notamermaid

This is the route planner: https://www.mobiliteit.lu/en/journey-planner/ Remich Gare routière and then along the river. Corniche as CielBleu says takes you away from the river. The road along the river is called Esplanade. notamermaid

Yes, they blasted the fuse out of the bomb. Sounds tricky indeed. All went well in the end but they also say in the video that they may well find another one before the end of the year. Rüdesheim was not really important but the proximity of Bingen and the bridge meant that bombs went down on the Rüdesheim side of the river as well. Golden rule when walking along the river banks close to the Rhine: never pick anything metallic up that looks suspicious. A few years ago a lady found an object that had the shape of ammunition and called the police. But it turned out not be made of metal. Well, better be safe than sorry. You really know "Heimat" well. I must admit, I never watched a complete series of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heimat_(film_series) It is interesting that it states that the word Heimat has no real equivalent in English. "Homeland" comes close but the kind of emotion that you connect with the area and carry around with you for the rest of your life is not in the word "homeland" but in "Heimat" in my opinion. notamermaid

Between Regensburg and Budapest the first problematic section is Straubing to Vilshofen which includes Pfelling gauge and then, from what we have learnt here, next, that is when the level of the river falls further, is a shallow bit around the Danube knee extending into Budapest. That is most likely what you have read about. In last year's thread we have reports of people disembarking at Komarno as their respective ship could not enter Budapest. notamermaid

Let us just say that it is looking pleasant now, Pfelling is at 314cm. Could stay pleasant but as it is "only" 24cm to 290cm from this reading, that can be reached quickly but for now it does not look that way. You say Prague to Vilshofen. Do you mean you start in Prague, transfer to Vilshofen and embark there? If your cruise is going downstream from there things should be fine as you avoid Pfelling and the river should be fine in Austria and most likely in Slovakia and Hungary as well from what I can judge from past years. The figures at the gauges are a marker for the shipping industry and not a perfect way of determining issues for river cruise ships. I cannot point to figures at Budapest but overall - as in my post above - experiences of past cruisers kindly posting from their cruise give us indications of what is still good at Budapest and when a low may be problematic. Have a great cruise. notamermaid

@RDVIK2016 thanks for the explanation, @Canal archive, that type in your photo looks exactly like the ones walking along our river banks. Some species are a nuisance or even a hazard in a few spots, those mainly the rats along the river but the birds soiling the swimming pools are of course not good for human health, the local rabbits have a habit of living underground where they are not wanted. They loved the new lawns and flower displays just before the federal horticultural show in Koblenz in 2011. So the city got birds of prey to get rid of the problem before the show started. We have had more thunderstorms here but the air is not that refreshed, a bit muggy again in towns. Temperatures are due to rise to more summery 30 to 32 Celsius. Level at Kaub pleasant of course, just a minor hint of hitting 100cm towards the end of the month. But we will review that on a later day. notamermaid

I mentioned Weißenthurmer Werth in a previous post. "Werth" is a standard old word for a river island in German. There are lots of them and on the Rhine we get quite a few of them, mostly uninhabited. That does not mean nothing is happening there. It only means people are not registered as living there. Nonnenwerth is one that did have residents, it gets its name from the old nunnery. The last few years have been troublesome, so I will swiftly move onto its neighbouring island - Grafenwerth. That island is under ownership of the town Bad Honnef. The island is a park, a recreation area and has a swimming pool. That alone is unusual but what I find special about it is the fact that in the marina is anchored the old fishing barge "Aranka" and one has a lovely view of Drachenfels mountain downstream. Fun fact: the island also has a KD excursion boat landing stage. You can have a look at Wikipedia https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafenwerth or check out photos on Google images. notamermaid

