notamermaid

You sound in good spirits. Lovely. One does need to see the upside. Munich is easy to reach again on another trip, with its convenient airport. The villages are harder to arrange and reach. So you will be in Bamberg soon and then be on the Main river. Enjoy, it is full of meanders and vineyards. Old buildings goes without saying 🙂. notamermaid

The thing about Strasbourg is the fact that the city does not actually have a beautiful Rhine river setting. It does not even have a dock on the Rhine and the old town is not on the Rhine either. The city's river is the Ill. The administrative district, i.e. the whole city with outlying areas, borders on the Rhine, you can see the red outline popping up on google maps when you put in Strasbourg. The Ill flows into the Rhine. The harbour is off the Rhine proper, on the Rhine canal through which you sail, or on a connection to the Rhine Rhone Canal. Anyway, it is the reason you do not see a glossy photo of a river cruise ship docked at a very old building in Strasbourg city centre. Many ships also dock in Kehl just across the river in Germany. Kaub gauge at 52cm. We may see a slight drop yesterday but forecast suggests a rise of a few centimetres again on Monday. notamermaid

Oh well. A few more evenings for spotting them available this year. We need to assume so. Pfelling gauge at 251cm. Big temperature drop after the thunderstorms: 21.2 Celsius. notamermaid

One would need to look at the several different stretches and the geography on the Rhine but I will not go into details. A ship like AmaMagna cannot sail on the Rhine that easily, with or without locks. Case in point: the Arosa Sena. She is too wide for the locks so only sails on the Lower Rhine. Today I read that she cannot return to Cologne, her home port and starting point for her cruises, because of her deep draught and the docking situation. Were she a normal ship she could. So like right now in Budapest for the AmaMagna it is two sides of a coin on the Rhine as well albeit with different infrastructure reasons in the respective sections both ships sail. Amalucia has indeed been sailing for a year. As it says in the US article, they wanted the young godfather to present at the christening, i.e. he had been chosen and they were going to stick with that. notamermaid

I am a laywoman in this, so I had to look up Plimsoll line. I am not familiar with English terms and not good with German ones. The explanation I have found is that what you see on the Amalucia is the inland waterway ship equivalent to that line, in German Einsenkungsmarke. The principle idea and purpose appears to be the same and I would think you are right also otherwise. So this non-navigating girl can add nothing... A good idea. Also if one does not mind that sort of thing, alcohol-free beer is often available. The taste can be okay. I find apple juice a bit sweet on its own, so I like Apfelsaftschorle. That is apple juice mixed with mineral water. Can be a bit thin on taste but is very refreshing. notamermaid

I have mentioned before that docking can be tricky in low water. Standard along the river are the steel constructions that have a pontoon fixed to them at the end and therefore rise and fall with the water level. In this low water situation they can be deep down like in the photo in the thread that I linked to above. Depending on location they vary in length and also take into consideration which ships are supposed to dock there. It is possible and is happening right now that some docking locations for safety reasons cannot be used. Several excursion boats also face the problem in the Rhine Gorge. What this can look like literally you can see at the christening of the Amalucia. It immediately struck my that the celebratory assembly is standing very much on rocks sort of below the embankment to be at the photo shoot height to get the ship with her name into the picture like this! The pontoon looks almost to be on dry ground. The river bed must be deepening quite sharply at that point I think, otherwise the huge ship, well, her captain, would not be able to navigate there. Have a look: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/travel-agents/amawaterways-christens-latest-vessel-on-the-rhine Thankfully the pontoon construction looks to be a more convenient kind. It may be a new one, Rüdesheim has been very active. I must have a look next time I am there. On the hull at the bow you can see the marker lines for the draught. notamermaid

Looks to me as if the Upper Isar will again be getting more water than the Lech. So at least the river in Munich will rise a bit even if you do not get water from the air. Warm here, mostly in the twenties. The air is a little refreshed. Hottest place in Germany looks to be Bavaria today, Regensburg leading the top list with over 36 Celsius. Thunderstorms over the Upper Neckar and the young Danube right now. But that water will not reach Pfelling before Sunday morning I think. Need some more closer to Regensburg. Forecast for around midnight. @steamboats can you see the Perseids with you or do you have too much light pollution? https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/meteor-shower/perseid.html notamermaid

