Rhine water levels 2023 and similar topics

[notamermaid]

I mentioned Weißenthurmer Werth in a previous post. "Werth" is a standard old word for a river island in German. There are lots of them and on the Rhine we get quite a few of them, mostly uninhabited. That does not mean nothing is happening there. It only means people are not registered as living there. Nonnenwerth is one that did have residents, it gets its name from the old nunnery. The last few years have been troublesome, so I will swiftly move onto its neighbouring island - Grafenwerth. That island is under ownership of the town Bad Honnef. The island is a park, a recreation area and has a swimming pool. That alone is unusual but what I find special about it is the fact that in the marina is anchored the old fishing barge "Aranka" and one has a lovely view of Drachenfels mountain downstream. Fun fact: the island also has a KD excursion boat landing stage.

 

You can have a look at Wikipedia https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafenwerth

or check out photos on Google images.

 

notamermaid

 

[RDVIK2016]

On 8/8/2023 at 12:21 PM, notamermaid said:

Bombs in Rüdesheim

 

Four WWII bombs in Rüdesheim need to be defused so all traffic has been halted including on the river. https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/rheinland-pfalz/mainz/vier-weltkriegsbomben-bei-ruedesheim-am-rhein-gefunden-100.html

 

This map is a bit clearer, you can see that it is downstream from Rüdesheim:

https://www.hessenschau.de/panorama/verkehr-gesperrt-entschaerfung-von-weltkriegsbomben-bei-ruedesheim-laeuft-v8,weltkriegsbomben-niederwalddenkmal-100.html

 

It is estimated that the emergency situation will last till midnight.

 

notamermaid

 

In the second video the fire chief states the the fourth bomb had to be defused by some how blasting the fuse out of the bomb. (Correct me if I misunderstood that.) That sounds like a tricky thing to do. They think these may have been bombs from a raid on Bingen at the end of 1944. From now on I will imagine that it was bomb from that raid that killed Otto Wohlleben in "Die Heimat" when he tried to defuse it.  (Although I think that episode supposedly took place earlier in the war.)

[RDVIK2016]

On 8/15/2023 at 6:15 AM, notamermaid said:

Those geese - tell me about it... Had not been that aware of the growing problem but then I saw a report on television about three years ago how much work it is to get the Koblenz outdoor public swimming pools clean, especially the grass areas surrounding them. I think we refer to our species growing in numbers to "Nilgänse" but I tend to confuse the two, not sure which is which. Have not seen swans for months but then I am not often at river banks where they congregate. It is pigeons, geese, gulls (the smaller varieties) and cormorants, etc. Occasionally I see a heron.

 

Although the Rhine is a straightened, "industrial" and busy waterway there is much wildlife and the river is cleaner than one may think, with all the sewage treatment plants having been working for decades. There are numerous islands and flood plain areas in France and Germany that are nature reserves, as well as part of the "Altrhein", the old river course.

 

notamermaid

 

Notamermaid, On our recent trip we saw a lot of those Egyptian geese, especially in the Netherlands. I though they are quite colorful. The Canada geese that the writers from New York and Michigan write about are not common yet in Europe and hopefully you will not get invaded too badly with them.  They are much bigger than the Egyption geese/Nilgänse, hang out in large flocks, and leave their dark green droppings all over lawns, sidewalks and golf courses. Sometimes people will put up mock coyotes that move in the breeze to scare them away, but they quickly get wise to that trick.  RDVIK

[RDVIK2016]

On 8/15/2023 at 3:02 PM, Host Jazzbeau said:

I have suggested the local golf courses keep a few foxes for the purpose...

Jazzbeau, I live one street away from a golf course in CT and it is common to see coyotes and fox, but they can't seem to keep up with the geese population. 

[Host Jazzbeau]

11 minutes ago, RDVIK2016 said:

Jazzbeau, I live one street away from a golf course in CT and it is common to see coyotes and fox, but they can't seem to keep up with the geese population. 

Maybe they're Vegans...

[Canal archive]

RDVIK216 ohh do we have Canada geese especially on our canals they leave their poo especially on landing stages either side of Locks so working them especially when it’s been raining - rain & goose pooh is a very slippery mixture - can be an hazardous experience. Although here is a very coy Egyptian goose turning away from my camera along the K & A Canal.

