Heavy rain in Germany brought river cruising to a virtual halt this week. The Rhine, Danube and Maine were all affected, with fast-running rivers and water levels so high that river cruise ships couldn’t get under bridges. Some rivers became really rough, and lots of ships were relocated to ports to wait it out, after it was estimated that more rain fell in 24 hours than is usually expected in a month.
River cruise companies were then faced with the challenge of immediately finding hotel accommodation for hundreds of passengers, and some looked for coaches so that they could continue journeys on land. Colleague Mogens Johansen, who’s on a river cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam while holidaying in Europe, was caught up in the chaos caused by the heavy rain inundating large parts of Germany and Eastern Europe. Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.
He witnessed extremely high water levels on the Danube and Rhine rivers, which meant that several river ships travelling along the popular route were unable to pass below some of the low bridges on the Main-Danube canal. Mogens says Travelmarvel, APT and Viking ships were among the cruise ship companies forced to transfer passengers to vessels on the other side of the low bridges so they could continue their journey. “Travelmarvel has been excellent throughout the ordeal.
We transferred from TM Vega in Passau to TM Polaris in Nuremberg and it was a virtually seamless experience th.
