Dukey1

I remember when my Husbear suggested we do that Viking Rhine itinerary (Basel northbound) and my first reaction was, "Why? We have done every one of the places we will be stopping?" We did it anyway and it was one of the best trips we have ever taken. Enjoy yours.

Adelaidean

John, I always enjoyed your reports, this time I am taking my 81 year old father to Germany...haven’t even been nice enough to give him a stopover...we are going 32 hours door to door. Long haul from Australia, 7 hour layover in Singapore, 13 hours to Munich, plus train ride at the end. Lucky he’s such a trooper!
I have enjoyed your comments on cruising, it is all a compromise, isn’t it, and being glad we have all these options when we aren’t 21 anymore.

Hey, Dukey, did you get to Sils Maria? Hope you loved it, if you did....

john183

Dukey1 - We had not been to any of the places we visited so everything was new to us and we liked them a lot too.

Adelaidean - thanks for your kind words. Wow - 32 hours door to door!! That is some serious travelling - your dad must be one heck of a trooper. I'm hoping the travel industry keeps figuring out new ways to make travel fun, easy and affordable for those of us that want to keep on travelling as we get older.

Dukey1

There's something great about simply gliding along.

john183

Day 4 – 8/15 - Breisach and Colmar

Arrived at Breisach at 4:30 AM. Up late and had breakfast. We did not have a morning excursion planned for this morning so we took it pretty easy. This was one of only two places we could just walk off the boat in to town and it was really nice. We walked through some pretty streets up to the church and we had a very enjoyable time.

Back to the boat for lunch before our 2:15 to 6:15 tour of Colmar (we paid extra for this tour). Bus left on time and took about 30 minutes to get to the parking lot that was a ways from the center of town. The tour started and the town was interesting. Our guide was pretty good but she really struggled several times trying to find English words. Our cruise director told another passenger that one of the biggest problems they have is finding as many qualified tour guides as they need in all the different towns and castles. The guided part of the tour finished somewhere on one of the side streets and then we had about an hour on our own. We tried to walk around a little but not knowing where any nice areas were that we had not already seen and having a not very good map - it was difficult. It was a very hot day so we went to “Little Venice” for a bit and decided to find a place to have a cold drink near our meeting point in the middle of town for the guide to lead us back to the bus. Kind of a long walk back to the bus and we eventually arrived back at the boat at 6:15.

So we arrived at the boat at 6:15, a special toast with the Captain was scheduled for 6:30, a briefing for the next day was scheduled at 6:45 and dinner was at 7. Of course we did not have to attend the toast or the briefing but we wanted to participate in things on the boat. It is probably not a big deal to most people but after a 4-hour tour on a very hot day, to only have 15 minutes to relax a bit, freshen up and maybe change clothes before dinner where we would meet new people does not work too well for our group.

Finished a good dinner with some fun folks, sat on the front deck for a quick after dinner drink and went back to our room. The boat left the dock at 9:30 so we decided to sit on our veranda for a bit before going to bed. There was absolutely nothing to see on the river bank as we cruised except complete darkness - plus there were lots of bugs. We went to bed having really enjoyed our morning but had mixed feelings about the rest of the day.

john183

I should have mentioned this earlier because it was a very weird thing to me. I never felt the boat moving. I could not tell if we were moving or if we were docked. I never felt the boat pull away from or pull in to a dock. We would be sitting at dinner and someone would say that we had pulled out. Sure enough I looked out and we were cruising down the middle of the river. Very weird. As Dukey1 said - there's something great about simply gliding along.

thursdaysd

Did the Colmar tour visit (or recommend) the Musee d’Unterlinden?

AJPeabody

This report will help all of us who might consider a river cruise. Thanks!

john183

thursdaysd - Our tour did not go to or recommend the Musee d’Unterlinden. There was one other optional Colmar tour from 1:45 to 6:00 that included a visit to the Colmar Pocket Museum and other World War II sites. With only an hour of free time (realistically it was less than an hour when you factor in time to get to the meeting point) it would have been hard for us to enjoy this museum that looks like it would be very nice to visit.