Being German and interested in literature I am familiar with the Nibelungenlied, a very old saga. You may know parts of it in the shape of the Wagner opera "Das Rheingold" and other works. The work is associated with towns along the Rhine – as the word Rheingold suggests – but Wagner used some artistic license. Worms is a city mentioned in the epic work though. I was a bit surprised to read and experience on my river cruise that Linz on the Danube is associated with the saga. They have a monument and a bridge. This is the monument: https://stadtgeschichte.linz.at/denkmal/Default.asp?action=denkmaldetail&id=1251 And this is the bridge: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nibelungenbrücke_(Linz)#/media/Datei:Nibelungenbruecke_Sept06.JPG Other than that the city is a bit quiet about it. At the Nibelungen Bridge is the landing stage for river cruise ships: https://www.donauregion.at/en/services/danube-shipping/landing-stages/oesterreich-poi/detail/430002006/shipping-pier-linz-nibelungen-nr-12.html More docks in Austria: https://www.donauregion.at/en/services/danube-shipping/landing-stages.html notamermaid

It does sound quite different to me, although I am not too familiar with French variations. Several years ago I roamed around our digital television stations and found a French one. Over a few days I tried to watch and understand but got little of what they were saying. Could not understand why until I realized that the station is in Canada. Until then I had never heard a Canadian speak French. As you know, in Germany we have so many dialects and in them numerous variations. People in Cologne and Bonn have a similar way of speaking, but I prefer the "Bönnsch" which to me sounds softer. I may be biased because my father's father spoke Bönnsch. In linguistics there are typical sentences to show variations in dialect. One example. The sentence in English is: "In winter, the dry leaves are flying around in the air." In High (standard) German this is: "Im Winter fliegen die trockenen Blätter in der Luft herum." In Bönnsch this is: "Em Winte fleeje de drüjje Blaade en de Luff eröm." I cannot speak a dialect properly but my German is heavily coloured by my upbringing and I sound very "Rhenish" when I speak. Place me in Hamburg or Berlin or Munich and people can quickly tell that I come from somewhere between Speyer and Düsseldorf. And if they are familiar with my area they will place me within 50 km of where I was raised - or closer. notamermaid

It is cloudy and rainy in the parts of the Rhine valley but the rain is not substantial enough to get the level at Kaub up. When a higher volume of water comes from way up in the Upper Rhine valley we may see a small rise. After that it is "downhill" but the figures will most likely stop short of 100cm. notamermaid

Although overall on a downward trend, the level at Pfelling is still doing fine. 323cm. Budapest had risen a lot apparently, now down to 226cm. That is still pleasant of course. notamermaid

Yes. A very big difference between the two and Swiss German is a real challenge. I can understand some of it but could fail to understand whole sentences in a conversation easily. I have seen it subtitled in documentaries in Germany, just to difficult to follow for a viewer that is not living close to the area where it is spoken. notamermaid

Thank you for taking us along on your river cruise and through Prague. Have a great time. notamermaid

The "MS Wissenschaft" is on tour, currently in Mainz. If you want to read about and perhaps see the barge in real life on its last few stops this year, here is the info: https://ms-wissenschaft.de/en/ notamermaid

A sad story. Swans are not the smallest of water birds, I can imagine them getting rather protective and vicious as a result. I found a photo in my archive that I quite like, I still remember taking that in 2014 at Neuwied embankment. I do not remember the specific reason for me being there on that day though. A white domestic goose. Not the most graceful appearance but then twisting and bending while washing is not the most graceful of movements or positions for many species... There were a few more nearby. The island there is called Weißenthurmer Werth and is a protected area although fishing is allowed. I have seen gulls and cormorants at the island's northern tip. notamermaid

The forecast has been spectacularly wrong in a good sense. Pfelling gauge at 329cm. It is raining over the Danube catchment area. notamermaid

