The Elbe river 2019 - not just water levels

[notamermaid]

You were right to get a little worried, seeing how steadily the Elbe level has dropped through April. At 103cm she is low but I am not familiar with how low it needs to be before river cruise ships get problems. With rain clouds sweeping into the Czech Republic I hope the Elbe in Germany will profit from that.

 

While we wait for the river's reaction let us have a look at what Deutsche Welle thinks is great about Saxony: https://www.dw.com/en/10-reasons-to-love-saxony/g-18418738

 

notamermaid

 

[AnhaltER1960]

It has been raining quite a lot since end of April, reducing the rate of decline of the Elbe water table. Was about time, as the first boats got into increased alert. No cancellations yet, but the low water table requires careful maneuvering on the river, therefore less speed, therefore longer sailing time = reduced time in ports, amended schedules. Most of the rain was soaked up by the meadows, by the soil, which is still too dry as a result of last years drought.

 

The actual weather situation with a low-pressure-area in the Czech republic looks (at least to me) like a Genoa-Low type Vb, bringing humidity from the Mediterranean/Adriatic Sea around the eastern Alps and pushing enormous amounts of rain from the north against the Bohemian hills and the Alps. Depending on how stable this low pressure area keeps its position, they can bring lots of rain, this sort of weather produced the Elbe floods of 2002, 2005, 2013 and others, also floods of the Danube.

 

So, bring some raincoats, as a price for future cruisers into the summer.... They will thank you.

[notamermaid]

Thank you very much for the info. I saw the low pressure area over the Czech Republic and was wondering how much water that would give the Elbe. Hopefully a steady flow but no flooding. The rain is indeed being pushed into Bavaria and spread along the Alps. I fear this will cause flooding along the Danube, seeing that the Danube and her tributaries are getting rain at the same time rather than one small area one after the other. Bavaria (along with other areas of Germany) is on alert.

 

notamermaid

 

[Belle Star]

We just returned from a Viking river cruise on the Elbe starting in Prague and ending in Berlin. The water levels were perfect; we were able to successfully navigate to each port. The weather was quite cool for May; we brought jackets and turtleneck sweaters and were glad we did. 

[notamermaid]

On 5/21/2019 at 4:11 PM, Belle Star said:

We just returned from a Viking river cruise on the Elbe starting in Prague and ending in Berlin. The water levels were perfect; we were able to successfully navigate to each port. The weather was quite cool for May; we brought jackets and turtleneck sweaters and were glad we did. 

Good to hear you had a nice time.

 

The weather has certainly changed. The East of Germany has recorded the highest temperature so far this year and topped yesterday's list for Germany. A small town in Brandenburg state recorded 35.1 degrees Celsius!

 

Rain is coming with thunderstorms - hail as well unfortunately - and will cool the area down a bit.

 

Water levels have dropped, but do not appear to reach lows soon that could affect river cruising.

 

notamermaid

 

[dolllover]

I would love to do this cruise one day. It will either be with Croisi Europe or Viking. If it turns into a bus trip so be it. The country side can be as beautiful as the rivers and sometimes more so. I would want to go in early spring to better my chances of sailing on the Elbe. 

[notamermaid]

Historic ship sinks on the Elbe

 

The Elbe in Hamburg and downstream is much different from the river you might know from sailing much further upstream around Dresden. The Elbe is dredged out deep and navigable for ocean going vessels. Yesterday a large ship hit a historic schooner downstream from Hamburg, near the town Stade not far from the mouth of the river. The "Elbe no. 5" sank. All passengers and crew were saved. The schooner had just come back, in May to be precise, from restoration in Denmark. Here is the article from the BBC: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-europe-48572308

 

notamermaid

 

 

[suspaul]

notamermaid, small world, we used to live in Stade and visited a few months ago.

