Rhine water levels 2024 and similar topics

[Izengolf]

Yes, the 10 day Rhine and Moselle cruise return to from Frankfurt that the River Queen did in 2023 and SS Victoria did in 2024 will be the 15 day Basel to Brussels in 2025 on the SS Victoria. 

[notamermaid]

A pity for those who prefer to go on a 8 to 10 night trip. But combining the Rhine with the Moselle is possible for that length. It is not as good as the Uniworld one I find but for those who want to ignore the Netherlands this would work on Riviera Travel's Rhine cruise from Cologne: https://www.rivieratravel.co.uk/river-cruises/rhine-moselle-river-cruise

For convenience from the America's you can fly into London and travel with the company on Eurostar to Cologne.

 

And there are other European lines that may offer something similar.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[notamermaid]

It is a cool day today. The rain and the absence of heat make for a great forecast for the river's levels. Maxau gauge is going fast towards the mean again and Kaub gauge is at 146cm, forecast to rise pleasantly.

 

Just as a side note for the curious: I got a bit lost in road works trying to get to Lahnstein and saw the river at Koblenz. The huge construction works of the bridge there affects river traffic of course, so the place looks a bit "messy". During the construction work in Spring it seems they found additional military tunnels (casemates) and more recently a WWII bomb. That bomb was detonated in a controlled environment (empty spot near a forest) away from the city. Photo of the bridge in Spring, text says they are building the new bridge next to the old one and then move it after the old bridge has been demolished. https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/rheinland-pfalz/koblenz/baufortschritt-pfaffendorfer-bruecke-rhein-koblenz-100.html

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[notamermaid]

Here I am posting about the bridge construction on the Rhine at Koblenz and a few hours later a part of a bridge collapses on the Elbe at Dresden. 😱 I better move on to another topic...

 

Let us just go back briefly to railways and steel and unusual places. "That is all very well with that water tower and far away places in hills, but we have little time in ports and need to stay in the valley", you may say. Fair enough. There are museums and sights that may fit your interest. There is - quite a few of you know this - the Technical Museum of Speyer. It has cars, etc. but also engines, meaning locomotives: https://speyer.technik-museum.de/en/locomotives

The paddle wheeler (not a steamer anymore) MS Goethe you will likely meet in the Rhine Gorge sailing past you or docked somewhere. For the real deal of steam ships head to Lake Constance. At weekends you can visit the railway museum in Koblenz-Lützel. If you have lots of time in Basel, take a train to Mulhouse to see the railway museum: https://www.tourisme-mulhouse.com/en/experiences/railway-museum-cite-du-train/

 

There used to be three railway crossings over the Rhine - the three sister bridges - only one of whom is standing today. The most famous of them is Remagen bridge. You pass the bridge towers while sailing and if your ship happens to dock there you can go to the museum.

 

You can take ferries across the river; the Middle Rhine valley as a whole has few bridges; and at one you can see a special railway station.

 

To be continued.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

 

[notamermaid]

Heavy rain is expected over the South of Bavaria, the Czech Republic and nearby regions. It may lead to flooding. The Main and Rhine basins will remain mostly unaffected.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Tomorrow, 14 September, a short section of the Rhine will be closed to traffic as Oberwesel is celebrating "Rhine in Flames". This means that in the evening only ships that are part of the fleet for the event are allowed to sail. Area is Rüdesheim into the Rhine Gorge to about Bad Salzig near Boppard.

 

I hope it warms up a bit tomorrow...

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Well, the weekend did not get much warmer. But we have had little rain. Compared to the Danube and the Elbe things are quiet along the river and on it. But I have read of two accidents. Neither of which caused injury. In Bonn, the jetty of a club was demolished by a barge hitting it. Near Düsseldorf a barge hit a bridge pillar. There is both damage to the ship and pillar but trains are already running again over the bridge and the hole in the ship hull has been temporarily closed. It has been allowed to sail for proper repairs to a shipyard.

https://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/rheinland/duesseldorf-rhein-schiff-bahn-bruecke-100.html

 

River levels good. Kaub gauge at 191cm. Likewise no problems on the Moselle.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

All good on the Rhine as far as I can tell. The unusual weather pattern we have had means that while the Danube is seeing very heavy flooding, the Rhine and all its tributaries are fine. In fact, now that there is basically no precipitation in the catchment area and the temperatures have gone up again, the Rhine is steadily loosing water. Kaub gauge is at 164cm. The decline is moderate to slow so the navigation channel should be good for a few days. It is unlikely to fall to 100cm.

