AnhaltER1960

Viking descriptions are accurate and worth being read carefully. * Passau-Salzburg Nine and a half hours. Looking on the map you will see a distance of 120 km (approx. 75 miles) and not much motorway. So expect a two and half hours busride (one way), leaving a bit over four hours in town. * There will be a lunch with some singers performing, thats another one and a half hours. * Guided walking tour "passing by" (=no inside visit) the Mozart house, "see the Domplatz" (from where ?) dominated by two churches, that also does not promise guided inside tours of those churches. Viking usually give some free time, together with the guided tour that leaves a net time of maybe two and a half hours in town. The programme "Romantic Danube" starts/ends in Regensburg. From there it is an easy (and cheap) 3 hrs- trainride to Salzburg, which is a small and compact city perfect for a DIY at the beginning or the end of your cruise.

After a long period without rain ( see notamermaids post #42) there had been a bit of rain in the recent two weeks, which stabilised the Elbe water levels at a level, which is a bit below the long-time average. Ups and downs at Dresden are controlled by water releases from the czech dams, apparently supporting ships downstream, which need it (so there is still enough water upstream to do that). Cruise ships are affected differently, depending on their itinerary. Viking sail the Elbe between Wittenberg and Decin (covering Berlin-Wittenberg and Decin-Prague by coach) and do not have any problems right now. Croisieurope sail all the way from Prague to Berlin and they are already in trouble, as they cannot negotiate the stretch from Decin upriver to Usti (where the first -or last if looking the other direction- Czech barrier is located; thus have to do ship swaps now.

In the last years trouble for the Viking ships started at Dresden readings below 90 cm. Keep in mind, these are readings of a fixed gauge against the water table, not the measurement of the depth of the water channel.

Yes, they do. They might ask for a minimum of, say, 5 pax to run a "leisurely" group. You will be asked to book on board.

Early May is usually not a time for concern about water levels. But what is usual with weather these days ? After an exceptionally wet winter with high water we say an almost completely dry March brought the water levels down to the long time average (see the post by notamermaid yesterday). No concern for sailing, but another dry month will make things look differently. Too early to give reliable predictions. Just follow this blog here... As far as Decin is concerned. Decin is located on both banks of the Elbe and rather an industry town and transportation hub. Not much of an historical old town. On the right bank of the Elbe there is a Renaissance castle, which looks more impressive from the outside than from the inside - it was military barracks since the 1930ies and ruined inside. They did some renovations in the last years, but you will see better buildings during your cruise. On the other side of the river there is a massive rock with a white mansion on top, there also is a small zoo. The mansion houses a restaurant, their quality does not match the view though. But the view is really hard to beat. Quite steep walking, cab might be an alternative.

Rush hour on the Elbe, Easter Monday at Wittenberg: The Elbe Princesse 2 (Croisi Europe) pulls out of Wittenberg en route to her next stop at Magdeburg, passing the Viking Astrild, just berthed at Wittenberg after having completed her Elbe sailing. Both parties will end up in Berlin - Croisi by boat on the Elbe to Magdeburg and canal to Berlin, Viking guests by bus to Berlin directly after a stop in Potsdam. PS @ curmudgeon98 : If I calculated correctly, that is the Elbe cruise you reported about.

Be aware that the Black Forest hills are 10 miles away from the river and you might just see some shadowy hills on the horizon even on a relatively clear day. So you can see it only on a bus tour and theses tours just scratch the surface. To see the Black Forest a land tour is the better option. In fact, as far as scenery is concerned, there is the stretch of the Rhine between Cologne/Bonn and Mainz, which is interesting/spectacular. That is one day of sailing out of ? The other parts are flat territory with sometimes a village or a city behind the dyke or hills in the distance, but a lot of interesting cities. Douro has landscape all the way, but no big cities apart from Porto and Salamanca.

Depends a bit on the direction youre interested in. If indeed Alps, then the train would be a viable option to get to Munich and further on to Garmisch/Füssen/Berchtesgaden/Oberstdorf - your choice. Train is quite cheap with a "Bavaria-Ticket", unlimited travel on local trains one day for 69 Euro/5 riders, which would bring you to Munich within two hours and to the the alps in four/five hours (exact tariff depends on, how many kids there are and their age). Train station in Vilshofen is about 1km away from the pier, which is walkable depending on luggage, weather ... Taxis should be available too, ask the reception onboard to call a "Grossraumtaxi" (this is a van taking 5+ ppl plus luggage). Transfer to the airport may be an alternative, as there are travel options from there, both train or car rentals (there is no car rental in Vilshofen). Transfers can be quite pricey though.

