Viking Rhine River Cruise
Back during the "no travel time" of 2020...we booked this vacation with our good friend Denise and her friend for October 2021. It was Denise's 50th birthday, and our 40th anniversary.
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| Map of Viking Rhine River Cruise |
Due to other trips having to switch around, we moved this trip to a Christmas Markets Cruise in December 2021. As we approached that date-we realized that not only were many Christmas Markets not going to be opening, but also that we would need to wear masks on the ship. At that point we cancelled completely.
Fast forward to Dec. 2023, we decided that just the 2 of us would rebook for October 2024. The price doubled from what we would have paid in 2021...but we decided to just go!!
We had the absolute best time...and even with the doubling of price-we still felt that it was worth every single penny that we spent.
This blog is different from other blogs that I have written, as we were gone a total of 15 days. I've outlined what we did in general, and the specifics of how we did it, and why. My goal before we left is that we would experience a lot, but also have down time to rest and rejuvenate. Since we are now home, I'm happy to report that we were 100% successful in fulfilling that lofty goal!
When booking, we knew that we wanted to add on a pre extension as well as a post extension . Our cruise went from Amsterdam to Basel, and we added a 3 full day in Amsterdam to start, as well as a 2 day post in Lucerne to end our trip. Yes, it adds to the cost-but if you can financially do it, it is such a relaxing way to start and end the trip. We certainly could have done those extensions on our own...but appreciated having Viking just take care of everything. We also chose to book a Veranda Stateroom on Level B. This room category has a balcony with 2 chairs. Level B is the floor you walk in upon embarking the ship. The front desk is there, as well as the dining room. Although we could have upgraded to Level A , we decided that simply moving up to the level above us would be an unnecessary waste of money. We were very happy with our cabin choice. We were in room 217...mid ship, very quiet! I love a balcony, and would not have been happy in the Swan Rooms on the first level.
Day 1 Wednesday, Oct. 9: Syracuse, NY We stayed overnight at Hampton Inn & Suites in Syracuse. Originally, our flight was leaving at 10AM. We decided we didn't want to leave so early from Cortland. In the end-our flight moved to 1:30. Although we would have easily been able to drive in from Cortland, we decided to just enjoy the extra time. This hotel has a hot tub-and it was a perfect start to our trip. For dinner, we met our friends Maggie and Brian for dinner at Craftsman Wood Grille. Our first time there! Food was great, and the company even better!!
Day 2 Flight to Amsterdam We left our car at the hotel, and took the 10AM shuttle to the airport. We got to Detroit by 3:00, with a 4 hour layover. Had lunch at Cat Cora's Taproom at the airport, and took off at 7PM for Amsterdam.
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| Sunrise over Amsterdam |
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| Across the street from Kimpton DeWitt, the beauty of Amsterdam |
From there we walked to the Dutch Resistance Museum (Verzetsmuseum Amsterdam). Google walking maps was our friend on this trip for sure!!! We learned how to avoid bikes, use the walking lanes vs bike lanes, saw so many gorgeous canals...and it was just a beautiful walk! The museum is terrific...and we highly recommend! We just bought tickets at the door.
After the Dutch Resistance Museum we Ubered to The Heineken Experience.
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| Heineken Experience |
The Albert Cuyp Market was super close, so we decided to check it out. It's a very cool market. We didn't buy anything-but it was interesting to walk around.
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| Albert Cuyp Market |
We then Ubered to our dinner- Restaurant Moeders. I had made a 5:00 reservation for this place on their website a couple months before we left home. It is one of the only true, authentic Dutch Restaurants in Amsterdam (we were told Dutch people have no interest in eating Dutch food at a restaurant-they eat it at home!!) It is not my kind of food (meat and potatoes), but we wanted to check it out. This little restaurant was packed...and I loved the food!!
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| Moeders: Hollandse Rijsttafel |
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| This is a glass of gluhwein with a small stroopwafel |
We walked back to the hotel, Amsterdam is magical at night with all of the canals.
It is also very safe. We walked over 10 miles on this day!!! We were able to check into our room, get settled and go to bed early!
Day 4 Amsterdam Sunrise from our hotel room was an excellent way to start the day!!