Lovely. Good beer definitely more important than good food in this weather. Thanks for the update. Have a nice ride. Looks to be almost all motorway with that timing. But some stretches are nice landscape I find, should be pleasant. If you have time could you please tell us if it is the French side or via Karlsruhe (M5)? Have a beautiful evening in Strasbourg. notamermaid

Looks to be avoiding the city - for the time being: https://www.dwd.de/DE/leistungen/radarbild_film/radarbild_film.html#buehneTop notamermaid

Thank you so much for your updates. Very interesting to follow along with the early steps of Viva in the US. Do you mean there is an itinerary change from the one on the website? Low water issues? Have a great cruise. Looking forward to reading your impressions and comparison. notamermaid

The Elbe is for this time of year relatively high at Dresden gauge. I suspected a continued anomaly due to the work going on at the dams in the Czech Republic. The low water report issued yesterday confirms this. The Elbe level will still see a few weeks of man-made rise and fall. The German text: "Das derzeit eigentlich niedrige Abflussniveau der Elbe wird durch bautechnisch bedingte Abgaben aus tschechischen Talsperren noch über mehrere Wo- chen hinweg (allerdings in uneinheitlicher Weise) aufgehöht" notamermaid

The Amalucia has finally had her christening in Rüdesheim. Naturally, this has been in the industry news but also in the local newspaper. Here are the two articles by travel weekly US and UK. Quite a different focus and style in the articles, interesting: https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/AmaLucia-christening-ceremony https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/travel-agents/amawaterways-christens-latest-vessel-on-the-rhine An article from Canada: https://ca.travelpulse.com/gallery/cruise/amawaterways-christens-its-26th-river-ship-in-germany.html On the right you can click on a video interview with Kristin Karst. I like her happy, slightly bubbly nature. After all those years in the US she still sticks out from the crowd with her strong German accent. Would have loved to be at the ceremony. Alas, I was busy elsewhere and could not travel to Rüdesheim. A belated welcome to the rivers to Amalucia. Safe travels always. notamermaid

Amawaterways is a bit in the focus of the river cruising news right now, seeing that the latest ship, the Amalucia, was christened at the weekend and the owners have been busy giving interviews at the event in Rüdesheim. One major topic naturally this July/August is the low water situation. So here is an article. The photo speaks volumes: https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/AmaWaterways-is-prepared-to-navigate-low-water A personal note from me: the description of the differing situations on the Rhine and Danube by Rudi Schreiner is a bit awkward, as it refers to certain sections of both rivers, so taken out of context this gives an inaccurate picture. Seen in their entirety, both rivers/waterways have a lock and dam system with hydro-electric power plants. notamermaid

Rain swept over parts of Bavaria during the night but the last radar image I saw before going to bed did not show substantial amounts of rain falling in Bavaria where it was needed. Bands of clouds are stronger in the North of Germany. The south is seeing isolated clouds and rain this morning, but perhaps the afternoon will bring more into Bavaria. Pfelling gauge 249cm at 1pm local time. Air temperature 32.4 Celsius. Forecast suggests Pfelling could lose a couple of centimetres in the next 24 hours. So any possible effect of rain appears to be pushed into Sunday or even Monday. The weekly "Niedrigwasserbericht", report on the low water situation, of the authorities paints a not so happy picture for August. We will see. While the Rhine is hovering on the line of sailing or not sailing for river cruise ships and with a few extra centimetres already looks better, the Danube at Pfelling will need more than a few centimetres. Raising and sustaining a comfortable river level is a bigger task here than on the busiest waterway in Europe. A newspaper article from Bulgaria suggests that the levels are also very low there. But I cannot comment further on that. The recent rain which appears to come down mostly over Austria will at least fill the sections there that are controlled by locks, but hopefully enough water goes through the dams to make the levels rise elsewhere. notamermaid

We have had rain over night. Enough to create small puddles and water the plants briefly. It was localized thunderstorms, sweeping over large areas but not creating this full cover of a vast area of land that we need. After 36 to 48 hours of pleasant refreshed air, it is supposed to heat up again. Will see what happens. Kaub gauge: 54cm. That is as low as yesterday at the same time. Forecast suggests the rain was enough to keep the level stable into Monday with a few centimetres higher on the scale (58 to 60). I am not convinced but happy to be proven otherwise. And just to say this again. Newspaper stories of the Rhine "drying up" and being too low for ships are rubbish. Even the experts on Binnenschifferforum are commenting on that. Small-ish barges with reduced load can sail with just 40cm at Kaub. No problem. The large ones will stop sailing one after the other but small ones can still sail, also when the level falls below 40cm. You just need the maths of river level, hull (including propeller) and load. A video interview with a WSA spokesperson (the waterway authorities) uttered a similar fact. One gets the feeling that news outlets have upped the "sensation scale". What was on the level "bad" in 2018 (when it was really bad) is now "very bad" in 2022 (when it is not really bad yet).Which does not take away the facts and the worry but you know, steady on, we have seen worse. notamermaid

