| | | Re: Vacation Summary
I went on a Viking river cruise, the Rhine Getaway with a 2 day pre-extension in Amsterdam and a 2 day post extension in Lucerne, Switzerland.
The Viking people were superb, the ship well organized and maintained. The food was good. The rooms were small, but you don't spend much time in the room. We got the French balcony so we could open the sliding glass door and let fresh air in while sailing.
It rained the first day in Amsterdam which was also King's Day. They have a huge celebration on the King's birthday where for the only day of the year you can do almost anything without repercussions, and I mean anything. It was St. Patrick's Day on steroids. So, I stayed in the hotel lounge the first day.
We stayed at Hotel Okura, a 5-Star hotel, very nice.
The next morning we went on a walking tour around Amsterdam which was fun. In the evening we took a ride in a canal boat around the city which was even better, I didn't have to walk.
The next day we did the windmill tour in Holland. I took the canal barge ride to the windmills to keep from walking.
We then went on to Cologne. The tour was a little too much for me because I have bad knees and by now I was walking with a cane. .. Ha! I'm glad I visited there and saw the sights, but too much activity going on, I think every cruise line in Germany was there at the same time.
I liked Koblenz. A smaller city, very, very clean and organized. I liked this city best in Germany. I was in the low and slow group and we took regular rest stops. We saw less than swifty the rabbit group, but ours was more quality.
Rudesheim was next and I really wanted to see this village, but between the rain and my sore knees, the lounge on the boat and I became good friends.
Speyer was next and this was another village I was looking forward to see. It's a small town or village with a nice large public square. The tour was easier on my knees but you can drop out and wait for the group to return, so I got to rest and order some food and drink.
Strasbourg, France was next. I liked this city. The route the bus took to get us where we were going went through a nice section of the city and I wouldn't mind living there. This tour took an even worse toll on my knees, but I'm glad I went and was delighted when I returned to the boat.
Breisach was next and I took the tour to Colmar and it was here where I road around in a tram train to view the medieval village as opposed to taking the walking tour. Later in the day the tour was into the Black Forest but no way I was going with my knees getting worse. The Missus went though and loved it.
The trip ended in Basel but we went on to Lucerne for an extra 2 days. Big mistake! It rained the whole time we were there and we stayed at the Montana, another 5-Star hotel sitting at the top of a hill. The room was huge, had a huge balcony we couldn't use because of the steady rain .. Ha!
That was the worst breakfast we had all week. I expected more, but perhaps it's because we showed up later in the breakfast hour. Since the hotel was on a high hill, and with the street slick from the rain and my knees in bad shape, we spent most of our time in the hotel.
We had a 2 hour boat trip planed around the lake but I wasn't going out on the lake in the rain, and you couldn't see the alps due to cloud cover. We did two meals out, a late lunch on both days.
We were notified by the airline prior to leaving for the airport that our flight was delayed 6 hours and that meant we would miss our connection in Chicago (I hate that city) and since there were no more flights going out, we would have to spend the night there. That wasn't going to happen!
The Viking representative stayed with us and helped us get on another airline. We got to fly Swiss Air instead on United (I hate them too) and we lucked out because 2 business class seats canceled at the last moment.
It took almost 2 hours to get through customs and TSA in Chicago and we just made the flight thanks to United being behind schedule, when aren't they? What was supposed to be a 5 hour layover turned into just made it, most of the plane was already loaded.
I can barely stand up due to my knees. I'm glad I made the trip and even happier that it is over.
I highly recommend Viking, they were the highlight of the trip. The negatives were beyond their control, weather, airlines, my knees, etc. but they made every effort to make it easier for us. |
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