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| Sunrise from Kimpton DeWitt room 505 |
We had breakfast at the hotel (included). Christine from Viking took us on a 2 hour walk of Amsterdam to orient us to the area. This was a Viking Included Tour. Amsterdam is fairly easy to figure out-but there are a lot of canals in the way that all look the same, so at times it is a bit confusing!! And the bikes...more bikes then people, riding everywhere...fast!!! We never got hit😇, but pedestrians need to watch for bikes!!!
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| Early morning walk around Amsterdam |
We got brave and took a tram to the Van Gogh Museum. Super easy...tap on with a credit card, tap off when you get off. Each person needs a different card to use. Although this was our only time using the tram-it is an excellent way to get around the city!
Lunch was at a very cool place called The Burger Room. Nope, burgers aren't my thing either...but I could see that I would have options! This place is super cool!! The entire theme is Wizard of Oz. High end restaurant, high end prices, worth it!! I had a portobello and soy patty burger!! We live 45 minutes from L. Frank Baum's (author of the Wizard of Oz) birthplace, so we just loved all of the memorabilia.
Our next stop was the Van Gogh Museum. We prebooked this a month before we left home. It was sold out the day we were there, so we were glad to have made the booking early. We booked right on the museum website-I much prefer to book directly rather than a 3rd party such as Viator. We were there about 45 minutes early for our 2:00 booked time-but they let us in! We were happy, as we had plans after the museum and wanted to get in early. The museum is great, and a temporary exhibit had just opened about The Impressionists. We love Monet and that style of art, so this was an added thrill for us. 
From the Van Gogh Museum we Ubered to the canal for our prebooked canal boat tour with Those Dam Boat Guys. Such a busy area...our Uber guy struggled getting around all of the people and the super narrow streets!! We had looked to booking the canal boat ahead a couple months-but decided to wait to see the weather. Unfortunately, by the time we were ready to book the time slot was sold out. 😒 There are only 8 spaces on the boat. So...as suggested on the website literature, I emailed to see what they could do. They opened up another boat-and booked us on it!! Loved that customer service! We got there early, so they told us we could go to their new bar that had just opened up. Jeff was a great bartender, and we enjoyed talking with him. Our 90 minute canal boat tour was nothing short of awesome!! Julien was terrific, and he had the ease of being able to get 8 people to become friends in 90 minutes. Learned a lot about Amsterdam from him. This company is terrific!!
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| Those Dam Boat Guys...excellent!! |
We wandered to dinner after that, heading for an Indonesian Restaurant that Julien recommended. Sadly, they were booked up until 8:30. It is a great area for restaurants-so we just kept wandering and ended up at Season's Restaurant!! It was delicious.
Walked back to the hotel, again enjoying Amsterdam at night.
Day 5 Amsterdam We again had a delicious breakfast at the hotel. Our luggage had to be outside of our room at 9AM so that Viking could move it to the ship. If we had been around they would have transferred us to the ship at 11:45 AM for lunch on board. Since we decided to spend the day in Amsterdam we knew that we could figure out how to get to the ship on our own. Do know that Viking will take care of you if you prefer to take advantage of all of their included services.
We walked to the Anne Frank Museum for our prebooked time. This is very important to book early. Tickets open up on Tuesdays at 10 AM Amsterdam time (4AM EST) for 6 weeks out. I set my alarm and got the tickets with the introductory program. I was hoping to get tickets for Saturday, but ended up having to buy them for Sunday since Saturday was a Jewish Holiday, and the museum was closed. Many people were turned away without tickets...plan accordingly!! This museum/house was inspiring. Seeing the Dutch Resistance Museum added to our understanding of this important moment in history. I would have never considered visiting Amsterdam without visiting the Anne Frank House.
Lunch was at Cafe Sonneveld. Busy, excellent food.
We walked briefly thru The Cheese Museum, a cheese shop with a small museum in the downstairs. I regret that we did not purchase any cheese, as it was really good...and they shrink wrap it to travel home.
From there, we walked to our ship about 2:30. Nice walk, a little light rain. Our ship was Kara (changed from Hlin due to a ship swap). It was perfect!! We were able to go right to our cabin and unpack. Our luggage had arrived perfectly in our cabin.
