Hi all

Sept we are taking the Viking Rhine river cruise from Amsterdam to Basil on the ship Kara.
We are 2 seniors who have had many trips to Europe but first time in Amsterdam. We will be arriving AMS two days prior to sailing and want to see some of Amsterdam. Any advise as to don’t misses / canal tour / public transportation. / restaurants ..... Etc will help.
Also any info for Viking longship Kara......Such as Sept weather / side trips / packing /
transportation from port in Basil to ZRH Hilton at the airport for the last night stay.
Ofcourse any additional info you may have that you think would be helpful will be
greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance........Tony5

To get anywhere in/near Zurich from Basel I suggest getting transportation from that boat dock (if it is the one Viking usually uses in Basel then I'd consider taking a taxi) to the main train station and a train from there to Zurich. BE AWARE there are some timings from Basel that allow you to go to ZRH first; all others will require a change in Zurich.

You can check schedules at the SwissRail site: www.sbb.ch/en

Be aware that ZRH is only 15 minutes from the city by direct rail connection so do not stay out at the airport thinking you have to in order to catch your flight because you definitely don't. OTOH you can easily get in and out of the city from your airport hotel if necessary, again by train

Reserve museums in Amsterdam prior to arrival. We sailed the Rhine with Viking in reverse direction in December 2016 and had the concierge on board reserve the Van Gogh museum for us. However in September I would not wait that long to reserve. Viking included a canal boat tour and a walking tour during our stay so you might check with them to see what is included during your time in Amsterdam. Our airfare was booked through Viking so they took care of airport transfers for us. We flew into Mulhouse nearer to Basel so I cannot help with Zurich. Most people on our cruise dressed rather casually however if I were to do it again I might bring one dressy top or blouse for an evening. We took advantage of reasonably priced laundry service on board and packed lighter.

We skipped the Black Forest tour as it sounded like an opportunity to buy clocks. We took one optional tour to the World War II Colmar pocket sights and it was excellent. Other guests raved about the optional tour of Cologne cathedral that took you up the elevator and behind the scenes. That one sold out before we even booked our cruise. In Strasbourg we chose not to go back to the ship for lunch. There are many good restaurants in Strasbourg so we lunched on our own rather than spend time driving back and forth.

We were on a different ship but I suspect Viking's river boats are similar. I was glad we had splurged for the balcony, it made the room seem larger. We are independent travelers so sitting with others at every meal was not my favorite thing. Don't get me wrong, we met some great people but I would have liked the option of some tables for 2.