Hochwasser

The confluence at Passau, before and during flooding.

Last weekend, we were stuck inside due to consistent, heavy rain. Total rainfall in our valley was nearly 4 inches in 48 hours, and we saw the little creek in our backyard swell, and flood the llama barn just upstream as well as the backyard of the Mill. Fortunately, it passed quickly and there was no major damage.

The water in the Ammer, our little creek, dumped into the Neckar in Tübingen and eventually into the Rhine. Our region also feeds the Danube, and there were heavy rains in Bavaria that persisted after ours stopped. The results was that many towns on the Danube flooded.

We watched TV coverage of the flooding intensely, because so many of the places we went through on our 8-day bike ride in April were flooded. The town of Passau, famous for its confluence of three rivers, was underwater, with water levels higher than anything experienced since the middle ages. We stood at the very tip and I made a panoramic just two months ago.

A panorama from the point (center) of the Passau island, April 2013.

Joe's aunt and uncle Barbara and David were in Europe for a few weeks and they stopped by Tübingen to spend a day with us, just before the heavy rains started. We watched the University students race their "Stockerkahn" boats around the Neckar Island in town, with the losing boat tasked with drinking half a liter of cod liver oil. This is quite an old tradition. Fortunately, the race preceded the high water. Barbara and David were planning to spend a few days in Prague, but got turned back by a flooded Autobahn. They did finally make it to Prague for a day or so after the high water on the river Vltava had passed.

Now we are starting to have more regular warm weather, but thunderstorms may keep us inside later this afternoon.