notamermaid

It is good that things are going back to normal as we certainly do not want flooding to interfere with the European Football Cup. Germany is the host this year and will play the first match tomorrow in Munich. If you happen to be in the city tomorrow or fly into Munich airport (or away) you may meet some rather merry people. https://www.uefa.com/euro2024/match/2036161--germany-vs-scotland/ notamermaid

Fußbaaallll! Only 24 hours to go till the start of the European Football Cup. First match will be Germany versus Scotland. If you are interested in the teams competing for the Cup: https://www.uefa.com/euro2024/ notamermaid

This has made the regional news along the Rhine. An accident at Boppard. Yesterday morning a river cruise ship tried to sail away from the dock which was a tight manoeuvre seeing that another ship was docked close by. It did not quite work and resulted in heavy damage. I do not know which ship it was as I cannot find a photo or footage that confirms the vessel. Here is a video of the local internet channel of Boppard, excursion boat landing stage destroyed, embankment wall damaged: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huJGLvsQC58 One online news article suggests it was a "very new" ship. No one was injured. notamermaid

It has been a nice afternoon, a bit on the cool side for June but good for photos with clouds in the sky for backdrop of the castles I think. Hope you have had a splendid day. notamermaid

That sounds really good. As you were there on Monday I have had a look at the webcam to see how low the water is now and I would say it all looks pretty clean, back to normal, busses running along the embankment and you can hardly tell now that the water level is still high if you have nothing to compare it to: https://www.feratel.com/webcams/deutschland/passau.html For those who would like to see what it was like, you can go to Archiv in the menu and choose a date to look at. marinetraffic.com signal confirms the ship in the photo above is the Viking Var. Good to see it all. I have been to Passau three times now, okay twice within eight days as it was the embarkation port of my river cruise as a Passau return trip. I really enjoyed the place and would like to go back. notamermaid

Ship sailing under bridge!! Okay, about to. By complete chance I have just been able to take a screenshot of the feratel webcam that shows a Viking river cruise ship about to sail under the infamous suspension bridge at Passau. notamermaid

There is still one problem on the German Danube - headroom. The two infamous bridges may still keep river cruise ships from getting through today, but that is of course something I can only mention not specify as per individual ship. Let us have a look at Passau gauge: That looks really promising, if not good enough already. 678cm is a bit high as the authorities speak of "difficult passage" from 630cm upwards but that is a guideline, not a rule. It is literally getting better by the hour. notamermaid

I am happy to add to the good news with what should be the massive headline: SHIPS ARE RUNNING BETWEEN STRAUBING AND PASSAU. 😊😊 check on marinetraffic.com Not sure if any river cruise ships are among them, but barges are sailing. notamermaid

Hofkirchen gauge at 483cm, 3cm to go. notamermaid

I am sure that is correct if they say that. And we have seen in the last two days a vast improvement to the situation. Very likely. But the details of what may need to be changed still, you will probably only learn on board, as the people actually on the ground know much better what is happening on a daily or even hourly basis than the office people. I am sure you will have a ship in Regensburg and it will likely be the one you were scheduled to go on. Have you had a look at the info on the website, the special pages for the actual cruisers? Something with "myvikingjourney" I think. Welcome to Cruisecritic. Have a great cruise. notamermaid

That was my thought but I did not want to say it... I think the artist is more of an ocean cruiser. With that ship they may loot Bordeaux but not a Rhine river village far inland. notamermaid

Announcement of name change for new Amawaterways ship: https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/AmaWaterways-chooses-new-name-Asia-ship notamermaid

As I said earlier today, it may be that we can now relax a bit about river levels but, more out of curiosity, I have had a look at the probability chart for Kaub gauge where we can check what the computer modelling thinks will happen up to 14 days into the future. It gives steady figures, at a high range, all over 300cm but nothing that looks suspiciously high or indicating a fast rise. Which just leaves the situation in May to be summed up. notamermaid

Wow. I saw from other footage as well, that they took you in the lighter that normally carries the buoys. What a great idea that was. Any small rescue boat would have taken even longer to get you all off the ship. I hear someone say 30 people. I guess that is what they had told you it would take as one "load". I see the police launch in the background. It all looks professional and dare I say it relatively laid back. And that railway bridge does look really low. notamermaid

That leaves one more ship and her story I would like to mention before we return to a kind of normal. First, the approach at Straubing lock , exciting hours, they are all waiting I think: I have marked the river cruise ship MS Amina. She has had a rocky start to her life, she is a real baby among the ships, only christened this spring on a rather rainy day. She had just completed her first runs on the Rhine, and then was scheduled for the itinerary that would transfer her to the Danube. So she did that on the Main river, sailed through the Main Danube Canal and that was it. At Dietfurt on the Altmühl River (remember, the Canal is partly the engineered Altmühl) she was stopped in her tracks and had to wait there for over a week. Then when that first section of the Danube was reopened she moved to Straubing. The passengers left the ship soon after she got stranded, the cruise was cancelled. Story courtesy of the great guys on Binnenschifferforum: https://www.binnenschifferforum.de/showthread.php?117680-Amina-KFGS-02340166&p=473349#post473349 notamermaid

