notamermaid

Have now been able to confirm with a helpful DB employee that on the day you travel (and probably on other days) there is construction work going on near Mainz so S8 or S9 are the options instead of the standard trains. Hence the fact that the connections are different and more complicated than when you first researched. Other info to follow. notamermaid

Nice to hear from you again and glad to read you had a nice cruise. Did you enjoy all the excursions? Have you got a favourite? Thank you. notamermaid

Remember now. It is regina river cruises and they, according to a river cruise blog, now are also back to normal without any restrictions. notamermaid

Before I get too busy this week with tourism (hooray the tourists are back!) and helping out at an event, a quick look at the river levels: Maxau 463cm, on a slight upward trend forecast to end tomorrow, followed by slow steady decline Kaub 143cm, unlikely to react much to Maxau, slow steady decline Koblenz 142cm, following Kaub trend quite closely as no river in the Rhine Gorge will add much water in this heat Cologne 206cm, has reached a plateau, as the Moselle is low I expect that stretch from Koblenz to Cologne to follow the trend of the Rhine Gorge Kaub falling below 100cm? Unlikely this week. The Danube in Bavaria? Struggling! notamermaid

The forecast was brutally right and the expected happened. Pfelling gauge dropped down to 286cm already early in the morning with a further decline to 280cm by lunchtime. notamermaid

I hope they do not convert the River Queen too much. She is a queen on the rivers, so stylish, I love seeing her sail as she is (the exterior). I do not like whites and greys, maritime brass and blue is my preferred combination. The interior is already updated but leaning towards Art Deco so fine for me as she is. Yes, our days due to European Summertime are very long still. notamermaid

And according to Wikipedia Herr von Lassaulx (a famous architect in the Rhine valley) rebuilt the castle "in keeping with" the old parts still standing at the 19th century, so some of the Medieval original is still standing today which I assume makes the crenellations real old. I have actually never been up there, so getting just a little envious. I fully understand 🙂 . That castle is not a standard visit on river cruises. Enjoy! notamermaid

Are you going up to Rheinstein Castle? This is the one, right? https://www.burg-rheinstein.de/en/ notamermaid

Thank you for sharing. I see you had the option of visiting the cold war bunker today. Cool (no pun intended). Quite a different experience from the standard. That is the money vault, isn't it? https://www.bundesbank-bunker.de/en/ notamermaid

Thanks for saying hello and good to hear you are enjoying yourself. Sounds like the Moselle has just go another fan. notamermaid

I should have expected you to find an exception . Speaking of colours, apparently the buoys on the Rhine on the right used to be black, then international regulation meant those had to be sprayed green (says the video I linked). Videos and the Rhine Gorge. Continuing from post #274, here is a short video of an excursion boat trip on the Rhine by Deutsche Welle: https://www.dw.com/en/upper-middle-rhine-valley-a-unesco-world-heritage-site/av-16995075 And a drone flight video with commentary (which I have posted before but is worth doing so again): notamermaid

The level at Pfelling has indeed fallen, to now 298cm. Question is whether that level can be sustained. There is no strong downward trend now. A "slow decline" is probable though, meaning the forecast suggests the level may go down to 286cm tomorrow. notamermaid

Lovely . Terrific day in the Middle Rhine valley. Just a tiny bit of cloud in a blue sky. Hope your trip up to Marksburg was great. Wondering where the ship dropped you off. Anyway, you are enjoying the Rhine Gorge as I write, so have a great afternoon. notamermaid

Stretching my abilities, need to get my head round this with a commuter I think. I never book regional trains unless I am travelling far and rely on a specific connection. Will be back... notamermaid

Interesting. The (package etc.) holiday industry is certainly very competitive. Perhaps it is just something that has become standard practice, i.e. not practice here in the EU and UK. A German company with such conditions? No way. Standard practice is early bird reductions etc. notamermaid

That is how I see it. I was shocked when I read about this, me coming from European consumer laws. By that I mean I am not even sure that this would be legal in the EU. It is certainly unheard of. Unless you book within a very short time before your cruise. As I always say it would be a no-no for me if I was in the US. notamermaid

