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Update: 21 October 2005

The flood waters worked their way down stream in September and October. Following an extremely wet summer, Romania and Bulgaria received more than 200 percent their normal rainfall during the second half of September, 2005. This led to serious flooding in late September and early October along the border between the two countries and along the Black Sea coast.

Earth Observatory - NASA have been monitoring the flooding and published false-colour satellite images

27 August 2005 Post

I had not intended leaving it so long, before writing about Regensburg in Germany and then continuing my journey to other cities along the Danube.
Neither had I anticipated the mighty river bursting its banks, though not surprisingly, there is a history of flooding.

Fortunately, the cities of Regensburg, Passau and Ingolstadt appear to have escaped major flooding and with it the devastation seen elsewhere in Europe.
Hastily constructed dams on the river Danube prevented serious damage but as aerial views of Regensburg and Passau demonstrate, they were surrounded by water and parts of the old center of Passau were submerged.

The Danube did flood part of the medieval city of Kelheim, including the seventh century, Weltenburg monastery, which was the subject of my last Danube post.

Thanks to the efforts of monks and emergency workers, who had worked against the clock to build sandbag dams around the Benedictine abbey; the abbey itself has escaped damage, although the courtyard of the monastery and some cellars were flooded.

The ground floor of the monastery was under water and the community worked feverishly to rescue what it could. Hopefully that included the famous Weltenburg beer.