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

Nicko Cruises are still under the radar on the English-speaking market but have increased their presence in the UK. The 2024 catalogue has just been released and features an additional vessel: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tour-operators/nicko-cruises-releases-2024-brochure-featuring-additional-vessel Nicko Cruises is a German line and may be put in the mid to lower range of luxury compared to North-American lines but is certainly above what one may call "budget" . If you enjoy a more European ship and passenger range with a German feel and can do without huge perks, do have a look at it. notamermaid

We are well into August time to have a look at how the river did at Dresden in July: Overall the river was too low for comfort for river cruise ships. But we know that river cruise companies have adapted their summer schedule accordingly, having reacted in the past few years to annual occurrence of low water. Fluctuations show rainfall but also the Czech authorities releasing additional water from the reservoir. I have recently read in an interview about this procedure. In connection with the excursion boats it was stated that (translated) "the Czech send the rainfall as it comes straight through ((the locks and dam))". The end of the month saw another spike and kept above the MNW line (mean low water). After continued rainfall the situation looks better now and Dresden gauge is currently at 133cm. notamermaid

Hope your cruise is great and that evening in Koblenz will be special. notamermaid

Kaub gauge looks to have reached the plateau this afternoon. The downward trend may well have started but from now 216cm it is a long way to go to not so favourable water levels. No sign of the figures turning to double digits before 21 August and even then the probability is low. notamermaid

Welcome to Cruisecritic and thank you for saying hello. Have a great cruise. notamermaid

Apparently, The Bingen/Rüdesheim area was heavily bombed. It was strategically important as there were railways and a bridge. Question: "Bridge, what bridge?" Answer: "That one": https://www.romantischer-rhein.de/en/a-ruin-of-hindenburg-bridge A stump in the river is still visible from a river cruise ship as you sail past. It was the sister bridge to the ones at Urmitz/Engers and Remagen/Erpel (yup, that famous one). Only the Urmitz/Engers bridge was rebuilt. There are fascinating (and sad I may add) photos taken in 1945. It was what was called "Trolley Mission Flights" that provided those images. You can read about this here: https://www.b24.net/trolley-missions-overview.htm Or if you can stomach seeing images of the bridge and many other bombed ruined places search for Trolley Mission Hindenburgbrücke on Google. notamermaid

Grin. Not quite. I was the companion to the audience member who got to decide how much more the victor was allowed to torment the looser of the fight. Reenactment can be so well done, whatever the topic. WWI, very moving for sure. I have always found the uniforms uncomfortable to look at when on display, but seeing it worn is kind of scary. Lost a great uncle in WWI. notamermaid

The other companies' loss. Why would you not have Richard and Rollo showing you around... I would love it. Happened to get involved, literally the situation got me, in an audience participation of a demonstration fight in an English castle, many years ago. They were two fabulous guys, knowledgeable and strong. Very fond memories, this girl has. @Canal archive that is a busy schedule you posted. Sorry to hear health did not cooperate. Not helped by that encounter especially. Some people... So good that Scenic sails into Honfleur. I would only sail with a company that sails that far, it is superior to turning in Caudebec-en-Caux in my opinion. notamermaid

Things are looking fine on the German Danube. Pfelling at 468cm, Passau at 551cm. notamermaid

Regularly. The fuse can very often still work and make the bomb explode when moved. All four were "easy" apparently in the end and were defused on site. Life has returned to normal. Stopping river traffic is unusual of course. Happened once last year that I know of (somewhere else on the Rhine). May have missed one other report. I think it was also once on the Moselle. If not last year then in a previous year. notamermaid

Could not find anything specific. Sounds a very probable explanation to me. Passau is a very busy place, has been struggling with allotting space in the old town in the past (just before Covid). The out of town port should not be a big deal. I am sure Viking will be very good at organizing this. notamermaid

Bombs in Rüdesheim Four WWII bombs in Rüdesheim need to be defused so all traffic has been halted including on the river. https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/rheinland-pfalz/mainz/vier-weltkriegsbomben-bei-ruedesheim-am-rhein-gefunden-100.html This map is a bit clearer, you can see that it is downstream from Rüdesheim: https://www.hessenschau.de/panorama/verkehr-gesperrt-entschaerfung-von-weltkriegsbomben-bei-ruedesheim-laeuft-v8,weltkriegsbomben-niederwalddenkmal-100.html It is estimated that the emergency situation will last till midnight. notamermaid