Rhine water levels 2022 and similar topics

[notamermaid]

On 9/20/2022 at 6:19 PM, gnome12 said:

Unfortunately, nowhere near me. It is in Surrey, British Columbia.

I remember @Daisi mentioning in a previous year such a Winter display as a drive-trough where she lives. In Germany we do not tend to do these in Winter as we have the Christmas markets and before this Lumagica I had ever only been to one on a one night event on Ehrenbreitstein Fortress. But there is some sort of similar event on Ehrenbreitstein before Christmas, not sure what it is called, I had just never heard about it. I think there are a few others now in other regions. This industrial theme one is a rarity.

 

Today is a sunny day in the Rhine valley, in much of Germany really. Hardly any rain with more agreeable temperatures.

 

Let us have a look at Lake Constance:

The gauge shows ups and downs as one would expect and it is again leaning a bit towards low but higher than two weeks ago. The MW line is the mean water level. The Lake is the natural reservoir of the Rhine (without a dam) and helps in keeping the level up, i.e. keep it from falling fast and giving it enough water to sustain the level that the locks further down in the Upper Rhine valley need to ensure smooth sailing in the Rhine and adjoining Canal. When the level in the Lake falls we rely even more on rainfall and that is a natural occurrence in early autumn. Without rain this week we therefore see the level fall downstream from Iffezheim (the last lock).

 

So, again, Kaub gauge is on a down slope, slowly but steadily. I mentioned it on Tuesday.

On 9/20/2022 at 12:21 PM, notamermaid said:

With the weather getting warmer again, with less rain, we see the forecast giving us lower figures. I will again regard them with skepticism and just say that it is still looking all good but the level will likely fall below 120cm before the weekend. Absolutely fine for river cruise ships, awkward again for barge traffic.

This has turned out to be correct. It is Thursday afternoon and Kaub gauge is at 117cm. The 100cm will very likely be reached on Saturday. Sunday into Monday, in the absence of rain, we will probably see 90cm. With rain forecast, the outlook for the second half of next week is good though. You can see that rain is vital to keep the level up in autumn, more so this year than in other years. Do we need to hold our breaths for a couple of days hoping that the level will not fall below 90cm? That is a figure around which ships need to slow down, albeit normally do not stop sailing, meaning still can perfectly get through the Rhine Gorge. I have not made up my mind about that yet and say we will need to cross that bridge when we come to it.

 

notamermaid

 

[gnome12]

39 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

I remember @Daisi mentioning in a previous year such a Winter display as a drive-trough where she lives. In Germany we do not tend to do these in Winter as we have the Christmas markets and before this Lumagica I had ever only been to one on a one night event on Ehrenbreitstein Fortress.

We had one in the Toronto area during the first Covid winter; it was OK, but nothing particularly special.

 

My sister lives in upstate New York, and many of her neighbours put out elaborate displays. The local paper has a list of all the locations that they know about, and we have done a driving tour a number of times in her vicinity to see the lights - no charge.

 

We had one in the Toronto area during the first Covid winter; it was OK, but nothing particularly special.

[notamermaid]

3 minutes ago, gnome12 said:

My sister lives in upstate New York, and many of her neighbours put out elaborate displays. The local paper has a list of all the locations that they know about, and we have done a driving tour a number of times in her vicinity to see the lights - no charge.

It is lovely when people do that. I have seen a private building that did this for charity, i.e. you could come to the house, enjoy the display and leave some money that they would donate.

 

This year the electricity bills have gone up so much that we expect to see fewer displays. Apparently there was some controversy around this Lumagica. People complained about the event as we are supposed to save energy this autumn/winter. The organizers needed to explain that the lights use little energy and other events may use more energy. It is going ahead as planned. Some people are real spoil sports in my opinion...

 

notamermaid

 

[Daisi]

Lumagica sounds much like what we have here, except we drive through it. There is also a small one in Niagara Falls, and you can drive along the parkway there to see the trees all lit up.

 

We also have our local Open Air Museum (Upper Canada Village) that lights up both for Halloween (pumpkins) and Christmas, where all the old buildings are decorated. Some neighbourhoods also put on elaborate displays, but that's more up in the city, and quite a drive for us to see. 

 

 

[notamermaid]

Found it. This is the event at Koblenz: https://www.christmas-garden.de/koblenz/

 

notamermaid

 

[CPT Trips]

Longwood Gardens, near Philadelphia has an annual Christmas light display that we enjoy. It’s a walking tour, mostly outdoor, so avoid rainy nights.

