Rhine River Viking River Cruise Spring 2024
This cruise is one of the most popular Viking river cruises and runs in both directions almost every day. Our curise started in Basel , and ended in Amsterdam. It was 7 nights long. We enjoyed the cruise and found many of the stops interesting. We had been to Amsterdam several times before and it was good to catch up with the city.
Embark in Basel
Middle Rhine Scenic Sailing Koblenz, Germany
We arrived in Basel the day before the cruise started. We stayed in the Marriott which ironically was the hotel viking used for their pre cruise stay. We flew from Newark to Zurich and took the train to Basel. You should always review the plane routing Viking does as they always want to fly you to the destination. In this situation, the Zurich airport has a train station across the street so it was very easy to take a train to Basel.
The Swiss trains are great. The flying alternative would have been to fly through Frankfort or another major European airport which would have been more cumbersome. The train stopped in downtown Basel and we were a short tram ride to the hotel. Basel has a great transportation system which is free to tourists. The hotels collect a small fee. Thus there was no hassle in trying to figure out the tram system. We just got on the tram. The river boat was also a short tram ride from the hotel so connections were easy.
Basel was a very nice small city with good restaurants and chocolate shops and some interesting museums. It was. very easy to get around.
Wine list from business class on United. Some good stuff
We found a really good restaurant, Au Violon, https://www.au-violon.com/Brasserie/PTtVx/in the old part of town. Hard to find but we scouted it out earlier in the day. The food was very good and prices reasonable for Switzerland.
A sculpture on a roof.
We took an excursion to the Black Forest. Took a short hike and had a cooking demonstration of making Black Forest cake. I recommend taking the free excursions and only take the paid excursions sparingly as they are very hit or miss.
We took a food tour of Strasburg. It was a paid Viking excursion. Ther were 7 of us and it was wonderful. They were commemorating WW11 at a monument in the city. The French have great respect for the American involvement in WW11.
Our first food stop was a 400 year restaurant serving Alsatian tartes. The are crisp flatbreads like pizza. We had a feast.
Strasbourg Cathedral. It had a fascinating clock inside.
Next stop Speyer. Old town with another church. Nothing special.
Afternoon tea on the boat.
A wine we tasted at a wine shop in a small town we stopped at.
Koblenz. There was a fortress on the opposite side of the reiver from the city. We took a cable car up to. the fortress.
Cologne. Did you ever think about how Koln became Cologne in English. Guess what Cologne is famous for other than its cathedral.
I learned the Cologne is also famous for it beer- Kolsch. It is served in 7 ounce glasses as opposed to the huge mugs in Munich.
This is the end of Part One. Looking back on this cruise it is. easy to see why this is one of Vikings most popular cruises.
