RDVIK2016

It is such a marvel that Roman aqueducts still stand. How long will the concrete trough bridges of the canals survive? By the way it seemed to be a remarkable sight to be on board a river cruise ship passing over a busy highway. RDVIK

I was just thinking that they might have been able to operate the canal for several years while it was still relatively new with minimal closures for only minor repairs. The full length between Bamberg on the Main and Kelheim on the Danube wasn't opened until 1992, although parts of it from each end had been opening for several years prior. I haven't searched too deeply, but I did find a few articles describing such things as the need to clean sediment from the Hilpoltstein lock on a periodicity of five years, and that the lock at Erlangen and some other place required major repairs a few years ago, but that was after 20 years of use. On the WSV website there are schedules for closures everywhere in Germany. You can search by watercourse and year. The schedules for future years are not complete, but for previous years it is interesting to see how many closures, planned and emergent, some just overnight, that there were. I only looked a the Main-Danube section. This year looks like a big year for planned repairs, taking up most of April, but in other years it looks like they have been planning much of the work as early as mid-March and into only the first week or so of April. RDVIK https://www.elwis.de/DE/dynamisch/mvc/main.php?modul=schleuse

For how many years have shutdowns been occurring at this time for annual lock maintenance? Viking's Romantic Danube itinerary used to travel on the canal as far as Nürnberg, with the other terminus at Budapest. However, not too many years ago they cut out that part of the itinerary - for the better in several ways. It made sense to cut it whether they were forced to by maintenance or not. There are 12 time consuming locks between Regensburg and and Nürnberg. My wife and I took this cruise in 2016 starting in Budapest. On the last full day we were transferred on to buses at a dock opposite the Nürnberg shipping terminal and driven into the city. When our walking tour was done we were taken back to the ship which had moved up to Erlangen - to another industrial area. The ship took all night and more to make the trip. You can drive from Regensburg to Nürnberg in 1.5 hours. They would have been just as well off to offer a day trip to Nürnberg from the dock at Regensburg. Another thing was that use of the upper deck was restricted while on the canal because of the low bridges, one of which crushed the wheelhouse of a Viking longship that had failed to retract. That was just a few months after our trip. RDVIK

It looks like it is just the Regen that will be exceeding the first one or two warning levels. The upper Danube does not appear to be carrying excessive water, nor the Naab, so the Danube should stay within its banks. Also there is no heavy snowpack in the Bavarian Forest. The Isar and Vils seem OK now also, the German Danube ought to be in good shape for a while. RDVIK

@notamermaidYou are not saying that a starling (structure) is called a "Star" in German are you? Doesn't German stick better descriptive work for such structures "Eisbrecher"? Those "ledolamy" (Czech for icebreakers) made of wooden poles protecting the Charles Bridge over the Vltava (Moldau) in Prague are interesting. RDVIK

Thank you! You reminded me that I have seen that URL issue elsewhere, e.g. bad-koetzting.de for Bad Kötzting in my old stomping grounds. One place name I have thought curious was Flossenbürg which seems never to be written with "ß" but always with "ü", and now that you mentioned it I looked and they do use the "ue" in their internet address. (hadn't registered with me before) It was a quasi-pilgrimage for me to go to the KZ Flossenbürg site because it was the site of the execution of Pfarrer Dietrich Bonhoeffer (by the way - always "oe" and not "ö"). And they say that (daß/dass) German is easy to spell correctly. *grins* RDVIK

notamermaid To call upon the orthographic aspect of your admitted language nerdiness I have a question about how I wrote Königswinter. I had spelled it Koenigswinter. Normally I would have used the umlaut, but my American English keyboard requires me to type ALT 0246, so five key strokes vs. two for oe. I know the orthographic reforms of the 90s were controversial and for a long time thought that the infrequent use of the two-letter combinations was more resistance to the reforms than anything else. I guess I was wrong about that. RDVIK

Notamermaid, I have been meaning to ask, if any major cruise lines among those that cater to English speakers includes a visit to the Drachenfels in an itinerary. It seems like visiting Koenigswinter, a trip up the Drachenfelsbahn, seeing the Drachenfels ruin and/or the Schloss Drachenburg would be very nice. RDVIK

The brewer that sharkster77 mentioned, Sam Adams, back in the 1980's satisfied the Reinheitsgebot with its Boston Lager and could sell it in Germany. The owner and founding brewer, Jim Koch, has since criticized the purity law as a kind of "artistic censorship" of brewers. I don't think the current label of Boston Lager claims that it satisfies the German Reinheitsgebot. Already in the mid 1500's other ingredients other than just barley, hops, and water were permitted until today the Vorläufiges Biergesetz incorporates many changes to the original. It remains the case, though, that very high standards are maintained. Heck, where would even the Bavarians be if they could not have their wheat beer and if we had to depend on placing the brewery next to a bakery to get the benefit of the yeast cells floating around in the air. As Haidling says "Mir kannst no a Weissbier bringa !" RDVIK

Viking has about 20 boats docked at Freudenau on the downstream side of Vienna.