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| Viking Kara...this is not the Amsterdam Dock |
We went to the Lounge and met many other travelers. One of the things that Al and I did, was each time we walked into the lounge, or into dinner...we specifically sat with new people that we had not yet met. With only 180 people on board, it is a cozy group. After 3 or 4 days we had met a lot of people and sort of settled in to eating with people we had connected with the most. I only wish that we were better at remembering names-but faces were friendly and we loved talking to so many new people. Generally, the guests were from the US. Most people were in their 60's and 70's (and up...) We met a lovely young couple in their late 20's, and also a newlywed couple in their late 20's. The newlywed couple were on their honeymoon, and specifically chose Viking as an adult cruise. They brought books to dinner every evening to read, and were pretty quiet, yet friendly. They said they sometimes felt unwanted at times since they were so young-but the other young couple said they did not feel that way at all. Likely, the feeling of being unwanted came more from their particular personalities, rather than their age.
Every night on board we attended the Port Talk about 15 minutes prior to dinner in the lounge. Andrew was a fantastic Program Director-and every evening he told us really great information for the next day. When we returned to our rooms after dinner there was also a very detailed Viking Daily giving all of the exact times for everything as well as tons more information about where we were heading the next day. The Port Talk and Dailies were super helpful...as I do love a good organized company-and Viking definitely is all of that!!
Day 6 Kinderdijk, Netherlands Oops... after setting the alarm for a few days (and not needing it), I didn't set the alarm and we ended up sleeping past 8:30!! Luckily, our first excursion was not until 10:15. This excursion was extra $$...Kinderdijk by Vintage Barge. Nice tour. A bit of light rain.
Once we got on the boat, we started a habit of taking showers after our tours, before dinner. At that point we changed clothes for dinner, then wore those same clothes the next day. So much easier to not have to make clothing decisions in the morning, or have to get up early to shower. Speaking of clothing...I brought 5 pants and 5 shirts with layers and scarves to switch it up. Too many pants (3 would have worked), and not enough tops. We ended up spending $42 to do laundry on the ship. It was super easy...but adjusting my packing would have been better!!
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| Windmill of Kinderdijk |
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| Cologne Bridge |
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| Cologne Bridge |
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| Cologne Cathedral (Kolner Dom) |
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| Chocolate Museum |
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| Cover that beer... |
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| Kolsch Beer for back on the ship |
Day 8 Koblenz, Germany, Middle Rhine sailing Today we did an optional $$ excursion Ehrenbreitstein Fortress. We had not originally signed up for this, as it conflicted with the included walking tour. However, our friends told us how much they loved it, so we added it in. This was great...the views from the top were flat out incredible with the blue sky background. To get back down we rode a cable car...equally fun. We came back to the ship for lunch, then the ship took off and we sailed down the Middle Rhine part of the Rhine-just filled with castles. It was a coolish day-but the best views are up top! We were advised by the First Mate to grab a seat mid ship behind the plastic, clear "wall". She was absolutely correct-it cut the wind perfectly. Not a lot of people were up on top...but we were gifted with hot chocolate with Bailey's. Al was pretty tired...and eventually went back to the cabin for a nap. I loved every second up on top!!
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| Fortress |
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| Amazing views from the Fortress |
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| Castle along the Middle Rhine |
Day 9 Speyer, Germany In the morning we had a great visit with Captain Hans and his First Mate wife up in the "wheelhouse". Hans has done this for over 40 years...and he is very relaxed and soft-spoken. He is passionate about his love of the River. On this day we took the included walking tour of Speyer in the afternoon. We loved the city, the home of the pretzel...but our guide was not very good. Our least favorite tour.
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| Captain Hans |
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| Speyer |
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| Speyer traffic light with a pretzel!! |
Day 10 Strasbourg, France Today we just did the included walking tour of Strasbourg in the morning. Spent a bit more time shopping (wine tasting and bought 4 bottles of wine...) then returned to the ship. There was a bus back to Strasbourg after lunch for continued shopping and being in the city, but we decided to just chill in our cabin with a bottle of wine. Good choice-nice afternoon to chill after 10 days of running around. Dinner was a very cool German Buffet (I know, we were in France-but the day before had a couple dinner options in town, so many people were off ship that night).
