notamermaid

Had never thought to mention this but Riviera Travel UK offers train travel sometimes as a standard alternative to flying. I regularly see it mentioned as (close to original wording) "take the coach to Brussels for the Eurostar or board your coach for the transfer to the airport" when the cruise ends in Cologne. Admittedly, Cologne is the best port for that apart from Amsterdam in my opinion. notamermaid

Happen to be visiting Frankfurt on a river cruise this winter? The botanical gardens have a special illuminations event: https://www.palmengarten.de/en/occasion.html?tx_calendarize_calendar[index]=41421&cHash=90acefadb784bf332071307abc890942 notamermaid

As no one answered you yet, I had a look to see if Viking has posted that recipe online. Vanilla crescent cookies would normally be Vanillekipferl but I could not find that name. This is a crescent shaped cookie recipe which looks similar to what I know as the Vanillekipferl. Was it that one? https://www.vikingrivercruises.com/why-viking/community/viking-recipes/desserts/viennese-crescent-cookies.html notamermaid

Not sure if this is of interest to anyone, but here goes. Combine flight and train in Germany: https://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Airline-News/United-enables-customers-book-Deutsche-Bahn In Europe the choices for train connections are almost endless. If you cannot get a direct flight to your destination and you are happy to navigate airports and train stations on your own you can do a lot of combining and may even save money in the process. Just a couple of ideas. Fly into London and take the train to Brussels or Amsterdam for your cruise. Or fly into Frankfurt and go to your cruise in Nuremberg. Unless you have booked a pre-cruise trip to Prague which I think is far better as regards sightseeing. notamermaid

If done the British polite way, it could take a week. 😁 That would be quite the video seeing all these leave in a concerted way one after the other. Levels on the Danube continue to be good. Passau gauge at 561cm. Plenty of room under the bridge. Snow in Passau: https://www.feratel.com/webcams/deutschland/passau.html notamermaid

Ah yes. Forgot to mention that: in the other thread steamboats reported that Munich airport market opens early and a few markets in Munich proper open before Sunday of the Dead. The other countries are not bound by that rule for the Sunday as much. Salzburg would need checking. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2968897-christmas-markets-river-cruises-2023-infos-and-tips/page/2/ notamermaid

The levels of the Rhine continue to be good, but high. Maxau gauge will go further down but stay above the mean, so the next rise after all this rain is anticipated for next weekend. Most likely this will be on flood mark I and could reach official flooding status again. Another river traffic ban is not indicated. The bridge at Cologne Niehl harbour is in the news again. It had been severely damaged by a barge with a crane construction. Newspapers report that it may need to be demolished. A quiet day by law, not much is happening and the weather is not really inviting you to venture out far. We have snow in the high hills but cold, wetting rain in the valley. notamermaid

Welcome to the wonderful world of river cruising. The day to focus on for Germany is Totensonntag, Sunday of the Dead, which is observed as a quiet day and the last Sunday of the liturgical calendar. Christmas markets are usually closed. In 2024 it is the 24th of November. Many markets outside of Germany open earlier, as well as some in Germany. So 26th November sounds like a good day to start a river cruise, most likely you will see all the markets open (no guarantee). notamermaid

Lovely. Thanks for saying hello from Austria. Enjoy the city and the snow. Vienna is at a height between 151m and 544m above sea level. High enough for rain to turn into snow, weather report says it is one degree Celsius right now. And the first snow has certainly made the Austrian news this evening, I see online. notamermaid

Hmm, I think we can say that there is definitely something wrong with the itinerary of the Amaserena and I will repeat my assumption that the ship had the unfortunate incident at Trechtingshausen. From Rüdesheim she left during the night and returned downstream. Never seen a ship do that before. She went through the Rhine Gorge and straight to Cologne where she arrived early this morning. There she is docked not at the "right" side of Cologne but has joined German ships on the Deutz side, in the harbour together with the "wasps". Those are the "Wespe(s)", the WSP boats of the Wasserschutzpolizei, the police launches: notamermaid