 

[notamermaid]

@RDVIK2016 thanks for the explanation, @Canal archive, that type in your photo looks exactly like the ones walking along our river banks.

 

Some species are a nuisance or even a hazard in a few spots, those mainly the rats along the river but the birds soiling the swimming pools are of course not good for human health, the local rabbits have a habit of living underground where they are not wanted. They loved the new lawns and flower displays just before the federal horticultural show in Koblenz in 2011. So the city got birds of prey to get rid of the problem before the show started.

 

We have had more thunderstorms here but the air is not that refreshed, a bit muggy again in towns. Temperatures are due to rise to more summery 30 to 32 Celsius.

 

Level at Kaub pleasant of course, just a minor hint of hitting 100cm towards the end of the month. But we will review that on a later day.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

17 hours ago, RDVIK2016 said:

In the second video the fire chief states the the fourth bomb had to be defused by some how blasting the fuse out of the bomb. (Correct me if I misunderstood that.) That sounds like a tricky thing to do. They think these may have been bombs from a raid on Bingen at the end of 1944. From now on I will imagine that it was bomb from that raid that killed Otto Wohlleben in "Die Heimat" when he tried to defuse it.  (Although I think that episode supposedly took place earlier in the war.)

 

Yes, they blasted the fuse out of the bomb. Sounds tricky indeed. All went well in the end but they also say in the video that they may well find another one before the end of the year. Rüdesheim was not really important but the proximity of Bingen and the bridge meant that bombs went down on the Rüdesheim side of the river as well.

 

Golden rule when walking along the river banks close to the Rhine: never pick anything metallic up that looks suspicious. A few years ago a lady found an object that had the shape of ammunition and called the police. But it turned out not be made of metal. Well, better be safe than sorry.

 

You really know "Heimat" well. I must admit, I never watched a complete series of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heimat_(film_series)

It is interesting that it states that the word Heimat has no real equivalent in English. "Homeland" comes close but the kind of emotion that you connect with the area and carry around with you for the rest of your life is not in the word "homeland" but in "Heimat" in my opinion.

 

notamermaid

 

Edited August 17, 2023 by notamermaid
clarification

[RDVIK2016]

6 hours ago, notamermaid said:

 

Yes, they blasted the fuse out of the bomb. Sounds tricky indeed. All went well in the end but they also say in the video that they may well find another one before the end of the year. Rüdesheim was not really important but the proximity of Bingen and the bridge meant that bombs went down on the Rüdesheim side of the river as well.

 

Golden rule when walking along the river banks close to the Rhine: never pick anything metallic up that looks suspicious. A few years ago a lady found an object that had the shape of ammunition and called the police. But it turned out not be made of metal. Well, better be safe than sorry.

 

You really know "Heimat" well. I must admit, I never watched a complete series of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heimat_(film_series)

It is interesting that it states that the word Heimat has no real equivalent in English. "Homeland" comes close but the kind of emotion that you connect with the area and carry around with you for the rest of your life is not in the word "homeland" but in "Heimat" in my opinion.

 

notamermaid

 

Yes, I agree with you that English does not have an equivalent word for "Heimat".  I also think that the emotion you describe has cultural and social components and that is one of the reasons it is so hard to define. You know the meaning of "Heimat" when you feel it. Bavarian friends of mine would bundle the whole concept of "Hoamat" into the simple expression "Dahoam is Dahoam" / "Home is Home" - no further explanation needed as far as they are concerned.

[notamermaid]

13 hours ago, RDVIK2016 said:

I also think that the emotion you describe has cultural and social components and that is one of the reasons it is so hard to define.

Yes, that is what I meant. Dahoam is dahoam is the sort of expression, when you hear it spoken in a room in Bavaria by a man beyond age 60, the walls clad with wood and winter outside the door, you feel what the word Heimat contains. Food for the soul.