AJPeabody - my main goal with this trip report is to re-live the trip as I write it - and weirdly enough I enjoy the process of writing trip reports. I also like to go back and read my trip reports every now and then to relish the fun times we had. To reiterate, we are in our late sixties to early seventies and our previous 9 trips to Europe were all self-planned. In those 9 trips we have developed a travel style that we enjoy but we wanted to try something new on this trip. My intention is to put down our impressions and document some of the fun and interesting things that happened while on this new type of trip. Hopefully anyone reading this can judge whether our experiences would relate to them or not.

TPAYT

I think your TR is perfect. We all enjoy different aspects of travel and with your details we can choose if this would be for us.

i agree about writing a TR. it is fun to relive the trip as I write and also go back at a later time & read again, Another part of the TR is the comments from others regardless if they agree with me or not.

Looking forward to the remaining days.

AJPeabody

< I enjoy the process of writing trip reports. I also like to go back and read my trip reports every now and then to relish the fun times we had.>

The optimal reasons. That's why I write TR's, too. And I read them for the vicarious experience. Win-win, I think.

And you write well.

john183

Thanks TPAYT and AJPeabody. Not sure if writing trip reports is a blessing or a curse.

john183

Day 5 – 8/16 – Strasbourg

We docked at Kehl just across the river from Strasbourg at about 8 AM. Our Viking included tour of Strasbourg left at about 8:25. The bus ride to the center of Strasbourg started with about and hour ride around various parts of the town with the guide talking over the bus loud speaker about sites that we drove past. Although it was sort of interesting, our group had mixed feelings about this. Bus touring is not something we usually prefer. And to top it off, the bus parking lot was about a 15 minute walk to the city center.

But we really liked central Strasbourg. Just like at Colmar yesterday, there were huge beautiful flower baskets hanging everywhere. We eventually arrived at the Cathedral and we had a good tour of the inside arriving at the incredible astronomical clock just before 10 AM. Our guide gave us some good info about the clock until it struck 10 and we were able to see the movements of some of the figures on the clock. We could have gone back to the boat but Viking had scheduled some hourly shuttle buses so we decided to spend more time in town. We walked around the town for a while and then we took about an hour long canal ride. It was incredibly hot and the first 30 minutes were interesting but we would have been happier if it would have finished at that point. The last 30 minutes were not nearly as interesting as the first 30 minutes. We then met a Viking rep near the Cathedral who led us on the 15 minute walk back to the bus.

Arrived at the boat in mid afternoon so we had plenty of time to relax and get ready for cocktail hour before dinner. Chatted with some nice people during the cocktail hour and had a very enjoyable dinner. The boat had pulled out at about 6:15 so we were able to enjoy the scenery as we cruised while we ate. After dinner, we continued our nightly ritual of having a Baileys nightcap in the lounge.

We grabbed a second Baileys to have on our veranda and by this time it was dark. Tonight there were no bugs so it was much more enjoyable. There was still nothing to see on the shore but there was just enough light coming from the boat to be able to make out some swans close to the shore. They weren’t in groups but were sort of lined up one after another along the shore. We didn’t think much about it until the swans seemed to never end. I counted over a 100 as we cruised and gave up counting. I’m guessing there were several hundred along the banks for quite a long distance. It was eery just barely being able to see the big white birds one after another just sitting there in the dark.

Adelaidean

I liked Strasbourg, too, didn’t feel like a big city and had lots of lovely alleys, squares, elegant buildings, there’s a nice river boat trip right in the centre that’s popular but you’d have had enough of cruising by then, no doubt.

Enjoying your thoughts on the cruise, too, they are very heavily promoted here in Australia.

And I love trip reports, too, I like all the details and often cut and paste bits for my future itineraries.

thursdaysd

Worthwhile museums in Strasbourg, too. And good food, lol. I liked it enough I went back for a second visit. I think you are confirming my feeling that the cruises just don't give you enough time in "port". Better than not going at all.