Ever thought about a DIY pre/post cruise from Basel. Hire a car for one day.

Look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_public_offering

Yesterday, Feb 13th there was the anniversary of the bombing of Dresden, which took place 79 years ago. Like this year, then it also was the high time of carnival, the bombing started at 10 in the evening on "Rosenmontag" (? Shrove monday). And indeed there are reports of people coming back in carnival costumes from their sessions, running into the fire storm. Other reports described people living in the affluent parts of town up the hills on the other bank of the Elbe viewing from their terraces the city ablaze. As the German writer Gerhart Hauptmann put it: "Those who unlearnt to cry, will learn it again at the doom of Dresden." On the other hand, this air raid also saved lives. We can read that in the diaries of Victor Klemperer, linguistics professor of jewish descent living in Dresden. The last jews living in Dresden in 1945 had received their deportation order in effect Feb 16th. The air raid had also destroyed the Gestapo headquarters, and the chaos enabled those, who survived the bombing (jews werent allowed into shelters or bunkers) to remove their yellow star and go underground, like Klemperer and his wife themselves. The diaries of Klemperer "I Shall Bear Witness" and "to the Bitter End" covering the years 1933 to 1945 ("Ich werde Zeugnis ablegen bis zum Letzten" in German) are among the most impressive readings about that period.

Standing on solid protestant ground here we dont do these papal extravaganza. And eating Berliners... tztztz, we are not cannibals, its "Pfannkuchen" (pancake)-territory. To be serious, there are some parades now, but it does not have much tradition. It may sound "Dessau Helau", but after a few beers you rather hear "viva colonia". But, having lived in Berlin in the 1980ies, I do not remember much of carnival activities there. This apparently has chaged since.

Visiting the Green Vault is one of the highlights Dresden has to offer. Otherwise it reads like a bus/walking tour and outside visits. Dresden, as you know, was heavily bombed during WWII. Destructions maily hit the Old Town, the historical center on the left bank of the Elbe. Some had been rebuilt, Zwinger, palace, Opera House, Church of Our Lady (Frauenkirche)... Other parts around Altmarkt/ Prager St had been rebuilt in soviet style and now form the commercial center. The right bank of the Elbe (Neustadt) was much less damaged, you will se that during the bus ride. So there is a part with plenty of history, a bit sterile and touristy, but lots of sights. Another part also sterile as far as architecture is concerned, but commercially busy and then the Neustadt, authentic, down to earth and lively. Small shops, art galleries, boutiques, cafes. It did not read, where the tour ends. When ending at Zwinger, the Gallery of Old Masters is one of the museums there and for sure a recommendation -they do have a cafeteria. When ending at the ship for lunch, which is moored close to the historical part, it will be a walk along Dresden's balcony, the Brühlsche Terassen towards Opera House/Zwinger for the Old Masters. Altmarkt gallery, a large shopping mall, is also within walking distance. Alternatively, cross the Albert bridge into Neustadt with the most interesting parts north of Bautzender Strasse, you saw already from the bus. A special highlight there is "Pfunds Molkerei", with c19 tiles, a nicely decorated shop, considered the finest dairy shop wordwide. More options include the funiculars from Körnerplatz near the old bridge "Blaues Wunder" (blue miracle, you saw already from the ship and probably also on the bus tour. There are two funiculars, both have some viewpoints and cafes at the top stations with fine views overlooking the city and river. And tramway line 4 to Radebeul gets you to the castles of the other bus tour. 12 Euro day pass....

While the Elbe valley around Dresden is attractive and does have indeed fine spots and castles ("saxon baroque castle" in this context sounds like Moritzburg to me .... though there are several of them), in mid-March there wont be much vegetation. So the parks and landscape can be rather bleak, even on a sunny day. Unless you are an absolute castle-addict, I would clearly recommend staying in Dresden proper. Plenty to see there, many bad-weather alternatives like museums or shopping -hope its not a sunday/shops closed or monday/museums closed. Even a baroque palace with gardens (Pillnitz, you will see it from the ship starboard side shortly before you reach Dresden) is an easy DIY using public transport.

