Down the Rhine to Stasbourg - Part 1 from Kembs-Niffer to Breisach / Having cruised along the river Doubs and the Canal du Rhône au Rhin from St Jean-de-Losne to Kembs-Niffer (Afloat, May’10) Valerie Helps* and photographer Geoffrey Bull now tackle the mighty Rhine to Strasbourg.

The Rhine is one of the principal rivers in Europe and begins as a tumultuous Alpine stream in eastern Switzerland churning through deep gorges. It is fed by the melting waters of snow and glaciers and is at maximum volume in spring and summer. The river flows approx 1,320km in a generally NW direction through or adjoining Austria, Liechtenstein, France, Germany, and the Netherlands to its mouth in the North Sea.
Down the Rhine to Strasbourg mapAlthough the river’s flow is moderated somewhat as it passes through the Lake of Constance (Bodensee), the river remains a torrent westward to Basel. Near Schaffhausen it is about 185m wide and plunges 23m over a spectacular waterfall, the Rheinfall. The Rhine has greatly influenced the history, culture, and economy of Europe from Roman days to the present.
We moored for the night at the eastern end of the Canal du Rhône au Rhin at Kembs-Niffer and the next day prepared to enter the upper end of the Rhin et Grand Canal d’Alsace (which is the canalised Rhine.)
This last lock is a spectacular piece of le Corbusier architecture made of concrete, yet in the evening light the surface resembled polished bronze. Had we been going directly to Strasbourg it would have taken six hours, but we planned to leave the river and join the Canal du Colmar to visit the town before returning briefly to the Rhine then onto the Canal du Rhône au Rhin (Branche Nord) to complete our journey to Strasbourg on the peaceful waters of this canal.
The good ship de Villehardouin.Morning bright and warm as we locked down through the double locks at the 15m deep Kembs-Niffer écluse (K186) and joined the Rhine which was running swiftly plus we were going with the current.
This was a first for us – we raced along whereas on the other major rivers like the Rhône and the Saône we’d been going upstream against the current. Cruising downstream certainly made a difference, Geoff reckoned we were doing around 17kph – our little bateau has never known this speed before – he was also pleased with our fuel consumption, just over 3km to the litre.
Due to the huge volume of freight (30,000 barges per annum) and number of passengers carried on it, the Rhine is one of the most important commercial inland waterways in the world so we knew it would be busy. The river has been ‘canalised’ and there are sloping concrete edges on both sides and every now and then the river is controlled by power stations alongside the locks.
We shared the Rhine with giants such as this LPG barge.The locks are colossal, 185m long, 23m wide and averaging 17m in depth to accommodate commercial barges that hurtle up and down this river. These are the length of the locks and only just fit in without a whisker to spare between them and the lock gates so you can imagine the effect on our dinky toy 11.35m boat as it shared the locks and waterways with these giants.
We used our new VHF transmitter on VHF channel 22 to call up the éclusier (lock-keeper) to announce our arrival at the Ottmarsheim écluse (K193). Luckily he spoke French and not German and told us to come in 15 minutes – this we did.
We come under the heading of plaisanciers (pleasure boats) so are required to give priority to all péniches (barges) and this includes hotel and restaurant boats some of which are as big as ocean liners. Providing there was room in the lock we were allowed to tuck in behind them, luckily the three locks Ottmarsheim; Fessenheim (K210) and Volegrun (K224) were not crowded so we enjoyed plain sailing with perfect weather.
Just after 1pm we reached the dead-end branch entry of the Canal du Colmar on the left bank to find the first écluse only operated on the hour on Sundays so we waited around then locked down. After the Colmar 2 écluse we were on the bief de partage – the highest level with no locks – and at Colmar 3 écluse we began locking up and late afternoon we arrived at the Colmar port de plaisance which was packed to the brim but we managed to find a spot crammed between two towering Halverson cruisers whose occupants spent the evening investigating every move we made.
“We must put up some blinds – I can’t stand being in a goldfish bowl!” I muttered to Geoff, and later in the year we did just that, gaining some privacy at last.
Early evening, after an exhausting two days of exploring Colmar, one of the most fascinating places either of us has ever seen, we visited the museum dedicated to Auguste Bartholdi (creator of the Statue of Liberty) whose fountain of a boy drinking enchanted me.
Bridges and boys go together on canals.The town is absolutely stunning. Tall and narrow medieval houses, some four to five storeys in height, half-timbered and painted in the most gorgeous colours of every shade imaginable – often two-tone terra-cotta and burnt sienna; coffee and cream; chartreuse and acid lime; tangerine and royal purple with the wooden timbers outlined in black or dark complementary shades. Harmonious, nothing bold nor garish.
The narrow cobbled streets meander in and out of the old town and run alongside a narrow canal called Petite Venice where we enjoyed a magnificent evening meal beneath a sun umbrella. It was 35 degrees. Crossed by stone bridges bright with flowers, little restaurants and cafés sit on the water’s edge and on platforms that jut over the rippling canals. Many of the fine houses and old churches are roofed with brightly coloured tiles, often green and amber; museums galore and a tiny train that wanders around the town and saves ones aching feet.
View along the Quai de la Poissonerie Colmar.We lunched in a tiny restaurant and once again enjoyed a cold, sharp Riesling from Alsace. Their food of course is of German orientation with heavy meat dishes (though it was far too hot to consider them) and rich tarts and flans. I noticed many of the customers were drinking vast mugs of beer that Geoff also enjoyed before lunch.
“Very refreshing,” he said, squinting at the bubbles and suppressing a burp. I opted for a long gin and tonic with lots of ice.
The Rhine divides France and Germany so we were as far east as we could go in the region of Alsace which, with part of Lorraine was annexed in 1870 by the Germans for over 40 years. France’s entry into WWI was partly due to their determination to wrest these two regions back from the Germans, and in doing so they lost a million men and another million were left crippled by that terrible war in the trenches along the eastern and the northern borders of France. The result was that almost everyone greeted us in German rather than French – and most of the tourists (and there were many in this gorgeous town) were German, Swiss or Austrian.
There were masses of boats in this smart marina which was the most expensive we’d encountered, also the best equipped with barbecues; wooden benches and tables beneath sun umbrellas; well-appointed washrooms; a shop; a bar and – joy oh joy – laundry facilities. All very posh and well laid-out with pots of rambling summer flowers at every corner.
We retraced our footsteps back along the 23km and three locks to the Rhine and moored at Breisach which is on an island off the left bank on the French side of the Rhine.
The boundary between Germany and France is along the eastern (German) side of the Rhine … ergo the island and the marina were French; however, the demeanour of the woman in the Capitainerie was more like that of a prison-camp wardress with her colossal trussed bosom that she rested on the counter (causing Geoff to turn somewhat pale!), short-cropped greying hair and harsh voice.
She was abrupt to the point of rudeness and kept shouting at us in German completely ignoring my repeated statement that “Nous sommes Anglaises.”
I was quite shocked after the gentle and pleasant manners of the French with whom we’d been dealing ever since we began cruising. The marina was pulsating with expensive and fancy boats coming and going all day long with Swiss, German and Belgian craft, the latter two drinking and carousing until the early hours. We appeared to be the only Aussies and I felt quite besieged!
We were somewhat surprised to see several elderly and robust couples escaping the intense heat by swimming (well – treading water!) around their moored boats for although the water in the enclosed arm of the marina appeared clean, in view of the release of effluent from so many craft directly into the waters I for one, would definitely not be swimming. Hope they kept their mouths shut!