I think the autocorrect needs glasses. Those are not nuns, nuns are black and white, not red . notamermaid

And I think the Main is going to be even better (overall speaking). Sundeck closed for some of the time I should think (depending on what the arrangements are among the busy crew), but I am sure Viking will make the best of that situation. notamermaid

Unvaccinated as an assumption based on age may lead to unnecessary worry. As far as I know the US and some other countries are very big on demanding children over the age of 12 to be fully vaccinated on a river cruise. Also German companies did this until very recently and some will continue to do so during Summer and even possibly for the rest of the year. A look in the small print of Uniworld could do the trick of finding this out. Between the ages of 6 and 12 I am not sure. Needless to say that the more people mingle in an "uncontrolled fashion" the more likely there will be many cases (if there is an original spark, i.e. one person bringing it on board). Hope you can calm down a bit and enjoy the cruise as much as possible (easier said than done, I know). I honestly would have problems myself being at ease in your situation. notamermaid

Sorry to hear that. An unfortunate coincidence with the parade, but the fact that they let you "enjoy" the city where the main draw is the Cathedral when the said edifice is understandably closed is not good. That tour especially on this day should have been arranged differently with the guides. Flexibility is key. I am afraid you have walked in the footsteps of George Lord Byron who in 1815 found it crowded and dirty and made sure to get away as fast as possible to see Bonn and the castles ("the castl'd crag of Drachenfels")... Hope you come back to tell us that dinner was splendid and I hope you can enjoy the sunset and lights from your position at Deutz (and docked with the Viking Gefjon). Tomorrow should be quieter and definitely more scenic for you. notamermaid

It has been twenty years since UNESCO declared the Upper Middle Rhine valley a world heritage site. So before returning to ferries and talking about moated castles, I will be all happy tourism assistant and further promote this section of "my" river with the splendid hill-top castles 🙂. Why is it so special? Here is the educational bit, i.e. what UNESCO says: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1066/ And as the name Rhine Gorge is frequently used for it, let us see what Wikipedia says about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine_Gorge Really nice photos already, but I think I should further enhance the experience with a video. Will be back later in the day or tomorrow... notamermaid

It is the beginning of July, so it is time for a recap of what happened at Pfelling gauge: In June the river experienced a few days of proper low water as regards river cruising is concerned, but not officially statistically. That is at the line MNW. We have talked about the 290cm mark in the last two weeks and those days when the level fell below that turned into problem days for the 135m ships. The river has been up and down since then, reacting to major rainfall and then falling back, with the last dip again close to 290cm (the one vada_9 referred to in post #98). After good amounts of rain Pfelling again made it to a good level. Now we see the gauge on the downward trend and if not backed up by rain soon may well see a return to a level below 300cm. Forecast suggests this could happen tomorrow afternoon. I will try and have a look again at this tomorrow lunchtime. notamermaid

That is a lot. If you had asked me I would have guessed 900km. Thank you for taking us along on that journey. The Rhine is definitely the busiest inland waterway in Europe, if you search you will also find the info that it is the busiest in the world. Not sure how that is measured, so will not comment. Anyway, the captain I talked to on a CroisiEurope river cruise ship called it (translated) "a bl**dy motorway". I call it "my" river. Splendid weather today. Hope you have a lovely sunset on the Lower Rhine. I see that the Viking Eistla has just crossed the border. Welcome to Germany! notamermaid

We have a new arrival! The Amadeus Cara has been christened in Cologne: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tourism/amadeus-river-cruises-christens-latest-vessel And the ship spotters of Binnenschifferforum have already seen her: https://www.binnenschifferforum.de/showthread.php?98730-Amadeus-Cara-KFGS-02339509&p=442499#post442499 Safe travels to her always. notamermaid

So here is the schedule: http://moselkommission.org/index.php?eID=tx_nawsecuredl&u=0&g=0&t=1656862780&hash=0bbe7a3b3543dd38ad24c0d4f003769feb40492c&file=fileadmin/user_upload/Sperrzeiten und Verkehr/Schleusensperrzeiten_Plan_2021-2035.pdf notamermaid