 

notamermaid

 

[Nippy Sweetie]

Torrential rain in Koblenz this evening. Thunder and lightning storm after a lovely sunny day.

[notamermaid]

39 minutes ago, Nippy Sweetie said:

Torrential rain in Koblenz this evening. Thunder and lightning storm after a lovely sunny day.

It has been indeed a lovely day in the valley. Hope you are watching the rain from a very comfortable place on the ship. Have a great time on "my" river.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

It has been a warm and sunny day in the valley. Next week we should see cooler temperatures. But it will still be pleasant and quite normal for September. The river is certainly getting lower but there is enough water in the catchment area to keep things going pleasantly. The level at Kaub will most likely stay above 110cm.

 

For those new to the topic: Kaub is a small place in the Rhine Gorge. That is where low water occurs first anywhere on the Rhine. Roughly speaking: 150cm is economically speaking called low water for the logistics industry. 100cm is a bit on the low side for river cruising in that embankments can be trickier to reach, i.e. a few landing stages due to the draft of the ships. 90cm is obviously then even less good and in dry weather this tends to be a signal for potential problems. But normally all ships still sail. At 80cm the serious itinerary adjustments tend to start and at 70cm we look at potential ship swaps, etc. potentially occurring. Most sail below that. But this is always a decision made for each individual ship. There is no ban on river traffic in low water in Germany (rare exceptions possible, but I have never heard of one on the Rhine).

 

notamermaid

 

 

Edited September 20 by notamermaid
correction

[notamermaid]

Some inspection/maintenance work will be happening at the Rhine locks in the next few days. Should not be a big deal. Iffezheim lock still has only one chamber of course (last year's accident), so on 30 September the second chamber needs to be closed for short periods, i.e. just on the day intermittently, while work is happening at the other chamber. Again, minor delays.

 

Rain coming in from the French border region with Switzerland and moving through the Rhine valley and adjoining hills. Kaub gauge to rise Wednesday into Thursday. All good.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Looking ahead to November briefly. Should you happen to be in the vicinity - if you are curious about their ships, check out CroisiEurope's MS Symphonie on one of the open days. German article: https://www.croisieurope.de/tag-der-offenen-tuer-november-2024/

 

In short, days on the Rhine are:

• Samstag, 16.11.24: Karlsruhe, mittleres Hafenbecken
• Sonntag, 17.11.24: Speyer, Helmut-Kohl-Ufer
• Montag, 18.11.24: Mannheim, Neckarsteige Nähe Collini-Center
• Dienstag, 19.11.24: Gernsheim, Hafenbecken
• Donnerstag, 21.11.24: Wiesbaden, Rheingaugstraße/Landebrücke 1
• Freitag, 22.11.24: Mainz, Adenauer-Ufer - Hotel Hilton

 

Technically the Mannheim date is a Neckar river location, but the city is on both rivers of course.

 

notamermaid

 

[tobique33040]

56 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

Looking ahead to November briefly. Should you happen to be in the vicinity - if you are curious about their ships, check out CroisiEurope's MS Symphonie on one of the open days. German article: https://www.croisieurope.de/tag-der-offenen-tuer-november-2024/

 

In short, days on the Rhine are:

• Samstag, 16.11.24: Karlsruhe, mittleres Hafenbecken
• Sonntag, 17.11.24: Speyer, Helmut-Kohl-Ufer
• Montag, 18.11.24: Mannheim, Neckarsteige Nähe Collini-Center
• Dienstag, 19.11.24: Gernsheim, Hafenbecken
• Donnerstag, 21.11.24: Wiesbaden, Rheingaugstraße/Landebrücke 1
• Freitag, 22.11.24: Mainz, Adenauer-Ufer - Hotel Hilton

 

Technically the Mannheim date is a Neckar river location, but the city is on both rivers of course.

 

notamermaid

 

Thank you! Unfortunately we won’t be in Europe until December 3 for the Viking Christmas cruise Amsterdam to Basel. But I have been interested in CroisiEurope. I’ve no doubt some readers will match the above dates and be able to take advantage. 

[notamermaid]

3 minutes ago, tobique33040 said:

But I have been interested in CroisiEurope.

I am wondering, may it be possible for you to have a brief look at a CroisiEurope ship if you happen to dock near one in December? There are always security aspects but perhaps a conversation with the cruise director on that CroisiEurope ship could lead somewhere.

