm. notamermaid

I got my text book out too fast. I was seriously wondering. A hamster wheel?? Now that is not in my textbook. 😁 Classification, hmmm: Bubble wrap cruise? Adventure cruise? Just plain bonkers cruise? I better leave the water cooler, either I have got too hot at work or I have got too much time on my hands. notamermaid

The Danube was of course a major trading route for the Romans. So you could find remains of ships, right? Yes and that is what happened earlier this year (again). Although wood has the annoying habit for archaeologists of rotting quickly, luck had it that the ground conditions where such that a boat could be excavated in Serbia. It has been unearthed in a coal mine: https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/romans/ancient-roman-boat-from-empires-frontier-unearthed-in-serbian-coal-mine As the text says, this was near Kostolac, which is close to the site of the old Roman town of Viminacium, a major trading centre: http://viminacium.org.rs/en/ This is where to find it on the map: notamermaid

If I look at it from a work perspective, i.e. my work in tourism, I think a proper river cruise in German terms needs to have an overnighter in. You need to sleep on the ship and move. So what you did counts. A dinner cruise is not a river cruise as far as I know. But you read the term "river cruise" all the time in Europe when the website only means four hours up the river and back. In German we can distinguish between what you do on a river cruise ship and on an excursion boat. We actually have a specific description and specification of what a tourist is. I was taught that, but -err- I do not remember the full explanation. Still trying to decide where I should go on for the open monuments day on Sunday. Either a Medieval house, or a palace or a railway museum. Will report back on what I chose in the end. notamermaid

Pfelling gauge at 332cm. I have mentioned the Roman heritage along the Danube. One such place is Vindobona, modern day Vienna. Fun fact: Vindobona is also the name of a long-distance train that has been re-established this year. It takes you from Dresden to Vienna. But to the Romans and the Danube further East. The heritage can also be discovered in more unusual places, meaning not in the well-known cities like Vienna and Budapest. Let us look at that in another post. notamermaid

No, it is not. Captain always knows best - but 100cm I have never heard of being a problem. What you get with the low figures between 100cm and 90cm is slower sailing or a change of docking location due to shallows. Earlier this year I read about a German river cruise company having to cancel the remainder of a river cruise as it was too low (around 92cm). Seriously the only time I have read this. I was a little surprised that the computer modelling included figures of 94cm to 100cm as a real probability but it is hot right now and there is no indication of rain so this will explain it. The level now is 171cm. The river at Kaub now loses between 15cm and 10cm a day. We will see how it goes next week. notamermaid

This coming Sunday monuments all over Germany are open again, many of them normally not accessible to the general public. It is "Tag des offenen Denkmals" and you can look up places on a map. While this is normally all in German, perhaps there is a place that you would like to explore while you happen to be there anyway. Like Regensburg. There is a café with a surprise in the inside architecture: https://www.tag-des-offenen-denkmals.de/event/cliobhf0p002ejk0gqowjvw8r While the café has of course standard opening hours, on this day information tours explain the history of the building. Go to "Denkmalkarte" at the top for more ideas. notamermaid

Thank you for the photo. I never knew that one can walk right up to that spot. notamermaid

Kaub gauge at 177cm. New long-range forecast suggests a potential drop of the level just below 100cm middle of the month. notamermaid