 

A hot day in the Rhine valley. Kaub at 167cm. All looking good.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Just for a bit of fun, here is a screenshot of marinetraffic.com how it shows Koblenz tonight - to which I will add a few comments:

 

Koblenz is a city on two rivers, the Rhine and Moselle. The name comes from Latin and in the translation (the old word) means "where the rivers flow together". The Roman settlement is in the Medieval town walls which show on the map as a ring touching the Moselle embankment about where the blue dot for the Monet is. You can see this marked on a photo here: https://www.kuladig.de/Objektansicht/O-100372-20140819-8 Three bridges cross the Moselle but there is also a tiny ferry, the Liesel, which you can see docked in the small harbour. In Koblenz river cruise ships both dock on the Moselle and the Rhine regularly, I have already mentioned the Monet, see if you can spot other names. I know, sorry, it is a small scale. To the left of the large bridge is the last lock on the Moselle, in the screen shot a ship called Eltz is in there. The tip at the confluence shining in light grey is of course Deutsches Eck. The shape was given in the 19th century. On the right river bank is Ehrenbreitstein with the fortress on the hill. In the photo just below there is the blue dot of the "Schaengel", that is another ferry. I mentioned the small harbour the other day, when the regional television had the Viking Orvar in a shot, showing her leaving to sail downstream. At the bottom right of the screen shot is Pfaffendorf Bridge and jut out of view is the peninsula Oberwerth which was an island originally. Just a bit further upstream are the last two bridges (km 588) before, if you travel upstream, you enter the Rhine Gorge and have to rely on crossing on a ferry as the next bridge is beyond the end of the Rhine Gorge at Mainz (km 504).

 

More on bridges to come.

 

notamermaid

 

 

Edited August 18, 2023 by notamermaid
duplicate image removed

[Rikboatman]

Can't wait to be there in October.

 Thanks for the history and information.

[RDVIK2016]

6 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Just for a bit of fun, here is a screenshot of marinetraffic.com how it shows Koblenz tonight - to which I will add a few comments:

 

Koblenz is a city on two rivers, the Rhine and Moselle. The name comes from Latin and in the translation (the old word) means "where the rivers flow together". The Roman settlement is in the Medieval town walls which show on the map as a ring touching the Moselle embankment about where the blue dot for the Monet is. You can see this marked on a photo here: https://www.kuladig.de/Objektansicht/O-100372-20140819-8 Three bridges cross the Moselle but there is also a tiny ferry, the Liesel, which you can see docked in the small harbour. In Koblenz river cruise ships both dock on the Moselle and the Rhine regularly, I have already mentioned the Monet, see if you can spot other names. I know, sorry, it is a small scale. To the left of the large bridge is the last lock on the Moselle, in the screen shot a ship called Eltz is in there. The tip at the confluence shining in light grey is of course Deutsches Eck. The shape was given in the 19th century. On the right river bank is Ehrenbreitstein with the fortress on the hill. In the photo just below there is the blue dot of the "Schaengel", that is another ferry. I mentioned the small harbour the other day, when the regional television had the Viking Orvar in a shot, showing her leaving to sail downstream. At the bottom right of the screen shot is Pfaffendorf Bridge and jut out of view is the peninsula Oberwerth which was an island originally. Just a bit further upstream are the last two bridges (km 588) before, if you travel upstream, you enter the Rhine Gorge and have to rely on crossing on a ferry as the next bridge is beyond the end of the Rhine Gorge at Mainz (km 504).

 

More on bridges to come.

 

notamermaid

 

 

Interesting that Viking Idun is docked just upstream of Deutsches Eck. I thought all of the Rhine Getaway longships docked further upstream and on the opposite bank at Braubach. Das Deutsche Eck would have been a great spot to tie up at. We enjoyed the Seilbahn/gondola from Ehrenbreitstein which I cannot make out in the photo. 

[AshmanE]

Just passed through Kaub on the Ms. Inspire. All seemed well. Absolutely beautiful and water levels were fine.

[notamermaid]

7 hours ago, RDVIK2016 said:

Interesting that Viking Idun is docked just upstream of Deutsches Eck. I thought all of the Rhine Getaway longships docked further upstream and on the opposite bank at Braubach. Das Deutsche Eck would have been a great spot to tie up at. We enjoyed the Seilbahn/gondola from Ehrenbreitstein which I cannot make out in the photo. 