 

Have a great time seeing "my" river in hopefully splendid winter weather.

 

notamermaid

 

[tobique33040]

34 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

I am wondering, may it be possible for you to have a brief look at a CroisiEurope ship if you happen to dock near one in December? There are always security aspects but perhaps a conversation with the cruise director on that CroisiEurope ship could lead somewhere.

 

Have a great time seeing "my" river in hopefully splendid winter weather.

 

notamermaid

 

You have a great idea! I will definitely be on the lookout. And I imagine the ships will be stacked against each other because it’s a busy time of year and maybe we will even be walking through one by chance. Thank you. 

[notamermaid]

It is the time of year for vineyard peaches. Although this is something typical for the Moselle valley, they can be found on the Rhine as well occasionally. I bought some on a farmer's market the other day and made a delicious compote with them. Here is a photo I took (three years ago) for comparison, left is a common one, right is the smaller vineyard variety:

 

You can bake cake with it as well.

 

Talking of vineyards. Of course, it is the season also for wine festivals. Braubach, the village over which towers Marksburg Castle, has its Winzerfest in October. Dates and details in German here: https://braubach.welterbe-mittelrheintal.de/veranstaltungen-1/traditionelles-winzerfest/festprogramm

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

I have returned from a trip to the river banks in the North of my state, it was cool, miserable and it started pouring down. With the sun setting so early now it feels like the first day of autumn that should be ended with a hot chocolate and a nap on the sofa just before dinner and bed time.

 

But it was nice to see a different view of the Rhine. I also noticed lots of posters and advertising for flea markets and wine festivals and harvest fests (Erntedankfest).

 

Driving past Remagen I tried to spot the barge (a "Koppelverband" or pushed convoy) that had got stuck during the night. I could not see it so assume the rescue operation had already been successful by then.

 

I went to Unkel, a village with a surprisingly big landing stage and a smaller one for excursion boats. That makes it eligible for inclusion in my list of river cruise ports on the Rhine.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[AnhaltER1960]

On 9/11/2024 at 9:48 PM, notamermaid said:

Here I am posting about the bridge construction on the Rhine at Koblenz and a few hours later a part of a bridge collapses on the Elbe at Dresden. 😱 I better move on to another topic...

 

notamermaid

Especially when remembering bridge constructions in Koblenz did not always end luckily...

[notamermaid]

Rain - that means the river is rising, right? Yes, it is. There is quite a bit of rain coming down over the whole valley and the adjoining hills. The map for tonight shows some warnings:

 

This will bring Maxau gauge back to the long-term mean and make Kaub gauge rise well. Figures above 200cm are basically definite (now at 163cm). This signals a good start to October and no sign of low water well into October.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

5 minutes ago, AnhaltER1960 said:

Especially when remembering bridge constructions in Koblenz did not always end luckily...

That's right. It was a tragic outcome of a construction that was supposed to be sophisticated and was all well planned. Terrible for the victims and their families. Lessons were learned from that. Construction work on prestressed concrete bridges of that type have been handled differently since then.

 

Incidentally, I worked for some years in a building that had a prestressed concrete roof and was resting on a minimum number of pillars. As a later alteration covered some of the concrete we never got to see the chemical reactions in the structure. It was only when the (small) building had been knocked down that we saw how the concrete had been "eaten". That was an uneasy feeling.

 

Of course, my mind also went back to the Salzbachtalbrücke near Wiesbaden (not over the Rhine) which was so dangerous that it was blocked to all traffic within minutes and all work on it stopped for several months and absolutely no one allowed on it, not even a single person to retrieve their tools. It was stabilized until it could be knocked down.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

About the accident at Remagen, which turns out to have been at Unkel-Scheuren actually. The push convoy "Don Zimmani" from Belgium was sailing downstream during the night when a cable connecting the lighter with the barge snapped. This made it drift, so the captain managed to steer the ship closer to one embankment and threw the emergency anchor. This brought the vessel out of the navigation channel and it could not free itself from there. This is what that looked like in the track:

 

Help swiftly came in the morning in the shape of the barge "Johanna":

 

By lunchtime the Don Zimmani was already free and on her way. She is now docked in Cologne Niehl harbour. That is the dock that many Viking ships call home in winter.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Although the river is hilly and the Seven Mountains range is a delight, the river does not do as much meandering in the Lower Middle Rhine valley as in the Upper Middle Rhine valley (the Rhine Gorge). So at Unkel-Scheuren where the barge got stuck the river is somewhat wide. I do not know if river traffic even needed to be halted for the rescue operation. Likely, but not a given. From there looking downstream you can see the Drachenfels rock and its castle. The Drachenfels has always been a draw, a place for a legend and therefore a tourist spot from the early days of (leisure) travel to this day. And here I pick up this idea again:

On 9/11/2024 at 9:48 PM, notamermaid said:

You can take ferries across the river; the Middle Rhine valley as a whole has few bridges; and at one you can see a special railway station.

