RDVIK2016

I would like to see a photo from outboard to see if there was any damage below that deck. If not it shouldn't take much to cut out and patch that plate with the hole punched through. If they have to perform underwater work to repair that dolphin and/or bring in a crane that might be the more complicated job.

This high water should be in the Danube by now. This was the Regen at Cham four days ago - Near the end of the video Regensburg is shown, near where the Regen empties into the Danube. https://www.google.com/search?q=hochwasser+cham&client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=594350961&hl=en&sxsrf=AM9HkKkKOoiJ4t3FBq7htUQ5XfkPUATWHQ:1703821252689&source=lnt&tbs=qdr:w&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi5sJbk3LODAxUuEFkFHSQ7A4gQpwV6BAgCEAk&biw=1739&bih=961&dpr=0.9#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:27fc0c90,vid:ANd2PMsdbIM,st:0

notamermaid Over the years I have read many reports of the Regen going over its banks at various places. Much of the courses of the Regen and other small rivers - the Ilz, the Naab (especially the Waldnaab portion), the Regen and its tributaries, etc. - that reach the Danube from the north can be so beautiful You can't travel them except by canoe or raft, except, of course, the lower Altmühl that was dug up and incorporated into the Rhein-Main-Donau Canal despite much opposition. RDVIK

I would love to have a Rauschgoldengel, but it would be so much more satisfying to buy it in Nürnberg, especially at the Christkindlmarkt and ideally if we could be there for the Prolog when the Christkind opens the market. Realistically that may not happen for us, but we can maintain the hope.

Pushka, notamermaid's last link is to a radio report with transcription the speaks to the area of the Rhine at Karlsruhe. It says that river traffic was stopped last Tuesday, that would be 12 December and traffic was restarted at 1 AM in the night from Sunday the 17th into Monday the 18th. Hope this helps you set the time frame. Karlsruhe is about half way between Bingen and Basel, which are the limits of the Upper Rhine. RDVIK

notamermaid For someone like me who likes maps and lots of detail the Streckenatlas for the navigable German Danube is fun to study and it confirms the chart at the link you shared. https://www.gdws.wsv.bund.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/Karten/Streckenatlas/Streckenatlas_Donau.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=5 RDVIK

I brought the subject up so I felt bound to look a little more into it. I was looking at an old (2006) list of the bridges on the Danube. It seems that the rail bridge at Deggendorf has been replaced with a new bridge that has an HSW of 8 meters as opposed the the 4.4m of the old bridge. The railroad bridge at Bogen was shown on the old list as 4.6m, but Wikipedia says it is 5m, still slightly lower that the Luitpoldbrücke at 5.15m. However, I would not be surprised it the conditions at Passau are more problematic due to currents so close to the confluence of the three rivers. I believe I have seen somewhere that the Inn carries so much water during thaws that some of that huge volume forces water upstream into the Donau which could affect the clearance under the bridge. You have far better resources than any of us who look to you for information and tips, so sometime you may be able to confirm this. RDVIK

Notamermaid, The railroad bridges at Deggendorf and Bogen are even more problematic than the Luitpoldbrücke at Passau are they not? While still downstream from Passau in 2016 going from Budapest to Nürnberg the had been a lot of rain upstream and I asked one of the pilots/helmsmen of our ship which bridges he thought might cause us a problem and he said the one at Bogen was what they were watching most closely. (Looks to me like the one at Deggendorf would be even worse as it has a slightly lower passage height / Durchfahrtshöhe). It was fun talking to that pilot. My German was better than his and, as he was a Slovak, his Czech was much better than mine, but we got along well, especially when we tried to talk about some internationally famous Slovak ice hockey players. It is so gratifying to find common interests with people from all over. RDVIK

notamermaid In the Rheinland does Nikolaus commonly have a companion who accompanies him to children's homes, like a Knecht Ruprecht or Krampus? I wish you einen besinnlichen Advent RDVIK

Notamermaid, Yes if docked in Nussdorf it is just a short drive to several Heuriger. Our boats have docked much farther downstream, but I have a Viennese friend, a former classmate/foreign exchange student, who took us to his favorite Heuriger in Neustift. Another couple went along and when the other lady asked the waitress where the wine was from, thinking it was some fancy wine from the Wachau or some such, the waitress just pointed to the vineyard on the hill across the road. Such a nice tradition - and so Gemütlich there - all the more so when with someone like my friend who reminds one of Peter Alexander. VG RDVIK

Bier from the Weltenburg Abbey upstream from Regensburg (especially a dark beer) or the Hacklberg Brewery in Passau come to mind. They make some really good wines in Austria, but one of the best experiences is just relaxing at a Heurigen wine tavern with an inexpensive Grüner Veltliner Spritzer.

Black ice is scary - and I was just reading that studded (spiked) tires have not been permitted in Germany in many years, but I have not driven in the winter in Germany since 1972. My old VW had spiked tires all around when I drove in the winter in the Bayerwald and I could go about anywhere. They were so much help when the freezing fog would coat the asphalt with ice.