Let us assume you are going on a river cruise ship and the thought of being in a low water situation, especially being on a bus, does make you nervous. It may be a bit of a challenge if you are not fully mobile. Getting on and off the ship I am sure the dedicated crews and staff will always help. The buses are usually real coaches for day trips and holidays. The two I have seen used by Viking look very modern and comfortable. They usually have (tiny) toilets on board as well, it is kind of customary at least in Germany. Admittedly, this is an extreme example but it is taken right from a recent river cruise courtesy of a river cruiser (and relative) happy to post in this thread (thank you!): https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2867666-viking-status-request-if-sailing-now/#comment-63655114 The landing stage steel construction is right down in the photo, what an incline. If you are on a river cruise or going to go on one, all the best. Enjoy the experience as much as you can. Now let us assume, you are thinking of booking. You have seen the photo in the thread above. Apart from that do much research if you are not fully mobile and cannot accept things not running smoothly. I personally have a bit of an issue (just a tiny bit) with companies showing all the glossy photos and the videos of ships docking right in town, etc. You know what I mean. I am of the personal opinion that on the Rhine, Danube and Elbe, if you cannot walk up and down twenty steps unaided. i.e need more than a cane and one railing, and/or cannot sit on a coach for more than 30 minutes, a river cruise is not for you. I will get back to the docking situation in low water tomorrow. notamermaid

Thank you for your thoughts. Viking has so much experience with the ship swaps, I am confident it will all run well. As you say, do not stress over it. Indeed a different experience but you will get the "local tourist with sausage, cake and cheap apple juice" fun. Besides all the castles. And that is something to remember. As a side note, I am a bit surprised that they go from Koblenz/St. Goarshausen straight to Strasbourg. I wonder if it is logistics or the water level being already too low for comfort in Worms. I had assumed the ship would go down to Mainz and turn round. notamermaid

Thank you for the info. I am confident this will go smoothly under the circumstances. Have a great time on the Danube. Update Pfelling gauge: 256cm. Air Temperature 30.4 Celsius. River forecast gives a downward trend and figures under 250cm for tomorrow. Rain sweeping into Germany from the West, reaching the Danube valley early on Friday. Although spreading over the whole valley, centre looks to be closer to Salzburg and therefore giving more water to Austria rather than Bavaria. A strong high pressure area over Europe is keeping bad weather at bay and the temperatures up, therefore rain is only coming as short thunderstorms mainly, not giving either ground or river long relief. Dry conditions are expected to persist further into August. notamermaid

Indeed. Something that is not necessarily immediately dangerous as you can allow for a bit of sand and gravel whirled up. Propellers do it all the time and the Rhine is regularly checked for such deposits forming as a result of the constant traffic. Too much sand and gravel and you get stuck of course and may damage propeller and hull. The biggest problem is the rock in the Rhine Gorge. Better not scrape that. While most of it in the deep navigation channel has been blasted, in the so-called Binger Loch that is, remaining rocks get more exposed at low water and increase the danger, small that it may be. You can see the exposed rocks at Oberwesel when you sail past, they are the "Seven Maidens" or for the shipping industry "Jungferngrund", or at Bingen/Rüdesheim what remains of the former blasted ridge. There is even a Wikipedia page on it in German called Untiefen des Rheins, "Untiefe" literally translates as "undepth", nice photos: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untiefen_des_Rheins Kaub gauge is at 55cm, for Saturday the 50cm come into view. notamermaid