This is Rolandseck, a place you have probably never heard of before. It has a legend (no surprise, I know) attached to the hill and its Rolandsbogen on it but in the valley is the main railway line from Cologne to Koblenz which we will focus on. I say Cologne to Koblenz as construction on the line started in the major city and went as far as Rolandseck only. This was the end point for a while before the line was extended to Koblenz. Today, the line is called the "Like Rheinstrecke" and runs as far as Mainz. Wikipedia has a page on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Rhine_Railway

 

The line when it was designed to end in Rolandseck and connect to the ferry to cross the river to Bad Honnef - from there it is only a short distance to Königswinter and its Drachenfels - or use a steamer up the Rhine, got a statement end point in the for that time lavishly decorated station building, a far more extravagant structure than the standard stops had been granted.

 

This we will have a look at - and its toilets...

 

Info on the Rolandsbogen: https://www.bonn-region.de/sightseeing-and-culture/rolandsbogen-en.html

 

To be continued.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

16 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Today, the line is called the "Like Rheinstrecke" and runs as far as Mainz.

That should of course read Linke Rheinstrecke. The left bank of the Rhine. It was built before the line on the right bank and has always been the preferred side for the better and faster trains. But not today! Completely unintended by me, my post coincides with the closure of Cologne railway station. This is electronic engineering works that have been planned for a long time. If you are in the city here is the unique opportunity to see the main station not in use. For those with a technical brain: https://db-engineering-consulting.com/en/projects/new-construction-of-cologne-central-station-and-left-bank-of-the-rhine-electronic-interlockings/

It also includes Cologne Deutz station on the right bank. The German announcement:

"In der Nacht von Freitag, 27. September, 21 Uhr auf Samstag, 28. September, 5 Uhr wird der Kölner Hauptbahnhof und der Bahnhof Köln Messe/Deutz für sämtlichen Zugverkehr vollgesperrt. Dies betrifft auch die S-Bahn. Es wird ein umfangreicher Ersatzverkehr mit Bussen eingerichtet. Alternativ wird empfohlen nach Möglichkeit die Linien der KVB zu nutzen. Fahrgäste werden gebeten, für Fahrten in dieser Nacht deutlich mehr Zeit einzuplanen. Von nicht dringend notwendigen Fahrten von und nach Köln in dieser Nacht wird abgeraten."

 

Shuttles buses and the advice to avoid all unnecessary journeys in and out of Cologne.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

So to Rolandseck and the toilets. The station at Rolandseck has some wrought iron work and balcony/veranda that other stations along the line do not have. There is also a grand approach, like a drive, for carriages, with steps up to the building and platforms. The front view:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolandseck_station#/media/File:Rolandseck_Bahnhof.jpg

from the page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolandseck_station

Compare this to Weißenthurm further along towards Koblenz: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Weißenthurm,_Bahnhof_(2015-05-19).JPG

 

The station became a meeting place, for folks of all sorts of life. The Wikipedia page is really good with describing this. Then, when such buildings were just a financial burden and not fashionable, some art lover stepped in. And that is were the story of the unusual toilets begins. The original toilet areas remained but this now being a "Kulturbahnhof" all sorts of people turned up and one of them was the British artist Stephen McKenna. And he spent quite a bit of time in the toilets - with brush and paint. Scroll down to read the English text: https://arpmuseum.org/museum/unser-haus/news/kunst-am-ort-stephen-mckenna-ausmalung-der-toiletten.html

 

In 2004 the station became part of the Arp Museum.

 

It is still a functioning railway stop - with a big history and an unusual interior.

 

And the ferry? It still exists as a route. Now a modern car ferry, you can see what travellers see when on the Rhine through the webcam: http://www.faehre-honnef.de/#webcam

 

notamermaid