 

[Canal archive]

I’m pretty sure that DH would not let me do that to our conservatory especially as it’s really not big enough. (I don’t think!) Koblenz & Longwood so beautiful.

[notamermaid]

I am looking forward to all the glittering lights and adorned buildings but first it is harvest season with celebrations, annual markets (Jahrmärkte) and wine festivals. Some have already been of course. Due to the heat in Summer they say that the grape harvest will not be plentiful but the quality of the wine will be very good.

 

Brief update: Kaub showing the slow decline as expected, now at 103cm.

 

notamermaid

 

[woolfy]

I just wanted to report that we cruised with Viking Sept. 10-17 on the Rhine and had a wonderful trip.  Water levels were up so we didn't have to do a ship swap.  We did a three day pre-extension on Lake Como and that was really fantastic.  We stayed in the Duomo Boutique hotel right downtown which I was a little concerned about but it turned out to be a perfect location.  We actually had a window view of the square which was fun.  The rooms are a little small but breakfast was delicious and it was very convenient for wandering around the old town.

[notamermaid]

17 hours ago, woolfy said:

I just wanted to report that we cruised with Viking Sept. 10-17 on the Rhine and had a wonderful trip. 

That is nice to read. Thank you for the pre-cruise tip.

 

Kaub gauge has gone done further, now at 94cm, which puts it close to the official low water marker. That means at 93cm the green dot on the gauge map turns to orange. That is not a worry yet. I just like to keep an eye on it. It has not rained yet but the weather is cloudy and a little on the cool side. We should not see the level drop much further. But it is all very well me giving my impressions, what is the forecast saying? It gives no figure lower than 92cm and an up tick on Tuesday. I can imagine the level falling to 90cm today. But overall, one can reasonably say that we will be spared really low levels before the river rises again. The rain forecast makes for a confident look into next week, at least in the computer modelling. 130cm is a strong likelihood during the week, with 150cm likely towards next weekend.

 

So, back to Andernach and the Eifel volcanoes.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[Mrs. Claypool]

We have just finished passing through the Middle Rhine on the Tauck MS Inspire. 
 

No swapping, no busing and no bottom scraping.  Plenty of passenger ships and barge traffic going through both ways. We even saw a very large barge loaded with containers!

 

[worldtraveller99]

Thank you Mrs, Claypool! Your cruise is what we will be doing in 9 weeks time!x  Was it good? What did you like best?

[notamermaid]

The level at Kaub has gone up a little earlier than expected and there has also been rain overnight in the Middle Rhine valley. Kaub gauge now reads 101cm. Good. And the rain has come in time to keep the levels on the Lower Rhine dropping much further. It is good when this trend is halted. While the navigation channel is deeper beyond Koblenz downstream into the Netherlands, we nevertheless see the navigation channel depth at Cologne reduced to 255cm. That is good compared to Kaub which is 213cm (translated from the gauge saying 101cm) but it is always good to have a comfortable level at Cologne, seeing that landing stages can be low in the water and Cologne also has a tricky shallows area (I mentioned this in a previous post).

 

The weather is a little on the cool side unfortunately, but we cannot have our cake and eat it, can we?

 

notamermaid

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

2 hours ago, notamermaid said:

we cannot have our cake and eat it, can we?

You've got the idiom correct, but I have never understood it.  Of course you can have your cake and eat it – if you don't mind stale cake!  What you can't do is eat your cake and have it.  But another thing you can't do is change an idiom once it's established!

[notamermaid]

Andernach on the Rhine is geologically kind of the eastern end of an active volcanic area, the Vulkaneifel, although there are extinct volcanoes on the other side of the Rhine as well. Those are much older and belong to a different geological era. I say active as recent years have shown much activity deep down in the ground. Notable for us casual visitors to the area are the bubbles in lakes and the (cold water) geysers.

 This is the Vulkaneifel: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulkaneifel#/media/Datei:Eifel_-_Deutsche_Mittelgebirge,_Serie_A-de.png

 

West of Andernach, i.e. in the hills behind, you can find the typical buildings made of the volcanic stones and museums dedicated to volcanism. But the different types of stone are also actively mined. So that is the stone, what about the beer that I mentioned in an earlier post? This is a story about the special relationship between the geology of the area and the brewers that took advantage of it. I leave it to a presenter of the regional television station SWR to tell you the story. SWR has kindly subtitled the series about special stones in Rhineland-Palatinate with English (or French, or Dutch) subtitles. Here is the Eifel stone, basalt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o_-IqTznfU