Indeed, notamermaid, "One candle is lit for the Hope of the age" - as ends the first verse of the hymn that we sang today. One of the greatest hopes would be for the realization of what next week's candle stands for: "the reign of God's Peace". Irreverently there is a funny Christmas season story from the Oberpfalz called "Apfent Apfent, der Bärwurz brennt" .. (Erst trinkst oan, dann zwoa - drei - vier...) from Toni Lauerer. Even Ilse Aigner, former Bavarian Landtagspräsidentin once read it for an Advent ceremony - what a hoot! Have a blessed Advent season! RDVIK

T Lex It's not often that I see any Czech, complete with the diacritical marks on Cruise Critic. Are you from a Czech community in Texas? Praha did not get hit with the snow as badly as southeast Bavaria did it? You'll be able to determine that on the road to Regensburg and cruise downstream from there. At least my Third Division Fußball team in Regensburg was able to play their game today. Games were cancelled in Munich yesterday where almost all transport shut down. Schneechaos!! Snow Chaos they called it. RDVIK

A visit I made a few years ago to the Plzeňský Prazdroj (Pilsner Urquell) brewery in Pilsen was very interesting, especially the tour down in the old tunnels. I have to say that the bottled export Pilsner Urquell that I occasionally get in the USA is not quite the same as the oak-barrel lagered draught version I was first introduced to in a small town not far from Pilsen many years ago. Otto Versand is still in business? It's been a long time since Otto and Quelle widely distributed their Sears-Roebuck style catalogs.

TLex, Were you able to visit one of the Christmas markets in Prague (v Praze)? šťastnou cestu!

Truly a great view from the Oberhaus. I have heard good things about the Heilig Geist Stiftschänke in town, but it was closed when we tried to go there. Anybody here have a review? We had very nice lunch at the Hacklberger Bräustüberl on the left bank of the Danube.

I am rather late to reply to this post, but I wanted to mention when we were in Regensburg on a Viking Cruise we took the optional tour to Weltenburg Abbey, which involved an excursion boat ride through the Donau Gorge. They had buses take us back to Kelheim and made a stop at the Befreiungshalle on the hill above the town. Before getting back to the longship we made another stop for a wheat beer in the Schneider Bräiujhaus beer garden. All in all a very nice excursion and absolutely made up for not getting to the Walhalla.

I have not had a classical education so I can't say that I was intentionally using the Latin possessive. Because of the influence of the Roman Catholic church, that is what St. Martin's Day is often referenced in "Old Bavaria" and Austria. It's often not Martinstag there, but Martinitag shortened to Martini. There are many small towns with yearly "Martiniritt" mounted processions. Same for Leonhardi on Nov. 6 with its Leohardiritte. St Stephan's Day also becomes Stefani. There are probably others, but those are the only three I am most familiar with because they are very commonly used. (By "Old Bavaria" I mean Altbayern: Oberbayern, Niederbayern, Oberpfalz) RDVIK

St Martin's day has the richest list of old farmers' sayings predicting how hard the winter will be based on the weather that. So be observant of the weather on Martini, 11/11, and we'll see if the Baurenregeln hold up this year.

My wife's family used to have a Christmas tree farm. We grew several different types of tree. Some trees hold their needles longer than others, some of stronger boughs to support more or heavier ornaments, some of a stronger scent, and of course some species grow better in some areas than others. Fraser firs where our most popular tree. The big farms in northern New England grow mostly balsam firs to be cut and shipped south to be sold as pre-cuts. We had a variety of fir (Tannen) and spruce (Fichten) trees to be selected in the fields for cutting fresh. Even had a type of Kiefer (pines) for a while but they did not go well. There is almost always a topper used and will be an angel or a star. I'd like some time to get a Nürnberger Rauschgoldengel. The Kaberettist Toni Laurerer describes the selling of biologically safely grown "Tyrolean giant dwarf firs" (Tirolische Riesenzwergtannen). LOL. If you have 10 minutes and are not scared off by his Oberpfälzer dialect you might enjoy this story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfIvgkWkRtY&t=604s

My wife's family here New England used to have a Christmas tree farm. We grew several different types of tree. Some trees hold their needles longer than others, some of stronger boughs to support more or heavier ornaments, some of a stronger scent, and of course some species grow better in some areas than others. We had a variety of fir (Tannen) and spruce (Fichten) trees to be selected in the fields for cutting. There is almost always a topper used and will be an angel or a star. I'd like some time to get a Nürnberger Rauschgoldengel.

We had the engineer. He plays a British military engineer who has limited access to the fortress and its plans, but who learns more about its construction than his German hosts intend.

Our cruise ship, Viking Tialfi on a Rhine Getaway intinerary, docked at Braubach, as had all the others I had been watching prior to our cruise. Therefore we chose to sign up for the optional bus excursion to Ehrenbreitstein. After the fortress tour we took the Seilbahn across the river and the bus picked us up there and took us back to the ship. If the boat docked at Deutsches Eck we might have skipped a Viking excursion for a visit on our own of the Rhein-Museum. As it turned out the actor-guide who led our group at the fortress was very entertaining. RDVIK

Interesting that Viking Idun is docked just upstream of Deutsches Eck. I thought all of the Rhine Getaway longships docked further upstream and on the opposite bank at Braubach. Das Deutsche Eck would have been a great spot to tie up at. We enjoyed the Seilbahn/gondola from Ehrenbreitstein which I cannot make out in the photo.