* Valerie Helps and her photographer husband Geoffrey Bull have spent many years exploring the French waterways on their canal boat de Villehardouin. Over the past four years they have been restoring an old farmhouse in the Loiret region and leasing out their boat when they are not cruising.

 The Rhine

Charts

No chart on the initial part of the Rhin et Grand Canal d’Alsace (the canalised Rhine) was available so we borrowed a German chart from a fellow boater and posted it back to him when we reached Strasbourg.

The Trip

From Kembs-Niffer to Breisach – 40km
Breisach to Ecluse Rhinau /Friesenheim which is the turning onto the Canal du Rhône au Rhin (Branche Nord) on the left bank – 32km
Ecluse Rhinau/Friesenheim to Strasbourg – 37km and 11 locks
Breisach to Colmar – 23km
Total Distance (excluding Colmar trip) – 109 km

Cruise Tips

When ‘rafting up’ against a working barge keep your engine going and be prepared to be tossed about when it leaves the lock.
Plan your trip so you spend the night in ports as mooring (for a small craft) is out of the question on the river Rhine per se. The marinas are well-spaced and efficiently managed.
When tying up on the canal bank use the opposite bank of the towpath. Beware … the wash from passing boats can rip mooring stakes out of the ground, if there are no bollards tie the ropes onto three stakes (or trees.)