[AnhaltER1960]

While the water table of the Elbe is well below a long-term average and the wave of the last low-pressure system has gone, the water is stable. Rainfall today in Saxony and Bohemia, more forecast the next couple of days, will put cruises safe to sail until into July (my forecast, no guarantee though). All cruisers on the Elbe this week enjoy your trip, but prepare for some rain, though the rain will be warm.

 

So this is much better than last year. Last year at the same time there already was low water with ship swaps, cancellations and bussing. Nothing like that this year. The only cancellation ive heard of was the Junker Jörg, a couple of weeks ago. They cancelled her last cruise upriver to Dresden fearing she would be stuck in Dresden and then missing her summer season in the Baltic Sea. Wrong decision, she could have sailed in and out of Dresden despite her draft of 1,25 m.

 

Next weekend Wittenberg will be celebrating Luthers Wedding again (494th anniversary, if I remember correctly), plenty of medieval music, market, cherry beer on one of the largest public festivals in Germany.

[notamermaid]

Thank you for the info on the situation on the Elbe.

 

What is cherry beer, I have never heard of it. Really made from sweet cherries?

 

notamermaid

 

[AnhaltER1960]

16 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

What is cherry beer, I have never heard of it. Really made from sweet cherries?

 

 

It is beer, but cherry juice/syrup was added to make it quite sweet. Nothing for the purists though. My wife, however, loves it.

[notamermaid]

I hope Wittenberg had a nice celebratory weekend and you likewise were able to spent the time with whatever you enjoy doing at the weekends. I often work at weekends, so tend to miss out on festivals and the like. On the plus side I can go shopping when the shops are empty Mondays to Thursdays, always practical. Beer with cherry juice, hmm, not sure if I could warm to that.

 

I have seen that the Dresden gauge has fallen to 82cm, meaning it is officially on low water. What is the situation like, especially with the heatwave coming next week?

 

notamermaid

 

[AnhaltER1960]

6 hours ago, notamermaid said:

I have seen that the Dresden gauge has fallen to 82cm, meaning it is officially on low water. What is the situation like, especially with the heatwave coming next week?

 

6 hours ago, notamermaid said:

 

>>> The region here has been the heatpole of Germany, sometimes even Europe quite often in the recent weeks, so nothing new. So far the heat has been accompanied with high humidity, often resulting in thunderstorms. Meaning some rainfall every now and then. Though thunderstorms look more dramatic than they are in terms of precipitation. Too short rainfall, too locally to have impact on a river. So the water table of the Elbe has held steady with slow decline, resulting in the water level of now 82 cm at Dresden, which you mentioned. However, I am not aware of any disruptions yet as far as Viking are concerned. Not 100 % sure about Croisieurope though, as they sail another itinerary

 

Remembering from last year, sailing of the Viking and Croisi Europe ships with a draft of 90 to 95 cm got into trouble with the Dresden reading falling clearly below 80 cm (other ships, which draw 120 cm or so, are out with those water levels, but as far as I oversee it, they are not sailing the Elbe right now anyway). So, still a bit of reserve, but some rain in Bohemia would be heplful.    

 

Edited June 22, 2019 by AnhaltER1960
quote

[AnhaltER1960]

Oh, by the way, that Cherry Beer is some Belgian stuff. Indeed not to everybodies taste.

 

Talking about Belgium: Philippe, Le Roi des Belges (Belgian king) and his wife will visit Wittenberg on July 10th. He could (probably will) see there the grave of his (12x) Great-grandfather, Elector John the Steadfast in the Castle Church.

 

As far as I see it, no cruise ship is scheduled to be in town that day though.

[AnhaltER1960]

At the time of posting Viking does not give any notification of schedule changes.

 

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

 

However, the high temperatures of this week, more heat to come, hitting the 100 Fahrenheit on Sunday again and no rain in sight, the water table of the Elbe has dropped significantly. It now is on a level which last year brought the Elbe operations to a stop. So I do not place a high bet, that the Viking Astrild, which reached Wittenberg today on her downstream cruise, will leave on Saturday for the next upstream cruise.

