We returned recently from a total splurge vacation, a cruise up the Rhine River from Amsterdam to Basel, Switzerland. We are hardly seasoned travelers; in 37 years of marriage, this was only our second trip out of the United States. But we’re in that use-it-or-lose it time of our lives now, and we figured we’d better get out there and have a look around before we can’t get out any more.
We went on a Viking Cruises trip with my brother Phil and his wife Diane. Apparently the “Rhine Getaway” is Viking’s most popular river cruise, and we sure found out why.
Amsterdam
Viking’s seven-day Rhine River cruises run between Amsterdam and Basel, Switzerland, in both directions. They have one “longship” leaving in each direction every day, meaning that on any given day, they have 14 ships running on the route. In addition, they offer a 14-day cruise that includes much of the Rhine, but splits off and goes up the Main and Danube rivers to Budapest, Hungary. That was a little much for us Viking novices, so we stuck with the Rhine.
We did, however, elect to spend a couple of extra days in Amsterdam at the beginning of our cruise; Viking makes these “extensions” available on both ends of the cruise, and I highly recommend it. (I wish we’d also extended on the end of our trip; lesson learned for next time.)
Even though it was drizzly and cool most of the time we were there, we loved our time in Amsterdam. After a relatively quiet first (jet lag) day, our first full day featured a walking tour in the morning, a visit to the Van Gogh museum in the afternoon, and a wine-and-cheese canal boat tour in the evening.
Here are a few pictures from Amsterdam:
From Amsterdam, we boarded the Viking Tialfi for our trip up the Rhine. Amsterdam is actually on the Ij (pronounced “Eye” or, if you prefer “I”) River, which connects with the Rhine via a series of canals, which we didn’t see because that first part of the trip, like much of the time we were underway, was at night, allowing us to have daylight for our on-shore excursions.
After our first night on the boat, we awoke to a beautiful morning in Rotterdam, and from there we made our way to …
Kinderdijk
If you’ve seen pictures of Dutch windmills, it was probably these. The Kinderdijk windmills were built in 1738 and 1740, and thanks to a UNESCO World Heritage designation, some of them are still operating. Our first excursion from the ship took us through the windmills and inside one of them to see how they work.
These windmills are not used for generating energy, but instead for water control; much of the Netherlands is famously below sea level, and the windmills are used to pump water from reclaimed lowlands, called polders, into reservoirs where it can be drained into the river.
That function has of course been replaced by more modern technology, but 19 windmills still remain and operate in the Kinderdijk area.
Following our Kinderdijk tour, it was back to the boat and an overnight cruise to our next stop:
Cologne
Cologne, Germany, was a busy port for us. We had a walking tour in the morning, during which our guide showed us some walls that dated back to the Roman empire. The tour wound up with a visit to the Cologne Cathedral.
Construction on the cathedral was begun in 1248 but langushed for several hundred years, before it was finally completed in 1880, built according to the 600-year-old design. When it was completed, it was the tallest building in the world; today it is still the third-tallest church in the world, at 515 feet. They love their big churches in Germany and France, as you’ll see below.
That afternoon in Cologne, Phil and I had signed up for an optional excursion to visit the cathedral again, this time taking a guided tour all up inside of its many passages and places the public can’t normally visit. (Unfortunately, one condition of that tour was that we had to promise not to post any pictures or video on social media. Shoulblog keeps its promises, so I can’t show you those pix here, sorry.)
That evening, though, brought yet another optional excursion, a “beer tour” of several of Cologne’s brauhauses, where we were able to sample a variety of the city’s signature beer, Kolsch. Kolsch is a light lager, traditionally served in narrow 7-ounce glasses, the better to drink it up before it gets cold. It was a fun night.
After Cologne, we traveled upriver overnight, and when we woke up we were in …
Koblenz
Every day on the cruise included a free walking tour of the city’s highlights, led by a local guide. Our favorite guide was Stefan, who led us through Koblenz, a small German city at the mouth of the Moselle River. Stefan shared unique insights into the German psychology, a country still struggling with its authoritarian history. As an example, he showed us the enormous statue of Wilhelm I at the confluence of the rivers, while questioning whether Wilhelm’s reign should really be celebrated, as it led to the rise of Hitler’s fascism just a few decades later.