Looks like the US Navy has some shiny new camels. Probably made from composite. In a way they're really just fancy fenders, but needed because of the shape of a submarine hull and the various external structures they might have below the waterline at the dock. (photo is a screenshot from google maps at Subbase New London)

Search on "dolphin (structure)", "breasting dolphin", "mooring dolphin". You should be able to find something. I just found a reference to such dolphins in relation to Portland harbor near Bournemouth. The German word is "Dalbe" that has an interesting etymology. I would tell you we call them dolphins on our side of the pond, but you might think it is only because Americans speak English kind of funny. Dolphins can be a group of piles bound together, or a steel tube driven into the riverbed, etc. Here's some nearby to me at a ferry slip on the Thames River (pronounced /θeɪmz/ not /tɛmz/) in Connecticut, USA (as an example of us speaking funny). Also here is something for your engineers to read. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/375074600_Performance-based_design_of_berthingmooring_dolphin_structure_considering_geotechnical_and_structural_constraints_under_offshore_load_conditions

notamermaid, I can imagine how many needles remain on trees the are kept inside until Candlemas! As a bit of a language nerd myself I will point to what is most common use of that genitive form of Maria that I am aware of: Mariä Himmelfahrt - Assumption of Mary. Many churches carry that name, including the Stadtpfarrkirche in a certain Bavarian town where no one had windows closer than I did to the bells in the steeple. That was a little too close, but I do love the sound of church bells in Germany. RDVIK

notamermaid, My warm memories from Bavarian Forest started when I served in the US Army and spent three years living in small towns there (smaller than Cham)! I remember the vacationers coming there. My wife and I spent 3 days there after our post-cruise extension in Prague after the cruise ended in Nürnberg. Rather than take the normal Viking-arranged flight home from Prague we and another couple hired a van and driver to take us to Cham where we rented a car and spent time in the area before flying home from Munich. Viking arranged for the change in departure airport and date. Another time we had Viking make our flight to Munich early and spent 10 days pre-cruise in the Bavarian Forest, Regensburg and Salzburg before boarding the boat in Passau. A drive from Regensburg to Prague by the usual route would not be real special, maybe from Passau, though, through some of the nicest parts of he national forests on both sides of the border. Many years ago an American magazine for car enthusiasts, Road & Track, rated the road from Bodenmais to Bad Kötzting as one of the most scenic in Germany, but I think the more or less parallel road closer to the Czech border is prettier now. RDVIK

The Regen drains most of the mountainous Bavarian Forest where it is getting a little colder, so much of the precipitation will stay there as snow for a while - at least above 500 meters or so. That should help limit levels in the Danube upstream of Passau.

That red dot in southwest Czechia is at the medieval gem Český Krumlov on the Vltava (Moldau) that river cruisers can visit when docked at Linz on the Danube. It sure would be a shame to have serious damage to Český Krumlov. On this chart there is an awful lot of red for Level 3 flooding which in their chart they label as "ohrožení" (threat/danger). https://hydro.chmi.cz/hppsoldv/hpps_prfdyn.php?lng=ENG&seq=307039&lng=CZE&lng=ENG&lng=CZE&lng=ENG

notamermaid, As you say rivers in Bavaria have been rising again. The Danube tributary Regen at Cham hit their Meldestufe 3. This video from a TV service for eastern Bavaria, based in Regensburg, describes the situation status of the river and how they are handling it. By the way the text provided in the news article that accompanies the video mentions the Florian Geyer Brücke in Cham. This was the bridge the young boys were defending in the 1959 antiwar film "Die Brücke". The original bridge has been replaced, but the memory of the events depicted on that bridge in the film is still strong. Hope you are having a good start to the new year - or as they say in Cham "An guadn Rutsch und a guads neis Johr!" RDVIK https://www.tvaktuell.com/landkreis-cham-erneut-warnung-vor-hochwasser-580450/

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