Sue81

your comment about never feeling the boat move on river, I've been on river cruises from Russia, Holland, France, Germany etc and never hardly felt the ship move. Unlike cruises up to Alaska on large ships, avoided a hurricane once by completely missing Kodiak Island, had to head for Glacier Bay to get off open ocean, and completly missed Kodiak with stabilizers out on ship and ship swinging so hard, we went to bed. Both great trips, but one a tad scary. River crusiing is great for older people, I think.

kerouac

I am very much enjoying this report, but you are convincing me more and more to never take a river cruise. A boat that moves but doesn't feel like it is moving, travel by night when there is nothing to see, docking (sometimes) in the middle of nowhere... I will admit that I had a very lucky childhood and crossed the Atlantic on various ocean liners 7 times. The vibrations of the motor and the up and down swells are what made the trips magical (yes, even though I was slightly seasick at least twice, but that was when I was under the age of 10). Normal transatlantic crossings no longer exist, only those ultra luxury cruises, but it all still calls out to me. So I am hoping to take a cargo ship from Le Havre to South America next year. I've already scoped it out, I know that it costs 4 times more than flying, but I am craving the 15 days of isolation on the open seas....

Keep up your European river tale. I went to Strasbourg once when it was too hot, even though it was lovely, so I understand completely how you felt on the day you were there. I really liked the cruise on the tourist boat.

Strasbourg in September | Any Port in a Storm

Carolmom

Following, as we are also thinking that river cruises might be for us when we get a bit more decrepit. (The hubs' knee is starting to be a factor as it is...) A question about room/bed size: Hubs is 6'4" and not slim, I'm 5"10", and trying to find accommodations with a queen size bed or larger is a big factor in our travel budget. What were the bed size offerings on the cruise?

john183

Adelaidean - We actually liked Strasbourg more than we liked Colmar. Colmar was cute but Strasbourg felt more authentic.

thursdaysd - I forgot to say that we had lunch in Strasbourg. We wanted to have foie gras sometime on the trip and this seemed like the perfect time. We found a place where it was on the menu and it was OK but not great. The rest of the meal was good though.

Sue81 - jeez - sounds like a wild ride you had.

kerouac - Thanks for the nice words. All the things you say are what we did not like about river cruising. But there were quite a few things we did like - I hope they eventually come through in my report. I have to admit I do not have a desire to go on a transatlantic ocean liner crossing. I'll be very happy to read all about it in one of your "Any Port in a Storm" reports. And thanks for posting the link to your Strasbourg report. Great pics.

john183

Day 6 – 8/17 – Heidelberg and Rudesheim

The boat docked at Mannheim at about 2 AM. We had a decision to make between an excursion to Heidelberg to see the castle ruins and the town or stay on the boat while it cruised on to Neirstein where it would stop to pick up the people that elected to go to Heidelberg. We wanted to see Heidelberg and we would still have a couple of hours of cruising to get from Neirstein to Rudesheim, so it was an easy choice for us to go on the tour which left at 8:30 and was due to rejoin the boat down river at 1:30. It’s weird to say down river because we were sailing north up to Amsterdam but the river flows north so we were actually sailing downstream.

We really enjoyed our tour of the castles ruins. They call it ruins although some parts of the castle walls and a few rooms were in pretty good shape. We also enjoyed the time we spent in town. We heard so much about the December Christmas markets in this area that we probably will never get to so we stopped in at a Christmas store and bought a few ornaments as gifts. Back to the bus for the ride back to the boat, meeting it at about 1:30. Since this was one of the few days we would be cruising in the daylight, we had lunch on the front deck. Very enjoyable afternoon as we cruised and eventually docked at Rudesheim at about 5:15.

Before the trip, our group was looking at the various excursions we could pay extra to do and a majority of our group wanted to do the “Dine in Rudesheim” excursion. It was billed as a festive full course dinner with traditional music and a chance to try the local schnapps vom brett as a digestif. I was thinking it would be some bad food and drinks with some lame entertainment but our group voted to do it so I went along. We left at about 6:30.

Well I was wrong. We had a really fun evening. Our table was full of really fun people and the free wine was flowing heavily. The food was good and so was the music. At one point they did the thing where 5 little cups are attached to a board and people from the group got up and all tipped the board up together and drank a shot of schnapps at once. Of course I volunteered and when we did it, the girl next to me wasn’t paying attention and the schnapps was dumped all over her. So we had to do it again. This time it worked for all of us. FYI whatever the stuff was that they had us drink tasted nasty. They had a nice dance floor and I always tell my wife that my standard prerequisite for dancing is at least 8 drinks - LOL. I must have met my criteria because my wife and I danced a lot and it was fun. Eventually back to the boat and went to bed knowing there would be a hangover in the morning. But we had a lot of fun.