The river Neckar infos and experiences

[ural guy]

I just noticed this thread also, and the above suggestion about a 'machinery' tour would interest me.

 

My daughter/her bf, spouse, we all spent 3 hours in the Technik museum in Speyer last week and were overwhelmed.  You almost need a return visit to properly take in all that they have.  The 747 that is up on supports, at an angle, that you walk through, and can go out on the wing...crazy spectacular, along with the Soviet copy of the Space Shuttle.  Happy to see Buffalo NY representing with a hook and ladder fire truck on display.

 

The Louman museum, with its 260+ cars on display in The Hague would pair well.

 

A visit to any old mining operation, train museum, industrial factory (great weaving factory tour in Scotland, big focus on water power aspect) would be more interesting to me than another cathedral or castle ruin.  

 

I would think there are enough repeat cruisers that some of the secondary cities and towns/attractions would have enough interest to fill a couple of boats.  How hard would it be to partner up with a kayak or rafting company (you're on a river), with a stop at a beer garden?  Having also just stopped in Heidelberg on a grey winter day,  the foot traffic on the pedestrian way was busy, I would not want to be there in June-September.

 

We will be looking at some of the smaller ship routes in the future.

[notamermaid]

19 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

I didn't even realize you had a thread for the Neckar!  Will add it to the index.

Thank you. There is little happening on the Neckar as regards river cruising so quite frankly little to say...

 

With the restrictions in ship size it will take a few years before we can call this a popular river. But Heidelberg is of course as popular as a non-Rhine Rhine river cruise stop can get - I posted about it some time back in this thread.

 

I noticed that I have mentioned Stuttgart a few times, but not specifically in the context of Christmas markets. It is a city and naturally has a large market during Advent. I have not been, but it has been recommended to me. Here is the info with some photos: https://www.stuttgarter-weihnachtsmarkt.de/en/home/

 

I said that there are no river cruises in winter on the Neckar. Now, December is also winter sort of, so I checked if there are Christmas market cruises. Interestingly. yes there are, but I nearly missed this as they are not in the German catalogue of CroisiEurope! In 2023 and again in 2024 I found them on the .com website of the company and through another search criteria confirmed that this itinerary is only offered in English. The itinerary does not come up on the German agency website. Here it is: https://www.croisieuroperivercruises.com/cruise/delightful-christmas-markets-necker-valley-fairytale-like-rothenbourg-ob-der-tauber-port-to-port-package-classic

Okay, it is a round trip that does not go up the river as far as Stuttgart but, still, it is a different area to the Rhine and you actually get to sail into Heidelberg rather than be driven. And of course you see CroisiEurope's home town of Strasbourg.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[notamermaid]

7 hours ago, ural guy said:

I just noticed this thread also, and the above suggestion about a 'machinery' tour would interest me.

I am working on the machinery tour. Seriously, I would like to see an itinerary like that. The Hague - sounds interesting. I am a girl and certainly not a tech person, but I like old machinery. (Did I mention before that I love steam railways? ) Car museum? Fine by me. Locks and dams and mines all interesting stuff.

 

A real boys' itinerary would be good. Just saying. Naturally, drag the interested wives and girlfriends along. A company can always build a castle/mansion/palace visit into the itinerary. Tons of them about and on the Neckar not just in Heidelberg.

 

Oh, and Ludwigsburg Palace has a Christmas market, too: https://visit.ludwigsburg.de/start/weihnachtsmarkt

 

notamermaid

 

 

Edited January 8 by notamermaid
adde info and link

[Canal archive]

Must have been my dad’s influence as any form of machinery/building/technical wizardry has always fascinated me and my sister was one of the first apprentices accepted into Portsmouth Dockyard, yes she was a dockyard matey if someone of just 5ft 2ins can be called that. There are some amazing construction conundrums to be seen during river cruising not least - how the ***** did they build that up there so many hundreds of years ago to say the Delta works in Holland what a feat of engineering. We actually got to speak to an engineer on our tour to the extent that our bus because all of us were so fascinated was just a little late back to the boat. So much to see and so little time to see it in.

[notamermaid]

I like the idea of a few more tech people during river cruises explaining things. The challenge is always the language if you have foreign visitors. But it can be done. Sometimes it is just the extra bit of confidence and help that is needed, then it is doable. Ten years back now - I think - I was asked to help taking visitors round a sewage treatment plant. Those that were chosen to show the guests around spoke basic English, but were a bit challenged. So I learnt the words and basics of the system in English within a week and together we did a joint effort in German and English.

 

The Neckar is a good river for a different, more industrial and technology approach I find. There are some interesting things for those with a feel of too many castles and cathedrals.

 

There may be an itinerary that just needs a bit of adapting and then could keep those happy that want steel, motors and engineering. I will come back to that.

 

The river is not that long so an itinerary only on the Neckar would be underwhelming. There are only 201.5 navigable kilometres. Still, I do not think many more kilometres on another river are needed to attract European customers to an itinerary. I would start in Stuttgart and end in Koblenz on the Rhine quite happily. That would be a nice distance for a five day cruise.

 

notamermaid