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The Elbe river 2018 - not just water levels


notamermaid
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As expected, the rain made the river level rise and it has already peaked at Dresden, with the level falling again. Still, after a low of under 70cm before the rain Dresden is now at 86cm. That is not official low water status and from what previous posters have reported could still just be high enough for the modern vessels. Downstream from Dresden the situation will be a little better still today. Fingers crossed that you are sailing right now and I hope that it will rain in the Bohemian hills today.

 

 

Vinelvr, thank you for joining this thread. From past articles and comments on the internet it appears that Viking has a policy of not cancelling any river cruise for water related issues (unless the situation is completely dire I suppose). It is up to the customer to cancel if they do not want to be presented with the possibility of bussing instead of sailing. A couple of posters have reported of their happy "land-trip-with-river-cruise-of-little-sailing", others have not enjoyed Viking's plan B. I would think that it can be stressful if one does not know what to expect in such situations, especially if they have problems with mobility.

 

 

I hope your trip goes ahead as planned with little or no disruption.

 

 

notamermaid

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We are taking the June 12th Elbe river cruise with Viking. We have been advised that the river is low and we may not be sailing. They will bus us from docked ship to docked ship if necessary. They have not cancelled the trip.

 

Which way are you travelling ? Pague - Berlin on the Astrild or Berlin - Prague on the Beyla ?

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Another wave coming down the Elbe, which now just has reached Dresden. Apparently there was some rainfall in the Czech Republic.

@ Vinelvr (if you can read that): I dare the forecast, that you will be sailing, at least most of the planned route. Enjoy the trip.

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Great! The river level at Dresden peaked at 145cm this morning. For the time being enough water then for cruising. It also helps that the temperatures have dropped, although for the locals it might feel almost chilly compared to last week!

 

 

Have a great cruise.

 

 

notamermaid

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Did an easy bet. Even Viking have removed their warning of low waters of the Elbe from their website.

 

Again this shows, how volatile river levels and certainly the Elbe can be. I wish all Elbe cruisers a pleasant journey. The lower temperatures for the time being will also make city tours more conveniant.

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With water levels currently and probably for the next 10/14 days no issue, at least for the viking ships on the Elbe (still not sure, what the Elbe Princesse is doing), it is time to look at some cultural events.

 

 

On Saturday, June 30th there will be a night of museums in Dresden. All Dresden museums will be open from 6 pm until 1 am Sunday morning. There will be special events in the museums (often live music, interactive programmes etc.) and special bus shuttles serving all venues. More infos here https://museumsnacht.dresden.de/de/foreign-visitors.php

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Did an easy bet. Even Viking have removed their warning of low waters of the Elbe from their website.

 

Again this shows, how volatile river levels and certainly the Elbe can be. I wish all Elbe cruisers a pleasant journey. The lower temperatures for the time being will also make city tours more conveniant.

Low water warning is back on Viking website :(

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That is a great pity. Not surprising, though, as the river level at Dresden has fallen to 78cm. High temperatures with little rain for today, tomorrow and Thursday; after that rain and falling temperatures.

 

 

notamermaid

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Wittenberg will be celebrating "Luther's Wedding" on the second weekend in June, commemorating the wedding between Martin Luther and Katharina von Bora in 1525. That is is year the weekend from June 8th to 10th. It is one of the largest public festivities in Germany with an attendance of around 100.000 people during the weekend. Parades in historical costumes, medieval music, markets, plenty to see, taste, smell, hear.

 

This was a treat and unexpected bonus for our day in Wittenberg. Such an interesting town. I learned much from our tour of the Luther House and then we enjoyed the festival. If only I had bought more than one pair of Luther socks!

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  • 2 weeks later...

The first report for the season on low water is out. Issued by the German Institute for Hydrology it is dated 29 June and just headlined "Low water is approaching". For the Elbe it is interesting to read in the report that low water has been more or less a constant companion on that river since 2014. Unlike the Rhine and the Danube the Elbe is not fed by the Alps high mountain range and therefore does not get a constant flow of slowly melting snow during the warm months.

 

 

In addition, it has been unusually dry and warm especially in the East and Northeast of Germany (which will have partly affected the border regions of the Czech Republic as well) this Spring/early Summer.

 

 

Unfortunately, this shows in the figures: Dresden is currently at 63cm. The authorities have issued a warning for Dresden of a high risk of forest fires.

 

 

The weather prognosis does not look too good. We have relatively stable weather conditions with high temperatures, maximums even in the East could reach between 28 and 31 degrees again today. After a bit of rain and slightly cooler temperatures over 30 degrees could be reached again. When you look to Litomerice upstream on the Elbe you will find a similar weather pattern compared to Dresden: https://www.wetteronline.de/wettertrend/litomerice Just look at the temperatures in Celsius in the middle of the page. Not much help with rain coming from the Czech Republic.

 

 

 

notamermaid

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Thanks for the update. However, Viking has removed the Elbe from it's webpage for the past couple weeks.