The whole thing about Abladetiefe and the draft is of course designed for those ships, as you correctly point out. To be brutally honest, river cruise ships are not really "of commercial interest". Other than sporadically mentioned in news articles, we do not hear about the problems of river cruising. It is a slight financial worry for places like Rüdesheim on the Rhine or indeed as in DavidPlunkett's case the monastery that will not entertain guests in the evening. There may be contracts that cover events and their providers in such a case but the casual stroller in town, etc. is not coming. The only one profitting is the excursion boat company that Viking must have booked tickets for. But that as a side note only. What I am getting at is that what is intended for other ships we can use to some extent for river cruise ships. The laws of physics are the same. Indeed, it is what makes the difference in practice. You can only unload a river cruise ship so much. Get the people off the boat (mostly for safety), drain the swimming pool, reduce contents of the water tanks. That is about it. Throw the wine bottles over board. Nooo! - Okay, not doing that! Call me superstitious but I need to say it: Please do not tempt the ladies, that are Fate and the sisters Lorelei and Isar. They have no mercy! Now that we know how to calculate, here is some more to keep you busy with numbers. What we have seen for Kaub as an example you can work out for other gauges, here using tonight's figures: Worms, GlW 72cm, TuGLW 210cm, gauge 40cm Koblenz, GlW 78cm, TuGLW 210cm, gauge 58cm Cologne, GlW 139cm, TuGLW 250cm, gauge 102cm That's it for tonight, my flat is 30 Celsius, I have no air conditioning. Nature including me is suffering. I am sooo looking forward to my next shift at work, where I can sit happily with remote control in hand listening to the sound of cool air blasting into my office at my will. notamermaid

Thank you for all the info. Oh that is a great pity. It sounds as if this would have been Kloster Eberbach (your computer will switch to the English version automatically probably): https://kloster-eberbach.de/de Hooray to that! Admittedly this will not be as luxurious and comfortable as your own ship and you may share the boat with other tourists and children, depending on the charter Viking could arrange. But it will hopefully be great fun, apart from being "authentic". The "RMS Goethe" cannot sail, her draft is too deep and the company fears damaging the old lady but several other ships can still sail. Have a smooth transfer and a great time on the river. notamermaid

Viva Cruises is certainly busy trying to attract new international customers then. In the article linked above it says they will also be at the World Travel Market in London in November. Here is some more info on the 2023 itineraries: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/cruise/viva-cruises-releases-2023-itineraries-for-new-vessel A company spokesperson said earlier this year that the themed cruises between January and March had proven to be very popular. No wonder then that 2023 they will be offered again. notamermaid

Thanks for reporting. We know it was to be expected, unfortunately. Is it correct that Viking informed you in an e-mail about the possibility a few days before your cruise? It sounds from other posters that Viking now does this routinely when the problem arises. Viking has a good routine and now several years of experience doing the ship swaps. I am confident it will run smoothly. If you have got a couple of minutes - perhaps you could describe who leaves the boat with you, i.e. hotel staff or just the cruise director, and what happens to your luggage, like is it going in your transfer coach or separate? I think it will be appreciated by other cruisers. The Main is fine (just to remind people), but the sun deck will likely be closed for a long time. On the Rhine it is the Rhine Gorge stretch that the captain is addressing. It may or may not be too low when you get to the Rhine, uncertain at the moment. Welcome to Germany and have a great time on the rivers. notamermaid

Frustrating it is when you feel or even know that you know more about the situation than the company representatives. I do not think that ignorance is bliss though, if you know what I mean. I sometimes wonder if I do not make people too nervous, but I keep getting the impression people would rather know that a low water problem can exist or even is about to exist when they are due to travel. In 2018, so many folks were surprised by it and voiced their frustration and even anger here on CC. I have got the impression that communication has improved to a great extent among passenger and company. Reading into your post I gather that there is room for improvement still. Pfelling gauge at 14.15 hours local time: 254cm. notamermaid

Yes, that is a weird term. Discharging depth, for folks reading, is the translation from the German "Abladetiefe". That is a nautical/logistical term referring to the load a ship can carry, abladen is literally unload in common language. @RDVIK2016 thanks for the link to SWR, I saw it yesterday and was going to post that or something around it, i.e. a connected video. SWR does some nice laymen stuff to illustrate the situation. Just had not got round to it. By the way, had a brief walk through the riverbed yesterday. I went to the river banks and walked over stones (carefully) that are normally riverbed or at least the side of the river that is normally covered by at least 20 centimetres of water. Found no treasures and thankfully nothing that looked suspicious (ammunition, etc.) No photos yesterday, but I may take some soon. Have got some from 2018, quite the sight it was. Pfelling gauge at 61cm, so holding up okay. Forecast suggests stable figures today, tomorrow down to 54cm, potentially less. notamermaid