Enjoy your trip. I cannot recall that there was an issue with water levels end of March.

Just to give an impression of the Christmas flood of the Elbe. The photo, taken on Dec 31st, shows Viking's Wittenberg docking place. One week before, Dec 25th, the last passengers disembarked the Viking Astrild there, before she moved (empty) downriver. Just about in time, before they needed the xxl-wellies. The Viking Beyla still seems to be stuck in Bohemia.

True, length does matter. But, as you noticed, there is not much of a difference between the Viking ships and the Croisi ships. The difference is the itinerary. Croisi ships have to pass the "Domfelsen Magdeburg" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domfelsen - a major obstacle in low water conditions. Wikipedia give the draft of the Swiss Ruby at 1, 20 mtrs, (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scylla_(Reederei) ). This would lose her some of the advantage of being shorter. There are several tour operators, which sail all the way into Prague, but usually only once or twice a year. The only ones, which have a wider choice of dates, are Viking and CroisiEurope. Oh yes, and a happy new year, too.

I am sorry, but I cannot confirm this. The Viking ships on the Elbe (Astrild and Beyla) do have roughly the same draft as Croisi's Elbe Princesse I and II have. So theyre stuck at the same times in case of low water. This year in October the Elbe Princesse was moored in some canal near Magdeburg, unable (or unwilling) to sail the Elbe - there are shallow bits near Magdeburg- at the same time when Viking had resumed sailing already. Croisi have the more attractive plan, sailing all the way from Berlin into Prague, over Viking who actually sail only between Wittenberg and Decin and do the Berlin and Prague ends by bus. However, the Viking plan is more stable in low water conditions and involves less bussing to reach the destinations in between. For example Wittenberg, the Viking boatel is already there, Croisi have a 4 hrs bus ride (return) from their mooring place to Wittenberg, just to do the same route again the next day to reach the other upriver destinations.

Indeed, April/May and November (and, in fact December, despite this years Christmas flood) are the safest bets for an uninterrupted journey. April/May, of course with the longer days and the fresh spring colours out there, are the more attractive months.

Looking on the map, options 3, 4 and 5 are on the same river (3 on the Rhine, 4 and 5 on the Danube), options 1, 2 and 6 are not. So they inevitably include a substantial part of bus tours even in the standard itinerary, not accounting for deviations necessary in high or low water situations. Read the programmes carefully, Viking have a tendency to use a bloomy language to obscure things. Also look at the maps given, the more straight lines, the more busses involved. There are pretty Christmas markets in all the cities, bigger and smaller ones. So chose the cities according to your preferences. First Advent next year will be Dec 1st, so expect Christmas markets to open in the last November days.

Wow, thats what I call a weather extreme. There had been plenty of rain here, but it must have been much worse in the Czech republic. And overnight the Elbe at the Czech/German border has doubled her discharge from around 400 cubic metres per second to 800 (in comparison: low water is around 100 cusec), resulting, of course, in higher water levels. Just having written "no trouble for this year...", that also caught me by surprise. However, Viking finish their sailings tomorrow, Dec 24th, so they just should be ok (I dont see the 500 cm for Dresden tomorrow yet). But maybe I should be careful with predictions those days... like our weather people: against all forecasts, which saw snow only in the hills above 600 mtrs altitude, we just had one hour of heavy snowfall.

Not really an issue. At 500 cm Dresden gauge, navigation is stopped. However, the Augustus bridge in Dresden poses a difficulty well below that level, as it is a bit narrow, located in a curve and with high current navigation downstream can become tricky. But those levels have not been reached now, and the Elbe has already peaked. So no trouble for this year.

Adding marzipan and also raisins give moisture to the Stollen. Trying without is risky, as the Stollen can become dry or as you put it, "boring". A good and experienced baker can manage, but youre also at the mercy of the storage conditions. And, yes I do eat Stollen.

Looks like the reservoirs on the Elbe and Moldova are filled now. Quite a wave coming down, Dresden gauge has risen by one metre within the last two days. Still far from flooding, which would impact sailing, but not peaked yet.

Miss to the left, miss to the right, rabbit on average dead :-). Anyway, around Christmas water levels are usually no issue. I cannot remember the river being too high in December, the last winter flood was in 2003, if I recall correctly. And that was in January/Feb. Draught might happen in summer/autumn, but not in winter. So enjoy planning.