Those geese - tell me about it... Had not been that aware of the growing problem but then I saw a report on television about three years ago how much work it is to get the Koblenz outdoor public swimming pools clean, especially the grass areas surrounding them. I think we refer to our species growing in numbers to "Nilgänse" but I tend to confuse the two, not sure which is which. Have not seen swans for months but then I am not often at river banks where they congregate. It is pigeons, geese, gulls (the smaller varieties) and cormorants, etc. Occasionally I see a heron. Although the Rhine is a straightened, "industrial" and busy waterway there is much wildlife and the river is cleaner than one may think, with all the sewage treatment plants having been working for decades. There are numerous islands and flood plain areas in France and Germany that are nature reserves, as well as part of the "Altrhein", the old river course. notamermaid

Austrian German has its own dictionary. The differences to standard German in Germany are sometimes big sometimes small. Anyway, the country has its own standardized dictionary. There is also a dictionary, and a bit more light-hearted it is, that helps you translate Germany German into Austria German. I got by in Vienna without it... @RDVIK2016 We have talked about Heimat in the Rhine thread. I thought Edgar Reitz had retired from filming but I saw in the news last night that he has finished another project which is now being cut (edited). Edgar Reitz is 90 years old! Should you get to the Hunsrück on a land trip you could check out the museum opened last year in Simmern. notamermaid

Saturday evening was the main event of "Rhine in Flames", a series of fireworks with entertainment and ship parade. The event organizers were very pleased with how it went and state that 140,000 spectators lined the embankments. Here is a German article with videos, if you feel like translating with a machine (or can read the German): https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/rheinland-pfalz/koblenz/rhein-in-flammen-drei-tage-sommerfest-in-koblenz-100.html In the second video at 2:19 spot the boat the "Viking Orvar" sailing out of Ehrenbreitstein harbour. I have been told that she took a small landing stage downstream (not visible in the video shot) to possibly Andernach or further. She spent the weekend in Brohl harbour according to her signals' log book on marinetraffic.com According to Binnenschifferforum she is a "Schubschlepper". For the real fans of such vessels here is the full entry on that website: https://www.binnenschifferforum.de/showthread.php?97416-Viking-Orvar-SSL-07002118 notamermaid

Pfelling gauge at 326cm. If the forecast is correct we may well see 310cm tomorrow. notamermaid

AmaWaterways in 2025: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tourism/amawaterways-starts-2025-sales-with-up-to-20-discount notamermaid

Welcome to Cruisecritic. I would be leaning myself out of the window if I gave you a guess. So far into the future I have no idea and the statistics-based probability chart (six weeks) is of little use. We can look two weeks into the future and there the probability for good water levels is high. That is what I indicated above, i.e. we can now almost see the end of the month in a graph. Have a great cruise. notamermaid

As anticipated no huge amounts of rain and volume of water to back up the river's levels, so the slow decline to low levels is happening. Still all fine though, 170cm at Kaub. And looking really pleasant potentially till the end of the month. notamermaid

Good for them, they have tons of backing and money to make it happen, hope it translates into great football and that the team gels. Although, sneekily, I prefer Bayern Munich to lose some games otherwise the league gets boring, they are top sooo often. I prefer to back my Rhineland football clubs. As regards the city - Munich is highly interesting, I love the Alte Pinakothek https://www.pinakothek.de/besuch/alte-pinakothek and the English Garden is lovely. I somewhat tend to recommend it more as a pre-cruise excursion with airport than I do Prague. It is just my personal preference. I guess the logistics for Prague may be easier for many companies and passengers. Trying to catch up with reading posts, after a busy weekend. Good to see that so many folks have been having fun here. notamermaid

After a plateau on the 10th going into the 11th, the figures at Pfelling gauge started a long slow decline and the figure on the graph is now 340cm. Pfelling is notoriously difficult to predict and the current figures are running below the forecast for today so the week ahead is almost a mirky crystal ball for me. Definite seems to be a further decline until Tuesday but there is no clue if the level will go down after that. The temperatures have risen somewhat and there is less rain. notamermaid

Thanks for the video. Have found the gentleman recently. He has amazingly been on three German lines, they are Plantours, Viva Cruises and Nicko Cruises. What makes it easier for him is the fact that he lives in Hamburg. I also like his cost comparison video. notamermaid