notamermaid

Wertheim has steadily become a favourite among the lovely small towns along the Main. Not sure what the frequency is but from what I could see along the river they now appear to get a ship per day. Ochsenfurt appears to still only be used as a stop for passengers to embark or disembark for the logistics of the coach trip to Rothenburg. A shame really, I enjoyed the small place, only had a few minutes but am eager to spend a couple of hours there. That is an interesting itinerary in that it starts in Cologne - Riviera Travel is known for doing this quite often - which cuts out the sailing in the Netherlands and gives extra time later on in a 10 day cruise. I find Cologne so convenient for that. And for the British easy to get to. Andernach is small but an attractive nice addition. A few old buildings, a nice embankment to stroll along, etc. Yes, I like that, too. notamermaid

That is a good question and to be honest I find it difficult to assess. The recent rain has given the Elbe basin quiet a bit of water and the level is good enough now. Depending on what the authorities do, I think there is a chance, but a good chance? No idea. notamermaid

My pleasure. Kelheimwinzer gauge near Regensburg is still rising and statistically on flooding status. The blue marker: Regensburg and Passau will still get a lot of water. By the way, I do not know how this affects river traffic, i.e. if there is a ban. Pfelling gauge is at 608cm, so more than double what river cruise ships need. That is getting close to a level at which a ban is issued. Passau is at 745cm. It looks as if this could be a kind of plateau and we cannot be certain how much the volume of water coming from Regensburg soon will keep this steady or make it rise again substantially. 630cm is the figure given that is needed for most river cruise ships to sail under the bridge. Some with a lower superstructure can of course make the passage at a higher level (as long as there is no river traffic ban). The wave has reached Budapest and a level of 400cm is expected. According to the Hungarian Hydrological Forecast Service this is not considered enough flooding to reach an alert level. I have no idea when a river traffic ban is issued in Hungary. notamermaid

That is a very good website - and the official Austrian one - for many things related to the river. If you want to go really deep into the topic, here is the page: https://www.danubecommission.org/dc/de/die-donauschifffahrt/bruecken-an-der-donau/ notamermaid

The flooding watch - as I call it - has been activated. This is a higher alert level and means that parts of the Rhine are monitored closely and the latest levels at specific gauges are published every 15 minutes. On the website pegelonline the combined graphs look like this this morning: This is just the Upper Rhine valley, the Middle Rhine is not on alert. Kaub gauge is at 189cm and has not even reached statistical mean water yet. It is forecast to do so during the afternoon and will most likely rise close to 300cm on Friday. notamermaid

Looks like they are wearing them, or something close to that: notamermaid

The wave is now at Dunaremete and Nagybajcs in Hungary. notamermaid

Oops. Oh well. I really thought they may do as they do in drought. But I have not spent time in vain. It has been interesting to follow that wave in the graphs. Back to the Romans. I had nearly missed this: a group of people dressed up as Romans is currently marching - I mean during the day - all along the Limes from Eining to Rheinbrohl! Both dress and food are as authentic as possible. They have almost reached their destination. The finale with a celebration will be on 2 and 3 September in Rheinbrohl at the interactive museum Römerwelt. The project is called "Limesmarsch 2023" and they will have marched nearly 750kms. notamermaid

I am sorry to hear that. It is interesting as I saw the high levels on the Austrian gauges and was wondering if they ban traffic right now. It was not fully clear from the description if the levels would automatically trigger this as notices to vessels or the authorities issue the ban separately. Anyway, what a task for the cruise director! Hope you are keeping in reasonable spirits and the trip to Vienna goes ahead with plan C (or whichever it may be now). Passau by the way peaked at 9am this morning at a level of 797cm. It is down to 771cm now. But with much water still coming there is not much chance of the standard high river cruise ships getting under that bridge in Passau soon. This is Dürnstein gauge in Austria: So it looks as if the huge wave has moved on and for now the situation looks to be improving going into the night. notamermaid

Oh dear, are they at it again? Okay, visual proof is necessary, me thinks. This is Maxau: As I posted before, navigational the level will reach flood mark I, and, yes, most likely flooding (650cm). This is so frequent that this level may be called an almost annual occurrence. No more dramatic than that. It may show on the web pages as being bi-annually, though. River traffic ban is at 750cm. The wave is now at Kehl (opposite river bank to Strasbourg), expected to peak around midnight. Which means that all gauges further upstream from Strasbourg are showing falling levels and Hauenstein (near Lake Constance) which is currently signalling official flooding will fall below that status before 1am. We are fortunate that neither Neckar, Main nor Moselle carry a very high volume of water. It rained a lot, but it was neither substantial nor prolonged enough to cause great concern. It really rained hardest over the Danube catchment area with East Switzerland and the tributaries of the Rhine getting some of that heavy rain. notamermaid

Sounds a little less than expected in Passau. Still, not pleasant. The Upper Danube and the tributaries: notamermaid

Yes, that is right, right up there is mild flooding. Lake Constance takes up most of that strain but it will of course result in higher levels along the Rhine. Currently the Middle Rhine valley is letting the rain from much of the Main river and some of the Upper Rhine valley (and the other tributaries) through. The substantial rise in the level has started and is fast. Still only pre-warning for the Rhine: Passau - BAD! Maxau gauge (at Karlsruhe) is climbing fast and as indicated in the pre-warning will most likely reach mild flooding as in navigational terms which will trigger a warning for shipping. But ban on river traffic is not anticipated. notamermaid