Koblenz had its own historic church, the Basilica of St. Castor, which dates back to the year 836.
After our tour, it was back to the Tialfi for lunch, and then we had one of our few times of daytime cruising. The stretch of the Rhine above Koblenz is called the Middle Rhine, and it features dozens of medieval castles along the banks. Many of them were toll castles, built to collect money from boats passing on the river. Now, many of them are in various states of disrepair or restoration. We had a lot of cloudy and drizzly days on our trip, but we were lucky that we had blue skies for this portion of the cruise. A sampling of some of the castles and the countryside:
From the Middle Rhine, we had our longest stretch of cruising; when we woke up the next morning, we traveled through the very industrial—but still beautiful—city of Manheim. I spent a good bit of the morning walking on the walking track on the top deck, getting my steps in while taking in the passing scenery.
A few words about the crew on the Tialfi: they were unfailingly friendly and conscientious, and went to great lengths to make sure everything was perfect for passengers during the cruise. In this picture, crewmembers are busy—shortly after sunrise—cleaning off the skylight over the sunroom near the bow of the boat.
Eventually, after lunch, we made it to …
Speyer
Speyer is another beautiful small German city, with yet another enormous cathedral. We were there on All Saints Day, so all the shops were closed, but there was a special concert at the cathedral to celebrate the 200th anniversary of some of the bells.
The advantage of river cruising is that you essentially take your hotel room with you as it moves from city to city; no need to pack and unpack! After leaving Speyer, we cruised overnight and woke up in the morning docked in Kehl, Germany, a short bus ride across the river to …
Strasbourg
We were in The Netherlands, then Germany, and now France. Strasbourg is a beautiful city in the Alsace region, and I wish we’d had more time there. It is home to—you guessed it—another huge cathedral, and is also the city where Johannes Gutenberg perfected the printing press; a statue of him is in the center of Place Gutenberg.
We COULD have spent more time in Strasbourg, but we had opted for another excursion that afternoon, a bus ride into the Alsace countryside to a vineyard and winery.
The town was Mittelbergheim and winery was the Albert Seltz winery, which dates back to the 15th century, that whole time in the same family. In fact the owner—named Albert Seltz—is the 16th generation of the family to operate it. We were able to view the beautiful vineyards in the surrounding region, and then tour the winery, with a tasting of some of its products presented by the knowledgeable and passionate winemaker himself.
The Alsace region is the summer home of numerous storks. We didn’t see any (OK, except in souvenir shops), but apparently they mate for life and return to the same nests each summer. The nests are enormous, as you’ll see in the photos below.
Here are a few pictures of Mittelbergheim and the winery:
Breisach
After Alsace, we had just one more full day for our trip: in tiny Breisach, Germany. Breisach is a beautiful little town, and we really enjoyed walking around the town in the morning: we did some shopping, Phil and I trekked up the hill to the apparently obligatory enormous cathedral, and finally we stopped in a coffeeshop for some lattes.
We could have spent more time there, but we had to get back to the boat for lunch and our afternoon shore excursion, which was a bus tour through the Black Forest. We stopped in a small resort town with activities including a cuckoo clock demonstration (and a giant cuckoo clock outside that goes into action on the half hour), hiking trails and a demonstration of how to make Black Forest Cake. Sadly, the glass-blowing shop was not in operation the day we were there, but it was a fun stop.
We took the bus back to the Tialfi for our last evening aboard.
A word about the food on the ship; it was fabulous. The chef prepared local specialties for each day of the trip, plus two or three other entrees each night, in addition to a regular menu of dishes available every day. The wine and beer flowed freely—and I do mean freely; there is an optional beverage package you can purchase, but we didn’t see the need for it because the wine/beer served during meals was very good and you could drink as much as you wanted.
We had one more night on the ship, but it was a short one; we docked in Basel, Switzerland, and were off the ship by 5 a.m. for our shuttle to the airport and our 7:30 a.m. flight. My ONLY complaint about the entire trip was the air travel; next time we go to Europe—and we’re definitely planning on there being a next time—we’ll upgrade the flight part of it so we have seats that have some leg room. And maybe avoid the 26-hour itinerary (Basel to London to Dallas to St. Louis) to get home. But like I say, that was our only complaint about the whole week and we’ll definitely be looking to book another Viking cruise soon.