[notamermaid]

Thanks for the info. So here we go again, low water. Hopefully just a brief interval. I have seen the orange dots on the water levels map now extent along the Elbe for quite some kilometres.

 

I have just noticed on an online weather map that on Sunday there will be another attempt at reaching the 40 degrees Celsius mark. Most likely place will be Frankfurt am Main, but Leipzig will not be far off with 39 forecast and areas along the Elbe not far behind.

 

notamermaid

 

[AnhaltER1960]

Since this tread is not only on water levels (though that topic might dominate in the near future), I want to draw your attention to Dresden.

 

Dresden does not only have wonderful museums, they also do special event: Long night at the museums on Saturday, July 6th. https://museumsnacht.dresden.de/index_de.php

 

All museums open extra from 6 pm until 1 am, will stage special events, concerts pp. Plenty of fun and, yes its going to be crowded.

[AnhaltER1960]

Buses and ship swap on the Elbe from now on. The water is too low to allow sailings.

 

Viking Astrild is moored in Wittenberg and did not leave upstream, Viking Beyla lies in ? Dresden (thats what the cruistrackers say). The Croisi-ships are probably in the canal between Berlin and Magdeburg, the other in the Moldau between Melnik an Prague, where they can sail. But 300 miles in between as a bus job.

 

Certainly not good news for all passengers booked on the Elbe now, as this dry period seems to remain a while. My guess from now, minimum 14 days and further depending on rain, if there is any to fall. It requires more than a few drops or even a thunderstorm, it needs a complete change of weather now. Pray ...

[arlowood]

Hi there

This is bad news for my wife and I. We are booked on the Viking Astrild leaving Wittenberg on 18th July. Looks like we will be enjoying some extended coach trips rather than the expected river cruise. We knew that the Elbe was problematic but this extended hot spell has just compounded the issue. Don't suppose a wet spell in the next 2 weeks will change things much.

No word yet from Viking

Edited June 29, 2019 by arlowood
msspelling

[notamermaid]

arlowood,

Sorry about the bad news.

While I hope that the river will rise again sufficiently I must admit though that last year has dampened my spirits about speedy changes for the better. Hope it works out well for you - and all the others on the next sailings.

 

To be realistic - I admit it may sound a bit brutal in your state of  wondering about your cruise - last year Viking was not in the good books of quite a few cruisers as they felt the company had informed them at too short notice. In fairness, Viking cannot say now what will happen with your cruise, it is really too early. You could follow the ship's course on marinetraffic.com.

 

And if you are on a pre-cruise trip not organized by Viking my advice is to try and stay in touch with the company and ship directly.

 

Current water level at Dresden gauge is 65cm, down from 75cm on the 27th. Small amount of rain in the area - Czech Republic and Saxony - forecast for Monday, moderate amount forecast for Friday. It is a start. Let us hope for more.

 

notamermaid

 

[arlowood]

Just had a quick check on www.vesselfinder.com and contrary to what Anhalter1960 suggested this website puts the Astrild just slightly north of Dresden while the sister ship Beyla is actually in Dresden itself with a cluster of at least 6 other passenger ships in the vicinity.

 

If that is correct then its unlikely that Viking will be able to do any effective shuttle programme between the 2 ships until one or more can move on from where they are.

Will check the situation again tomorrow for any developments

[AnhaltER1960]

10 hours ago, arlowood said:

Just had a quick check on www.vesselfinder.com and contrary to what Anhalter1960 suggested this website puts the Astrild just slightly north of Dresden while the sister ship Beyla is actually in Dresden itself with a cluster of at least 6 other passenger ships in the vicinity.

 

If that is correct then its unlikely that Viking will be able to do any effective shuttle programme between the 2 ships until one or more can move on from where they are.