Braubach would be a bit far for a Koblenz port stop, that village is really only for the Marksburg excursion unless you skip Koblenz in your itinerary. But Viking has its particular way of handling this, i.e. drop people off at Braubach, pick them up at Koblenz or variations of that. The "double parking" at Koblenz Deutsches Eck is standard for Viking. As far as I know they hardly ever dock on the Moselle.

 

The webcam at Koblenz:

https://www.feratel.com/en/webcams/germany/koblenz.html

 

with a snap shot if that is what it is called of a few minutes ago:

 

 

While writing this post, the Compass Opera has just left Koblenz and is sailing downstream through the Neuwied Basin and then into the mountain region of the Lower Middle Rhine valley.

 

Feratel has some of the best webcams for spotting river cruise ships in Germany.

 

The cables of the Seilbahn will be too thin to show up on the map I posted and the cars of it are probably too small as well, one may see them perhaps when zooming further in on marinetraffic.com.

 

A note on Koblenz: while the city is over 2000 years old, little remains of the oldest structures, but some towers and a few wall segments of the Roman town and early Medieval city remain that I am sure your tour guide will point out to you. "Deutscher Kaiser" is one of the oldest buildings remaining and not far from there is the "Alte Burg".

 

This is how William Turner put Koblenz and Ehrenbreitstein on canvas, from Moselle with the Balduin Bridge: https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/19235/ehrenbreitstein-mosel

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

4 minutes ago, AshmanE said:

Just passed through Kaub on the Ms. Inspire. All seemed well. Absolutely beautiful and water levels were fine.

Welcome to CruiseCritic. Thank you for saying hello from your cruise. I always enjoy spotting the Inspire on the river. I like her design very much.

 

marinetraffic.com tells me that you are sailing downstream, so you will be in Koblenz in a few hours time (unless you have a stop along the way). The Inspire is not listed in the harbour plan for the Moselle, so I reckon you will dock on the Rhine.

 

A favourite spot of mine, the Rhine Gorge "ending in style", is the gateway of the hills, on the left bank is Schloss Stolzenfels and on the right bank is Burg Lahneck. From on land, on a specific road, you can get them both together in a photo, not sure if it works from the river. Koblenz is not in the Rhine Gorge anymore topographically but is part of the UNESCO World heritage site.

 

Have a great time on "my" river.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

For those interested, you can download the docking plan for the Moselle harbour area here: https://www.koblenz-touristik.de/de/geschaeftsfelder/hafen

 

I do not know of a publicly available docking plan for the Rhine. Viking uses their own private landing stage and I have never seen such info published by them.

 

For Rüdesheim, the area of where the ships dock is mapped out here, click on "Hier" in the text: https://www.fremdenverkehrsgesellschaft.de/schiffslandebrücken

 

And this is the timetable: https://www.landebruecken.de/timetable

 

notamermaid

 

Edited August 19, 2023 by notamermaid
added links

[notamermaid]

8 hours ago, Rikboatman said:

Can't wait to be there in October.

 Thanks for the history and information.

My pleasure. Thank you for following along. October - that should mean lovely sunsets and some autumn colours. That month can still bring some really pleasant temperatures for touring and enjoying the sundeck. I hope the weather will be great for you and you get some great views of  - well - everything really.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

3 hours ago, notamermaid said:

The Inspire is not listed in the harbour plan for the Moselle, so I reckon you will dock on the Rhine.

Okay, got that wrong. I did not think of this one as being one of the few itineraries that do not include Koblenz. The Inspire is now sailing in the Lower Middle Rhine valley and the guests can enjoy the mountains including the famous Drachenfels. Not sure, but I think it is this itinerary: https://www.tauck.co.uk/tours/rhine-swiss-alps-amsterdam-river-cruise?tcd=rgx2023

Excluding Koblenz turns this into almost a full day (morning till early evening) of cruising. Really unusual but a nice alternative to standard itineraries. And the special excursions are highly interesting to read about. The passengers will see this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siebengebirge

and of course the towers of Remagen bridge.

