Rhine water levels 2023 and similar topics

[Canal archive]

Oh their poor feet if they are wearing authentic replica Roman sandals.

[notamermaid]

34 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

Oh their poor feet if they are wearing authentic replica Roman sandals.

Looks like they are wearing them, or something close to that:

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

The flooding watch - as I call it - has been activated. This is a higher alert level and means that parts of the Rhine are monitored closely and the latest levels at specific gauges are published every 15 minutes. On the website pegelonline the combined graphs look like this this morning:

 

This is just the Upper Rhine valley, the Middle Rhine is not on alert.

 

Kaub gauge is at 189cm and has not even reached statistical mean water yet. It is forecast to do so during the afternoon and will most likely rise close to 300cm on Friday.

 

notamermaid

 

[ak1004]

@notamermaid thanks for all the updates!

 

What’s the potential impact of the current situation on the cruises? We are on Sep.2-12 sailing from Basel to Amsterdam. 

[notamermaid]

Hauenstein has left flooding status, in the Upper Rhine valley the wave is ebbing, Maxau gauge is falling nicely, peaked at 655cm, so well below the figure for a river traffic ban. All good. The wave has reached the Middle Rhine valley and Mainz to Kaub have risen with Koblenz just starting to. This will be in Cologne by tomorrow morning. There it should peak on Saturday after noon some time. The level is forecast to stay well below navigational flood mark I.

 

5 hours ago, ak1004 said:

@notamermaid thanks for all the updates!

 

What’s the potential impact of the current situation on the cruises? We are on Sep.2-12 sailing from Basel to Amsterdam. 

You will be well behind the wave and should encounter mean to a bit above the mean water levels. While we can never rule it out, I personally cannot see a likelihood of an impact to a cruise during that time frame. Possibly minor adjustments to speed and docking locations. If your particular cruise and captain need to make adjustments, do not worry, they are used to this, it really is not a big deal and I am sure they will take great care of you.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Cologne gauge:

Looks a dramatic rise, but it is not too bad, you can see that the level is not even close to the mean (MW) yet. It will peak on Saturday at probably no more than 350cm. After that the level will quickly return to figures that are more usual for late Summer.

 

"Flood watch" in the Upper Rhine valley has been deactivated. Back to business as usual there.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

With Mainz gauge having reached a plateau and the wave to be at its peak at Kaub soon let us have a look at what the authorities expect to happen in the next few days. The level should go down fairly fast to begin with so that by Monday we could be seeing figures of below 200cm again. The down trend will slow down so that for the first half of September we can be confident that the level will stay really pleasant for river cruising, meaning staying well above 100cm. That looks really good but of course there is always a level of uncertainty in these computer modellings so after a short recap of the month we will look at this again in the next few days.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Quick tip for tonight, should you happen to be in Koblenz. Night of Museums, long opening hours well into the evening. These are the places taking part: https://www.museumsnacht-koblenz.de/beteiligte-haeuser

 

Coming up next weekend: Tag des offenen Denkmals. That is part of the European heritage days. On the Sunday (and to a small part also the Saturday) many protected monuments and places are open to the public that are usually closed or have very restricted opening times. Have had a look at the offers in my area, spoilt for choice!

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

It is September, time to have a look at what the river did in August at Kaub gauge:

 

A good month overall for river traffic. Certainly without problems for river cruise ships. We see a dip in the fourth week but that will have only concerned commercial traffic. And then - the big rain. While this caused a problem on the German and to a small extent on the Austrian Danube we saw no problems on the Rhine. The Upper Rhine valley went to mild flooding which did not extent in such a way that it would cause more than minor adjustments to itineraries, if any. No ban on river traffic there. At Kaub we a saw that wave on 31 August but it was not high enough to give us any worries. In fact, it means that September has started on a high, but good level with plenty of water to take us well into the month. The new forecast has changed so that levels of less than 200cm are not anticipated before Tuesday lunchtime.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[ColterBay23]

Thank you once again for the helpful information. We are on the Main River outside of Bamberg heading toward Nuremberg. We have not been alerted that there is any problem with the water levels that would cause us to change ships. It is what it is. VRC did mention the maximum water levels would be 570 cm. 
I don’t think low water will be an issue now. 
We’ve had a wonderful trip, rain, sun and clouds. 

