Elbe question for Steamboats

[pacmom]

Can you give me the web site again for tracking the river levels..? Or if you have any info re: navigability of the Elbe would appreciate it. Thanks

Pat

[steamboats]

Hi Pat,

 

Here´s the website for the German part of the Elbe River

 

http://www.elwis.de/gewaesserkunde/Wasserstaende/Wasserstaende_start.php?target=2&fs=ELBEGEBIET

 

The river is dropping again. Currently 119cm at Dresden and 111cm at Magdeburg (were 139cm when we´ve been there a week ago).

 

I haven´t seen any of the Viking ships and I don´t know how much water they are drawing. I just saw the Viking Fontane is 311ft long, the Dresden is 320ft. It´s not only a question of the depth. Also the channel is getting more narrow the lower the river is. The ship needs some space to turn around. We were told the besides the width of the Dresden (36 ft) they need additional 50ft for security reasons.

 

The much smaller sisters of the Dresden (Katharina von Bora and Frederic Chopin, 272 ft long, 31 ft wide) got stuck near Lobosice and weren´t able to proceed up the Vltava /Moldau river to Prague. They needed some water from an opened dam to get down to Dresden.

 

Here´s another link for the Czech part of the Elbe River

 

http://www.pla.cz/portal/sap/en/index.htm

 

We weren´t able to proceed upriver of Dresden (missing Bad Schandau and Decin) and stayed there for 3 1/2 days (including the regluar 24 h stop at Dresden). We also missed the port stop at Bleckede as we were going downriver.

 

The shore excursion to Prague departed from Dresden and would have been a app. 2 hour bus ride anyway (not much difference).

 

If you´re not able to cruise upriver of Dresden and want to see the famous bluffs of the Saxon Switzerland I highly recommend the Dresden steamers

 

http://www.saechsische-dampfschiffahrt.de/Fahrplan-6.html (click on Summer Timetable 2007)

 

There´s one steamboat leaving Dresden at 10:30 am and returning at 8 pm with a 30 min stop at Bad Schandau. On this route you´re cruising the most beautiful part of the Elbe river. A Day Ticket is EUR 20 per person.

 

steamboats

[mattie00]

Steamboats -- do you have an English version website for the Danube? We are leaving Budapest on June 24th to sail the Danube/Main/Moselle to Trier, Germany and would like to be able to check water levels. Thanks so much.