While the situation at Passau on the Danube is not good, there is no flooding along the Rhine. We have basically the same weather pattern at the moment but the clouds have unhappily favoured the Danube basin. All gauges are rising on the Rhine now but the situation is good. Kaub is at 160cm but due to rise as a high volume of water is coming from the Upper Rhine valley. Expected level for Thursday evening 300cm. The Upper Rhine valley may be pushed to the warning level for mild flooding tomorrow. notamermaid

Passau gauge tonight: Level 4 is expected, which is 850cm. notamermaid

Oh dear. Sorry to hear about the affected cruises. Yes, rare. Hope things go smoothly tomorrow. Have a great time in Prague. notamermaid

A little patience and waiting works for photos, I agree. I fear that in Halstatt this would cause a backlog, you know, queuing up to take that exact selfie shot that 100 people have taken in the last 10 minutes or so. I would love to see Bath, but would I enjoy it? Perhaps, because apart from the Crescent I would head to the garage and that spot at a street corner where they dug in a series of "Time Team". Currently though I am much more into exploring small towns in Germany. I have this old map of Germany where interesting places are marked. Well, alright I admit, I loved Rothenburg ob der Tauber just like millions of people before me. It helped us that river cruise and Asian tourists were absent at the time. We were welcomed with open arms. Passau harbour lists 18 ships for today, a good 52,000 people live in the town. 18 ships of varying capacity, my rough calculation based on ship name tells me that this could be 2,400 passengers (assuming that ships are not full but well booked). A couple of Viking ships are included. 300,000 people came on river cruise ships to Passau in 2018. I reckon by the end of 2023 Passau will be back to that figure. We had a discussion on the topic here https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2523055-will-overtourism-affect-river-cruising/page/5/#comments but we know what happened. Few outside of the industry probably gave the topic any thought for some time. notamermaid

Thank you for your review. Good to read you had such a great time. I found Budapest fascinating, apart from it being a fabulous city I welcomed being able to learn something of the country in the Soviet era. Bratislava interesting as well. It must be even more striking going further East. So much to learn. notamermaid

Oh, not good. notamermaid

On a side note to this. I have coined the phrase "instagrammed to death", at least among my circle of people to describe a place like the Hallstatt spot. Everybody takes a photo for Instagram to the extent that it wrecks the place. It is the reason I keep favourite spots sometimes to myself. Working in the tourism industry I have spent a bit more than the standard amount of time reflecting on what social media and tourists can do. notamermaid

Thank you. Hm, yes, tricky. I was wondering if it may not be a bit too much in a short space of time. The Isar is downstream from Pfelling of course, I see no problem for river cruise ships as yet, but with the Isar and Inn influencing Passau, we should have a look at the situation at the bridge there. Eyeyeh, that is a sharp rise in the graph! The gauge now says 613cm. May turn out a bit too little headroom. Will see how it goes and perhaps someone sends us a report from onboard a ship. All the best to you and Munich. notamermaid

I am not sure if it works as a comparison - but for me it is a bit like the lake that is saturated with plants to such an extent that the ecosystem turns. It is a process called eutrophication (yes, I did a lot of biology at school 😉). Rüdesheim for me is at saturation point as regards river cruise ships. This overtourism is the reason I advocate for alternative river cruises, meaning alternative ports and fewer passengers, that meaning 110m ships. On the Rhine it would work very well. You just need to ignore the television adverts and are open to other history/cityscape and smaller places. Rüdesheim and Passau were popular destinations before the river cruising boom - say 2010 - so started already on a high frequency. By the way, until fairly recently Heidelberg has boasted about its popularity and ever increasing numbers of visitors. There the tide has turned a little. They now prefer tourists that stay longer than two hours... notamermaid

Pfelling gauge at 400cm. It is raining again over the valley. notamermaid

Yes, the times of overtourism are back... Prague and Amsterdam decided in the wake of "temporary non-tourism" to deal with the problem. Passau is a serious contender for overtourism and if you asked the people in 2019 some would have argued they are already in that state. notamermaid

@ultramax12 @island lady Thank you for your kind words. With tensions easing - for now - may I throw a question into the wider round? Just curious. I mentioned Kelheim (with Weltenburg marked on the map). I remember reading about an excursion. Was that Viking? Does that still exist? Anybody been recently? Oops, that is three questions. notamermaid P.S: Pfelling at 351cm. Looks to have reached a plateau.

The Limes, the Roman frontier, which separated the Roman Empire from Germania, is not so present on the Danube as it cuts from Rheinbrohl on the Rhine through countryside and ends at Eining (the Roman Abusina) on the Danube. This small place is located further upstream from where ships are allowed to go. The Canal connects to the Danube at Kelheim, see the symbol with the name Römerkastell Abusina: But on a Danube river cruise you will follow Roman history as here the river basically acts as the border. In the link below see the Limes coming down from the Northwest to Abusina. You can also see Regensburg already existed in late Roman times. Castra Regina, nice short name, Roman Salzburg is bit more of a mouthful . https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donaulimes#/media/Datei:Rätischer_Donaulimes.png notamermaid