[notamermaid]

Continued from my post #568. Let us now walk out of Cologne. The road takes us from the Capitol through the city and we take a left fork, not straight to Aachen but the more southern gate, leave the bustling streets behind and get onto the road to Zülpich. Called Tolbiacum in Roman times, this place was the site of a famous battle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zülpich

Special about Zülpich today is the Museum of Bathing Culture with the old Roman baths as the centrepiece: https://www.roemerthermen-zuelpich.de/de/fuer_kinder_/english/english.html

I mentioned that the road was dead straight - and partly it still is (while some of it is not suitable for road traffic, you can walk it, other parts are busy with cars):

 

Notice the kink in Cologne where the road goes through the town gate near Mauritiussteinweg. From Zülpich the road takes you through more stations and posts. This was a main road connecting two cities, so while the Eifel was not densely populated it was nevertheless no wilderness and saw quite a bit of through traffic. There was even small industry like pottery and mining. By the way, the milestones along the way were actually league stones. The Romans adopted the Celtic measure for distances.

 

Anyway, much further along the way, the road is in a swampy area and crosses or runs along a brook called Oosbach outside a village called Duppach. And that is were many decades ago, Roman finds appeared. Professional excavation showed quite a bit of activity in the area and a dedicated club of enthusiasts is looking after the Roman heritage. This year professional archaeologists have been at the site again. The site has revealed something spectacular. A Roman bridge crossing a swamp, i.e. stagnant water rather than a river. This latest round of excavations saw the archaeologists trying to retrieve all wooden supports of the bridge, which are in very good condition due to the fact that they have been waterlogged for 2000 years. This is the news article with video:

https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/rheinland-pfalz/grabungen-duppach-100.html

 

What also makes this place so special is the fact that dendrochronology has shown that the bridge was most likely built in 53 BC, Julius Caesar's time. If correct, this makes it the second oldest Roman bridge in Germany, and the oldest one that can be clearly attributed to a spot in the landscape. The oldest was a bridge crossing the Rhine, the exact position of where it stood is not known (and it was a very temporary construction).

 

Latest news is that the excavations this year have been successful and the site closed. But you can go to the information panel. In river cruising terms, this village is far away from any port, so unlikely to ever make it into an excursion. It is a full hour from Cochem.

 

From Duppach the road further crosses the Volcanic Eifel region and hits the river Moselle at what is now Trier-West and then crosses the river on the famous Roman bridge which with Medieval alterations still stands and carries modern road traffic.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[Rikboatman]

Thanks again for the information. Love the local history of the area. Five years ago we stayed a week in Baden Baden where my grandfather was from. Is there any connection between the Oos River and the Oosbach?

Really looking forward to being on our cruise in 30 days, not that we're counting.

[notamermaid]

36 minutes ago, Rikboatman said:

Is there any connection between the Oos River and the Oosbach?

Good question. Often Roman parts of words or even older Celtic parts are in a name but with those two I have no idea. Would be something for a dedicated linguist. Could both have something to do with a Germanic stem that relates to water or an "Au(e)" - that is ground close to water and/or inundated frequently by water. Or a complete coincidental etymology of them both. They are in different dialect areas, so that may make sense as well.

 

One river of which the Roman original name is well-documented is the Vinxtbach. It was a Roman boundary - "finis": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinxtbach

 

notamermaid

 

[Rikboatman]

Thank you for your response. Gute Nacht, mein Freund.

[notamermaid]

13 hours ago, Rikboatman said:

Thank you for your response. Gute Nacht, mein Freund.

Thank you.