 

Oh, and that area also has no bridges, the distance without one is shorter though, having passed under Raiffeisenbrücke Neuwied at km 607, the next bridge the ship will sail under is the first one at Bonn at km 651.

 

notamermaid

 

[RDVIK2016]

16 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Braubach would be a bit far for a Koblenz port stop, that village is really only for the Marksburg excursion unless you skip Koblenz in your itinerary. But Viking has its particular way of handling this, i.e. drop people off at Braubach, pick them up at Koblenz or variations of that. The "double parking" at Koblenz Deutsches Eck is standard for Viking. As far as I know they hardly ever dock on the Moselle.

....

The cables of the Seilbahn will be too thin to show up on the map I posted and the cars of it are probably too small as well, one may see them perhaps when zooming further in on marinetraffic.com....

 

Our cruise ship, Viking Tialfi on a Rhine Getaway intinerary, docked at Braubach, as had all the others I had been watching prior to our cruise. Therefore we chose to sign up for the optional bus excursion to Ehrenbreitstein. After the fortress tour we took the Seilbahn across the river and the bus picked us up there and took us back to the ship. If the boat docked at Deutsches Eck we might have skipped a Viking excursion for a visit on our own of the Rhein-Museum. As it turned out the actor-guide who led our group at the fortress was very entertaining.  RDVIK

[notamermaid]

12 hours ago, RDVIK2016 said:

Our cruise ship, Viking Tialfi on a Rhine Getaway intinerary, docked at Braubach, as had all the others I had been watching prior to our cruise. Therefore we chose to sign up for the optional bus excursion to Ehrenbreitstein. After the fortress tour we took the Seilbahn across the river and the bus picked us up there and took us back to the ship. If the boat docked at Deutsches Eck we might have skipped a Viking excursion for a visit on our own of the Rhein-Museum. As it turned out the actor-guide who led our group at the fortress was very entertaining.  RDVIK

Interesting. Not the version I know. I have heard of the actor guide tours on the Fortress. Sound really good. I have been thinking of joining a tour (they are available for spontaneous bookings) for a few years. There is one with a soldier and one with an engineer.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

In other news along the Rhine: six new docking areas for river cruise ships are planned in Southern Alsace. Two of those places will be at Huningue outside of Basel. Basel is struggling to accommodate all river cruise ships, according to a Basel newspaper (paywall, I can read a couple of sentences).

 

In Koblenz, preparations are underway for the construction of the new Pfaffendorf Bridge. As a result, the navigation channel is narrower than usual at that spot.

 

Which brings me back to bridges...

 

notamermaid

 

[RDVIK2016]

42 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

Interesting. Not the version I know. I have heard of the actor guide tours on the Fortress. Sound really good. I have been thinking of joining a tour (they are available for spontaneous bookings) for a few years. There is one with a soldier and one with an engineer.

 

notamermaid

 

We had the engineer. He plays a British military engineer who has limited access to the fortress and its plans, but who learns more about its construction than his German hosts intend. 

[notamermaid]

9 minutes ago, RDVIK2016 said:

We had the engineer. He plays a British military engineer who has limited access to the fortress and its plans, but who learns more about its construction than his German hosts intend. 

Ah, that one. On the website of Ehrenbreitstein Fortress it is called "Die Akte Humfrey": https://tor-zum-welterbe.de/de/kulturzentrum-festung-ehrenbreitstein/fuehrungen-und-living-history/

 

notamermaid

 

[AshmanE]

On 8/19/2023 at 5:07 PM, notamermaid said:

…[Ms. Inspire is on] one of the few itineraries that do not include Koblenz. The Inspire is now sailing in the Lower Middle Rhine valley and the guests can enjoy the mountains including the famous Drachenfels. Not sure, but I think it is this itinerary: https://www.tauck.co.uk/tours/rhine-swiss-alps-amsterdam-river-cruise?tcd=rgx2023

Excluding Koblenz turns this into almost a full day (morning till early evening) of cruising. Really unusual but a nice alternative to standard itineraries…

 

notamermaid

 

Correct. We had almost four hours of cruising the Middle-Rhine valley with castle after castle after castle. It was delightful. 
 

Two thumbs up. 👍 👍