Then we should complete your mention of her with a photo of the trusted work boat (and technical details in German). Here it is: https://www.wsa-donau-mdk.wsv.de/Webs/WSA/Donau-MDK/DE/04_Donau_MDK/Unsere_Schiffe/Motorschiff_Schwarzach/Schwarzach_node.html notamermaid

The TUI Isla has moved and is in, errhmmm, Deggenau, next to Deggendorf. She has moved from the excursion boat landing stage to the harbour: Eagerly awaiting the go-ahead for river traffic? Or logistics for the next itinerary? Hofkirchen at 488cm, 8cm to go. notamermaid

There is of course that aspect. News reports sometimes give a let us say narrow perspective but it is correct that there has been structural damage and evaluation in a few places. But apart from a few streets in a few places all evacuated people are back or going back soon to their homes. Clearing up happens as soon as the water recedes so all areas in town centres and important infrastructure will be okay to fine in a few days time. Engineering works are being carried out and will be in the next weeks. That is true. Let us put Regensburg in perspective. This is the Wurstküchl flooded, youtube says the video was taken/uploaded six days ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZA2z27Tlz4 On 6 June the level at Regensburg was on flood level 4. It is on flood level, err, nothing now: Note that this is the gauge, not the river where you sail, i.e. this is just to put into perspective what you may read in news outlets or watch in short dramatic videos. notamermaid

So last night I also checked on the Emerald Dawn with @Dwg7127 on board. The ship arrived at Rüdesheim last night, here is the screenshot of the webcam, time stamp 18:50: This morning she left for Koblenz and sailed into the Rhine Gorge. I hope the passengers have all had a splendid time seeing the castles. notamermaid

@Canal archive Thank you. It has been quite an "interesting" time. We have had many great contributions from on land and on river from people. I especially appreciate the time passengers take out of their valuable time sailing - if they have been able to - and enjoying the sights to give us an update. It has also helped me to learn. Some new websites suggested by others and my own research has been very helpful to understand the river in Austria better. I do admit that my brain is getting a little tired. Looking forward to Hofkirchen gauge dropping and allowing sailing. Latest update from the authorities says they expect the long awaited level for during the night. notamermaid

Ah, yes the ships are at the "wrong ends" as per their original itineraries. Long journey through Europe for you, How many countries is that, eight? Have a great cruise. notamermaid

The water looks a little less brown as well, less current I guess. Which island is that? I am not so familiar with the topography, it has been a long time since I was there. Do you have boats or floats on the river around there? That would be a nice pre-cruise or post-cruise time on the water. notamermaid

Pfelling and Passau are now below the threshold. That leaves Hofkirchen to drop its level and it looks sooo slow. I read that there is a depth limitation at a lock approach due to an incident and the high water is still causing problems with the navigation channel. Not sure if it is connected to the limitation you mention. There is certainly a lot not right yet with the Danube. And a lot of water is still coming from Germany. But the situation has eased. Another 24 hours and we will see a further good improvement. notamermaid

Well, we have our river back. Maxau gauge peaked last night and went down well during the night. The figure now is 738cm. The authorities gave the go-head early this morning, river traffic is running again. This was just under 24 hours I think, the expectation a few days ago had been about 36 hours of no traffic. All good. Time to relax? I would say so, with a caveat. Not perfect sailing conditions, regulations for high water apply. But it is better, we are going into summer with normally very warm days, snow melt is still happening but overall the situation looks stable at a very high level. With a couple of days of downpours we may need to watch Maxau again, as there is a lot of water in the basin of the High Rhine with its tributaries coming from Switzerland. Lake Constance is of course still at flooding level but appears to be stable, with the prospect of gradually going down from later today. By that I mean a centimetre or two per day. That small wave at Maxau gauge has no real impact further downstream. By the time it gets to the Middle Rhine valley it is no more than standard "up and down" due to rain. A couple of graphs to follow later when we have a look back at May. notamermaid

Uniform, captain's hat and a hint of grey in the hair. Yes, nice. Unusually, the older gentleman on my river cruise was actually the second in line, the younger one was the first captain, not even thirty years old. The high water will stay with us for a while. I think the cruise directors and office workers have actually had the more stressful job these last two weeks. The logistical challenges were quite something. On the Danube the situation has eased but is still not resolved. But to the Rhine... notamermaid