Will check the situation again tomorrow for any developments

 

Vesselfinder is not correct on the position of the Astrild or is giving an outdated position. I have seen the Astrild in Wittenberg yesterday with my own eyes. I had seen yesselfinder too and this indeed puzzeled me. Not the first time that vesselfinder data (but for that matter the other ship location sites too) did not match my observations. That is why I put the questionmark on the position of the Viking Beyla in my yesterdays post. Dresden, however, makes sense and puts boths ships into the shipswap position they also had last year.

[arlowood]

OK a further update

 

Heard on another forum from someone currently on the Beyla in Dresden. They are there for 2 nights then they are being transferred by coach to Wittenberg to join the Astrild for a further 3 nights. They were given the option to cancel and return home which 24 passengers chose to do. Those who stayed were given generous discounts on a future cruise.

 

I also had my fears confirmed when I found an account on Tripsavvy posted just 4 days ago where the contributor had to do the coach shuffle between boats on her trip. She seemed to indicate that Viking had contacted them ahead of their cruise to offer the various options - cancellation with full refund or continue and get discount on a future cruise. The full text is in the link below

https://www.tripsavvy.com/viking-cruises-elbe-river-travel-journal-4100188

 

We are not due to leave for Berlin until 16th July so I await word from Viking on what they are planning. It seems with the weather forecast, the river levels are unlikely to recover quickly.

 

I think I would be inclined to cancel if given the option as I don't really relish long coach journeys more or less every day. It sort of defeats the "river cruise" definition which we signed up for in the first place. Have traveled on 4 Viking river cruises before and I've no doubt the staff would do a great job but the coach shuffle is not for me

[arlowood]

Hi there

 

Just a correction to my previous post. The Tripsavvy account is not current as I first suspected from to the publication date. Having read the piece in detail I came across reference to a "fall market" in Torgau and also reference to some site that would not be open until 2019. So I'm guessing that this was a report from a 2018 tour. Apologies for the misinformation.

 

The other info however is current from the passenger on the Beyla so coach shuttling is now a factor it would appear

[AnhaltER1960]

19 hours ago, arlowood said:

Just had a quick check on www.vesselfinder.com and contrary to what Anhalter1960 suggested this website puts the Astrild just slightly north of Dresden while the sister ship Beyla is actually in Dresden itself with a cluster of at least 6 other passenger ships in the vicinity.

 

If that is correct then its unlikely that Viking will be able to do any effective shuttle programme between the 2 ships until one or more can move on from where they are.

Will check the situation again tomorrow for any developments

 

Just had another look at vesselfinder.com. It indeed shows the Astrild a bit downriver from Dresden. It gives however a time tag June 26th, 0439 hrs UTC.  I am not completely sure on the conversion of UTC against Central European Summertime, but afair it is not more than 2 hours. This means the position is more than five days old, but inline with the Astrild having reached Wittenberg on June 27th, as reported earlier in the thread.

1 hour ago, arlowood said:

Hi there

 

Just a correction to my previous post. The Tripsavvy account is not current as I first suspected from to the publication date. Having read the piece in detail I came across reference to a "fall market" in Torgau and also reference to some site that would not be open until 2019. So I'm guessing that this was a report from a 2018 tour. Apologies for the misinformation.

 

The other info however is current from the passenger on the Beyla so coach shuttling is now a factor it would appear

 

Absolutely agree. The ship swap between Astrild and Beyla will be happening today or tomorrow.

 

Also thank you for bringing the report on Tripsavvy to our attention, which gives a detailed description of all the sites, which can be seen on the Elegant Elbe programme and also the trip report of that plan-b bustour. Your second suspicion is correct, it is not actual, but an older report. I can see that from the following points:

* There was no Viking ship swap this year so far.

* Wörlitz Gardens is no longer part of the programme since 2019

* Not visiting the Luther House in Wittenberg. The Luther House is part of the standard programme. But it was closed due to renovation works before the big anniversary 2017 from autumn 2016 to spring 2017. There had been ship swaps due to low water levels in autumn 2016. So I date this report to 2016.