That is the one I would like to see. One day I will make it to Bavaria in winter... I have been to the Bavarian Forest in late winter, when the lower hills had had the snow thawed but we went up roads and could still walk in a winter forest. Really nice. Deutsche Bahn is a problem... Traben-Trarbach on the Moselle is a bit worried about potential problems for their market as parking is very limited and there will we train cancellations so visitors will need to take buses to get there. Last year we had an early spell of real snow at the beginning of December along the Rhine. Our Januaries are normally colder than our Decembers. Looks like Munich will get a bit of snow over the weekend. I think I will be below the "Schneefallgrenze" over the weekend. A grey, cold day here. We have 2 to 6 degrees. Have been to the first charity Advent do, a typical Adventsbasar in a Christian community centre, with hand-knitted socks, second-hand goods and biscuits and waffles. Good fun. May get the chance to go to a small privately organised festivity tomorrow, you know, one that is allowed - exemption from Totensonntag closure. I refuse to go to proper Christmas markets before Sunday of the Dead. I am a traditionalist. 🙂 notamermaid

The Arosa Donna has had an accident. The company issued a statement saying that due to sudden strong currents the ship hit ground during a night sailing early on Wednesday. The damage was bad enough to cause the itinerary to end. The passengers were taken to Passau to make their journeys home and offered to repeat the cruise when the Arosa Donna returns to service after repairs. Next available itinerary is 11 December. These are all short Advent cruises typical for German companies to offer. They are three or four nights when Christmas markets are on. Water levels continue to be good. Some rain over parts of the Danube. Bavaria, here I mean even towns along the Danube, will see a bit of snow during the evening and night. notamermaid

Not sure which one you saw, but the one of Cologne Niehl drone image is striking. Tops the Vienna one for sure. notamermaid

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2910185-danube-water-levels-2023-and-similar-topics-plus-tips-and-info/page/45/#comments notamermaid

Where do ships go in winter? To a harbour naturally, but it needs to safe. There are industrial harbours and special winter harbours. On the Danube many river cruise ships dock in Linz: Vienna has a winter harbour as well of course: Look which is there - the old Viking Prestige! She is not that old actually but was replaced by the longships. Does the Prestige actually still sail? Not much happening there yet, but see what the google image used reveals when we zoom in: That is how many ships moored when the satellite image was taken. There are other harbours. If you are completely bored some time in winter you can do some ship spotting of which ship docks where. notamermaid

Did a bit of webcam spotting and searching. I think it is the Amaserena that is having problems. I say is as she is still in the Rüdesheim area. She arrived from direction Trechtingshausen about 85 min after the incident and docked at Rüdesheim for almost 24 hours. Around lunchtime today there was a second Amawaterways ship docked alongside. That one left shortly after, then a pilot boat arrived. That escorted the Amaserena upstream in the side channel. It left shortly after the Amaserena docked at a building supplies company at Geisenheim, at a small industrial harbour area. She is still there now: notamermaid

Now for something a little bit different. When sailing from Regensburg to Passau or vice versa you pass a ship that is seemingly docked in a remote place away from towns at a beautiful spot near a castle and hill with monument. It is at Donaustauf and the ship is the MS Rossini. She is a former splendid classic river cruise ship but is now used to house refugees. The ship had been docked a bit further downstream at Bach but the local authorities have a coordinated plan for this and moved the ship in August. So you may have seen this on your past cruise at a different spot. It is still a "normal" ship technically and signals. Here: It is somewhat sad to see the ship go down that way as it can easily be the end of the road before, you now, conversion to private or worse. But to the small town of Donaustauf. Marked on marinetraffic is the Burgberg. Yes, a castle on a hill. Not bad, but what is a real draw there is the other landmark, Walhalla. Kind of weird, refugees on a ship underneath the hall of fame of Germans. https://www.schloesser.bayern.de/englisch/palace/objects/walhalla.htm From Regensburg the Walhalla is a pleasant coach ride. It should be offered on excursions but Regensburg itself is certainly the grander experience so I would understand it if no company ever offers it. You can go by boat from Regensburg: https://tourismus.regensburg.de/en/experience-discover/guided-tours-walks-and-round-trips/boat-trips notamermaid

Yes, you would need a huge "car park" for all those ships together now, 100plus vessels. Will put a short post in the Danube thread. notamermaid

Nice move! Aachen is highly interesting for its cathedral and a nice compact town to walk around. Recommend it. Does not quite fit the theme of Netherlands/Belgium cruise, but is rarely offered otherwise and on no navigable river. Precruise stay in Brussels: interesting city, just not old or "beautiful". Recommend the waffels, chocolate and the Art Nouveau architecture. Is a European centre for comics, if that interests you. For old town charm choose another city. notamermaid