 

 

https://www.vikingrivercruises.com/my-trip/current-sailings/index.html

It is very deceiving of Viking, our 7/2 cruise also did not have any warning on the website. Well, we are NOT sailing... They bus us for 3-4 hours every day, all tours are cut short to compensate for driving time, we do not have any time in any of the stops as we come, have short tour and leave back to the ship. We also had to swap boats, we had about 2 and a half hours in Dresden instead of the whole day, we were told not to unpack and are living out of our suitcases. I can go on and on, this cruise is a disaster.

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I noticed that Viking's page was not up to date yesterday. I would not rely on the website, but for my own cruise, if I had any questions, I would phone the cruise line. The river is low, too low to sail, according to local newspapers (over there in the Elbe region) even the old steamships only sail part of their schedule. Dresden is at 61cm.

 

Added: the first update to the hydrological report on low water is out and quite frankly it sounds dire for the East of Germany. Here is the report and just to hint you in the right direction of what the situation is like. You do not need to read any German text. Look at Abb. 2 https://www.bafg.de/DE/07_Nachrichten/20180629_2_download.pdf?__blob=publicationFile You can make out Dresden on the map and the line with lots of orange dots is the Elbe. The dots mean official low water. You can see that it has the most such dots of any major river in Germany. By the way, the line above Munich is of course the Danube, also getting low.

 

sk99, sorry to hear about your experience. And thank you for taking the time to post.

 

 

notamermaid

Edited by notamermaid
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I just read a report that the Dresden steamers are running on a reduced schedule with missing stops. Plus they do take less fuel and water and less passengers to reduce the weight and therefore the depth. They need usually 78 cm but the Elbe river had only 63 two days ago. With those 63 cm the ships bottom was scratching the bottom of the river.

 

 

There´s no way for any of the river cruise ships right now to cruise.

 

 

steamboats

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Thanks for the update. However, Viking has removed the Elbe from it's webpage for the past couple weeks.

 

Now back on. However, it was a surprise they removed that warning at all. They had it on for weeks, wehen they still could sail, but didnt flag when all ships were grounded.

 

It is "Rien ne vas plus" on the Elbe right now. Viking were the last ones to sail, as they heve two ships in the Elbe, who do not leave the river and therefor can avoid some really shallow parts around Magdeburg. The Elbe Princesse, who did not complete her sailing on the Elbe in June, will certainly have difficulies towards the end of the month, when she is scheduled to sail the Elbe again.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Still no cruises on the Elbe possible. And, with no(t much) rain in sight in the next days, the situation will probably continue for a while. Elbe Princesse is not sailing and the Viking ships are moored as hotelships in Dresden and Wittenberg with lots of bussing in between.

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You can get them on the internet. Simply to google.

 

I will do that! My surname is one letter less than yours (the n) and I always thought there was a connection but family tree says not. I can only wish!

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The situation on the Elbe is unchanged. No cruise ship is sailing. The Viking Beyla is moored at Wittenberg, the Viking Astrild in Dresden. Passengers are transported by bus.

 

 

The Elbe Princesse has also converted her Elbe cruise into a bus tour, as the vessel did not get into the Elbe from Magdeburg.

 

 

Weather forecast ist on hot and dry summer weather without any rain in sight, so the (non)-cruise situation will not change in the next days.

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AnhaltER 1960,

 

 

the situation on the Elbe looks really bleak. I am almost shocked to read the figures. Dresden is at 46cm this lunchtime. With Prague also showing high temperatures I doubt the Vltava is sending any more than a trickle to the Elbe... The orange dots indicating low water levels are reaching from the border with the Czech Republic to almost Hamburg now.

 

 

I cannot imagine that just one thunderstorm will help, you need lots of rain spread over several days over there.

 

 

The river Rhine is showing up the "Hungersteine" now, always an indicator for drought with us.

 

 

Yesterday the East of the country was rivalling our valley for the highest temperature of the day, in the end Bernburg in Saxony-Anhalt "won the battle".

 

 

I hope you can escape the heat or make the best of it with trips to swimming pool or beer garden.

 

 

 

notamermaid

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The Elbe is so shallow, it even saved lives. Near the small town of Aken a 78-year-old driver drove down the ferry pier into the river (maybe he saw a ferry as a fata morgana, but there wasnt any). But the car did not get into deep water, so the driver could be saved by someone walking to the car and simply opening the door....

 

 

Indeed, some thunderstorm would not help. There had been some around since saturday, but the rainfall was shortlived and came down only locally, thus not really raising the Elbe water level sustainably. Now only a Genoa low, type Vb (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genoa_low) does help.

 

 

 

For the time being, however, no sailing possible on the Elbe. The situation is unchanged grom my recent posts. Viking have the Beyla berthed in Wittenberg, the Astrild berthed in Dresden and do bus tours with a ship swap instead. As far as I am aware, no other operator has Elbe cruises scheduled these days.

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