New paths: The water level of the Rhine is so low that tourists can walk to the Bingen Mouse Tower.
Image: Maximilian von Lachner
Islands the size of a soccer field protrude from the Middle Rhine. The water level is sometimes so low that you can wade through the river. Some ferries stop operating – and local residents can hardly believe their eyes.
uIrike Schäfer is standing with a friend on the banks of the Rhine and taking a photo. No selfie, what stretches out in front of her is more interesting. Actually, she knows the place here in Bingen only too well. To her left, the Nahe flows into the Rhine, and she lives on the small tributary. But she has seldom seen rivers like this. “I will show the picture to my family. They like to come here and will be amazed,” she says. The 66-year-old woman often spends time here with her grandchildren. “We enjoy the wind and the sun and the water – if it’s there.” Her friend interrupts her: “It’s scary.”
The air in Bingen this afternoon is oppressively hot, the thermometer shows 32.5 degrees. It hasn’t really rained here in Rheinhessen for weeks. The river promenade offers a postcard view of the Rüdesheim vineyards on the other side of the Rhine. But the panorama doesn’t look really nice. “It’s quite brown,” says Schäfer. “Normally, when we sit here in summer, it’s green slopes.”