 

Recently, experts have started recording the volcanic activity in the Eifel region with new methods and appear to come to the conclusion that the Eifel is more active than previously thought. Therefore the term "extinct" is no longer used for the whole of the Eifel volcanoes. A minimal rise in elevation has been detected in the whole area, meaning there is pressure from within the earth's crust, from the lava plume deep down. A disturbing thought? The centre doing the mapping reassures us that there is absolutely no hint of an eruption any time in the future that may be relevant to us. A German article about the seismic measure mapping project: https://www.vulkane.net/blogmobil/vulkaneifel-seismische-messkampagne-gestartet/

 

As a result of all the CO2 making its way up through the ground, mineral water companies and producers of carbon dioxide for industry are major employers in the area.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Geezer Cruiser]

2 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

You've got the idiom correct, but I have never understood it.  Of course you can have your cake and eat it – if you don't mind stale cake!  What you can't do is eat your cake and have it.  But another thing you can't do is change an idiom once it's established!

 

I think that means that once you eat it, the cake is gone. You haven't got some any more.

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

1 hour ago, Geezer Cruiser said:

 

I think that means that once you eat it, the cake is gone. You haven't got some any more.

 

Exactly.  You can't eat it and have it too [correct order].  But the idiom has the order backwards.  We all know what it means, but it's still wrong.  [Just like people who say 'I could care less'...  We know what they mean, but they have expressed it wrongly.]

[Mrs. Claypool]

On 9/24/2022 at 5:58 PM, worldtraveller99 said:

Thank you Mrs, Claypool! Your cruise is what we will be doing in 9 weeks time!x  Was it good? What did you like best?

One evening Tauck took us to Schloss Ehreshoven for dinner and a musical performance and a tour around the castle.

 

As they had promise, it truly was a magical night!

[worldtraveller99]

How lovely!  Was that a surprise, because I cannot see it in the itinerary? 

[Mrs. Claypool]

It’s listed in the itinerary under Day 6 - Rudesheim. 

[notamermaid]

1 minute ago, Mrs. Claypool said:

It’s listed in the itinerary under Day 6 - Rudesheim. 

I think the excursion is a standard with Tauck, only with them I believe. I recall reading about Schloss Ehreshoven with them before, but have so far not seen it mentioned with another cruise line. The Schloss East of Cologne: https://www.castle-ehreshoven.com/index.php/start.html

 

It is an area rarely explored by a river cruise line. There are tons of moated castles, or let us say Wasserschloß (plural is Wasserschlösser) because the term describes it better, around Bonn and Cologne. I had mentioned those a bit earlier in the year. Must get back to that topic some time...

 

notamermaid

 

[worldtraveller99]

Sadly it isn't in our itinerary, which just says "have dinner on ship as you continue south" on the Rudesheim day. But our Inspire cruise only starts in Dusseldorf, and ends in Basel with a day's coach out to Lucerne. So we get other nice trips I am sure.

[notamermaid]

5 minutes ago, worldtraveller99 said:

But our Inspire cruise only starts in Dusseldorf, and ends in Basel with a day's coach out to Lucerne.

I reckon this Christmas market cruise has a different schedule then. That makes sense when it leaves from Düsseldorf. You get to see Baden-Baden, I am sure that will be lovely. All the other stops sound good of course, too. A pity that I cannot see the details for each day. That is download via giving personal details only.

 

Christmas markets and castles - oh I cannot resist looking at such photos. Here is an upcoming event at Satzvey castle in the Eifel hills. I recall giving info to a past cruiser on Satzvey but I do not remember which company offered an excursion to there.

https://www.rlp-tourismus.com/en/veranstaltung-1/event/20221210/Burgweihnacht-auf-Burg-Satzvey_Mechernich5/event.html

 

Namedy castle (also originally moated), which I posted about a few days ago, also has a market on one weekend. Small but cosy. It is so close to Andernach that a taxi ride is worth the price to see it I find. Date given is 27 November, admission is 5 euros. Music, food, handicrafts and high quality gifts for the home and clothes accessories are on offer. I would not go out of my way to see the place but if you happen to be in Andernach it is a nice experience.

 

notamermaid

 

[worldtraveller99]

I guess it is a combination of a guided walk and then free time for the markets in Dusseldorf, Cologne, Rudesheim (with the mechanical music museum), Heidelberg, Baden-Baden, Strasbourg, and Lucerne. 

[Canal archive]

There is a very nice Christmas shop in Ruedesheim near the Mechanical Music Museum