 

Just to expand a little on the Roman places and their names. They are a bit like beads put on a string along the Rhine  - and there mostly on the left bank. Worms, Speyer, Koblenz, Andernach, etc. are all Roman with sometimes going back to Celtic words. But you probably know that Baden-Baden further inland on the right bank but within the boundaries of the Empire determined by the establishment of the Limes frontier was used by the Romans, well, the thermal springs. Simply called "Aquae" - the Baths. And you can visit the ruins: https://www.carasana.de/en/friedrichsbad0/romanbathruins.html

 

There is another aquae - Aquae Mattiacorum, modern day Wiesbaden. Like Baden-Baden it is still a well-to-do town with the baths at the centre of it. Okay, both have also a casino...

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Rikboatman]

Thank you.

While we were in Baden-Baden we did visit the ruins and spent an afternoon at the Caracalla Therme. Another visit there is in my future. 

[notamermaid]

A quick look at Kaub gauge. Levels as predicted two days ago - now at 195cm, so all good. Decline is definitely slowing down. Long-range forecast suggests figures will most likely stay above 100cm well into the second half of September.

 

notamermaid

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

I hadn't heard the term "Limes" before, so I looked it up:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limes_(Roman_Empire)

 

[notamermaid]

Thank you for the link. The frontier has of course long gone but I always claim I can still sense the difference between the civilized world and the wild hills of Germania Magna. 😁

 

Staying with the Romans but back to Cologne. On Saturday and mostly Sunday you can visit Roman remains in Germany as part of the "Tag des offenen Denkmals", among them modern day Cologne-Deutz. I will explain this in a following post.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

So, to Divitia and Deutz. The now suburb of Cologne called Deutz is on the right bank of the Rhine and has modern housing and a modern embankment but I recommend getting over there for a splendid view of the Dom and bridge. There is an association that has helped with establishing a "Historischer Park" with a model of the old fort Divitia, for some photos: https://fhpd.de/projekte/ein-bronzemodell-fuer-den-rheinboulevard/

 

This coming Sunday monuments all over Germany are open again, many of them normally not accessible to the general public. Some have guided tours, some have even drinks and snacks on offer. This is what is happening in Deutz: https://www.tag-des-offenen-denkmals.de/event/cllmlvl9t000emp0fs31xixqv

You need to book in advance. But other places of interest are also open in Cologne that may be easier to plan. Fascinating may be the old ship in the harbour that is being renovated called MS Stadt Köln. From this page you can go to the map at the top (Denkmalkarte) and roam around Germany.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Kaub gauge at 177cm. New long-range forecast suggests a potential drop of the level just below 100cm middle of the month.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[Kristelle]

Is that too low to sail? 

[notamermaid]

6 hours ago, Kristelle said:

Is that too low to sail? 

No, it is not. Captain always knows best - but 100cm I have never heard of being a problem. What you get with the low figures between 100cm and 90cm is slower sailing or a change of docking location due to shallows. Earlier this year I read about a German river cruise company having to cancel the remainder of a  river cruise as it was too low (around 92cm). Seriously the only time I have read this.

 

I was a little surprised that the computer modelling included figures of 94cm to 100cm as a real probability but it is hot right now and there is no indication of rain so this will explain it. The level now is 171cm. The river at Kaub now loses between 15cm and 10cm a day.  We will see how it goes next week.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

The river is doing fine. Level at Kaub is now at 151cm (exactly in line with the predicted levels for today). Forecast now shows the figures staying well above 100cm for much of this week with little change for the worse when we look further ahead. Drop below 100cm as a probability is minimal.

 

For the "Tag des offenen Denkmals" I left my river and went along the Lahn, so no report on that here. But as I returned home via the mouth of the river with the Rhine I got a long glance at Lahneck Castle. Always looking good, whatever the weather. 🙂

 

Amawaterways has excursions to the castle, I think they are exclusive. But as a private individual you can also see it.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Bomb in the Rhine

 

A bomb has been found near the island Niederwerth, that is close to Koblenz. The bomb will be defused tomorrow. For that reason the Rhine will be closed to river traffic in a short section downstream from the city. It is not possible to sail from the Moselle onto the Rhine in the downstream direction. 1,200 people will need to be evacuated. According to the notification for captains, the ban is in place from 8am to 3pm.

 

Source for info: https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/rheinland-pfalz/koblenz/fliegerbombe-in-koblenz-niederwerth-gefunden-102.html

 

notamermaid