Apparently there was an incident on the Rhine involving a river cruise ship and a barge yesterday. Due to a technical fault the ship lost all its steering and drifted downstream. An emergency stop with the anchors did not go well. A barge just managed to avoid a collision but doing so hit and ripped out a green buoy. The police allowed the barge to sail on and reports no damage there. The river cruise ship was able to get one machine going again and was allowed to sail to Rüdesheim. That is not far from where this all happened, it was at Trechtingshausen at km 534.3. No one was hurt. The names of the ships have not been disclosed. Police report: https://www.presseportal.de/blaulicht/pm/43615/5656674 The backlog at Iffezheim lock has cleared slowly. As we know, due to the accident with the gate things will continue to be slower than usual there. It is a very windy day today, cold driving rain makes excursions unpleasant I should think. But the showers are scattered around. No impact on water levels of note expected. That is good as the level at Maxau is still high. We do not need any more water right now. The Netherlands expect sleet and a bit of snow even over the weekend. And with the fast winds that weather is coming to Germany. I could really feel the chill in the air this morning. So the higher hills will get some snow. Which means that you may dock on the river in rain at Breisach, go in a coach to the Black Forest and see the first snowflakes... notamermaid

My pleasure. Sardines, well, the obvious comparison , but one I had not thought of! I went to Niehl in May 2021. It was - err - interesting. Next to the entrance to the Viking basin was this: The entrance (I did not enter the private property of course). You can make out the wheelhouses of the ships: notamermaid

As posted above, the 2025 bookings are open, so is there something new in that year? The company has new themed cruises as reported by travelweekly.com: https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/Riviera-River-Cruises-unveils-themed-sailings-2025?ct=river I have had a look at the "Music, Arts and Craft of Switzerland and the Rhine". This one: https://www.rivieratravel.co.uk/river-cruises/music-arts-craft-switzerland-and-the-rhine The photo showing the Beethoven statue in Bonn in front of the Altes Postamt looks promising. Hmm, turns out that as regards ports Bonn is the only "new" one. Unusual are Stergiswil and Stanserhorn in Switzerland as excursions. Really different. As you may expect with Riviera Travel the itinerary ends in Cologne. I think the music, arts and craft theme is well-represented, Rüdesheim okay I admit is a firm favourite so no reason to skip it. If you do not fancy going all the way to Amsterdam and are happy with leaving from Cologne airport or are willing to hop on a train to another destination or airport, this is an interesting itinerary. Based on the overall description, I would say it is worth checking out what Riviera Travel has compiled for the other themes. notamermaid

The situation continues to improve on the Rhine, all stations, now also into the Netherlands, show well fallen levels. The flood alert system has reverted to standard mode. The weather has improved. After a lovely sunset last night we had a cold night and today has been the more pleasant wintery grey rather than November grey. Need to get the gloves out. Tomorrow: Christmas markets open! Many of them at least. Koblenz for example. I have been to my first Advent charity event, but I will say a bit more in the Christmas markets thread. notamermaid

@Barb at Maple Lane here is the info for this year so far: You asked me in the Rhine thread this specific question: "Not a Mermaid, what dates was the section from Passau to Regensberg closed this fall please?" This is the graph to answer that: It is too complicated to filter out of that the days that were fine. So I will direct you to the website. My search gives you this: https://www.gkd.bayern.de/en/rivers/waterlevel/bayern/pfelling-10078000/year-figures?zr=jahr&addhr=hr_w_hw&beginn=10.09.2023&ende=27.10.2023 Now, underneath that graph are figures. Click on more data. That gives you the full list of figures in that time frame. Click on the arrow pointing down in the right column. The table should now have the figures appearing in order low to high, looking like this (screenshot): All days that have a figure on the right below 290cm indicate a problem for river cruise ships. Nota bene: This is not closure, this means a captain may have decided not to sail. The river in Germany is never closed to traffic in low water. There has been no closure due to flooding, the problem has only been the headroom under bridges. You also asked: "Also, how long was Budapest unavailable for the ships to dock there?" I cannot answer that question well, it will have depended on the individual itinerary and ship. However, the notion is that quite a few days were affected and many of the 135m ships. You can see the comments of cruisers and my confirmed water levels on those days on this page for example: Do have a look at the corresponding pages in that time frame in the Viking river roll calls for the Danube. People have mentioned the problems around Budapest. Hope this helps. notamermaid

Good news: Passau gauge has fallen to 620cm. More headroom under the bridge. notamermaid