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| Beautiful Strasbourg |
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| Strasbourg |
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| Relaxing Wine out on the Balcony |
Day 11 Breisach, Germany Our final day on the ship. Busy day, as we had 2 excursions. In the morning we did Colmar WWII: Museum and Memorial which was an optional $$ excursion. We saw many suggestions from others that we sign up for this trip-and it did not disappoint. Angie was knowledgeable, and passionate about US soldiers that defended the Colmar pocket. Great, historical trip.
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| Turckheim, France |
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| Vineyards and the US French War Cemetery |
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| Colmar, France...pink drape for Breast Cancer Awareness Month |
In the afternoon we took the included Black Forest trip. This was mostly a bus tour-and I made sure that I took Bonine for motion sickness (took it every time we had a bus trip), and sat in the front of the bus. Many people did not feel well, as it is windy roads on the way there, with stunning scenery. On the way back it is more direct. We enjoyed this...scenery, cuckoo clocks, and a Black Forest cake demonstration.
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| Cuckoo Clocks |
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| Black Forest |
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| Black Forest Cake Demonstration |
Dinner was a little sad, because we were seeing many friends for the last time. With only 180 on board you do get to know people, and that was one of the best parts of this trip.
Day 12 Docked in Basel, Switzerland...Lucerne, Switzerland Our luggage had to be out in the hall at 6:45 AM...and we left the ship at 8:15 for our bus to Lucerne. 22 rooms chose to go to Lucerne (more than doing a post extension in Basel or Italian Lakes) We were super happy with our choice of Lucerne...beautiful.
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| Chapel Bridge Lucerne |
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| From the top of Mt. Stanserhorn |
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| Top of Mt. Stanserhorn |
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| Hang Glider Mt. Stanserhorn |
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| Top of Mt. Stanserhorn |
We did an included walking tour of Lucerne when we arrived. Right after, we did an optional $$ Stanserhorn Cable Car. Amazing...favorite tour of the entire trip!! We took a funicular, to a double decker open air roof gondola to the top of Mt. Stanserhorn. Oh. My. Goodness....the views were incredible. This was a Sunday-and for 2 weeks they had had clouds and rain...but this day was perfect. So...everyone was there and the place was packed. But...we were with Viking, so we went to the head of the line every single time!!! Had a terrific lunch on the mountain, sitting inside with a revolving floor! After that, we hiked up to the top!! It was a climb-worth every huff and puff!! At the top it was a real feel of 64 degrees and absolutely no wind!! I had been expecting cool weather and windy-so that was a huge bonus!! Saw a hang glider take off, which was thrilling. Obviously, the weather played a big part in our experience, the next day was so foggy...so we felt just blessed! Jerry was awesome on both the walking tour as well as our trip to Stanserhorn. Even he was shocked at our luck at seeing such wonderful views.
Jerry told us about a great Italian place for dinner-but when we walked there it was closed. So we tried the brewery that he also recommended. It was called Rathaus Brauerei. The food was great-but we ordered way too much, and spent far too much $$!! Luckily we walked there and back to burn off the calories!😉
On the way back to the hotel we stopped at an Autumn Fair right next to our hotel. It was like our New York State Fair with food, games, and rides. It had been going on for 15 days and ended the next day. We dared to ride a huge Ferris Wheel so that we could get a view of the city at night. The views were spectacular-and the cars were somewhat enclosed so it felt a bit safer. Nice!!
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| Swiss Wheel for the Autumn Fair |
After dinner we returned to check into Radisson Blu Lucerne. We loved this hotel, and its proximity to everywhere in Lucerne. We walked everywhere in Lucerne-did not take any Ubers.
Day 13 Lucerne, Switzerland Our final day in Lucerne before flying home. We had an included breakfast at the hotel. There was an optional all day tour called Pearls of Switzerland (8:30 AM-9:00PM). Although it sounded awesome-we knew that we were more interested in spending our last day poking around Lucerne. We had a great day!
We walked to The Lion Monument. Worth the trip, and the 15 or so minutes that we spent there. We did a bunch of shopping...cheese, chocolate... We signed up for a 60 minute boat trip around Lake Lucerne. We were told to go to one dock where there was a narrated tour...but it had actually ended the day before! So- we took a tour, no narration. It was super foggy at times-in the midst of beautiful blue skies. At one point we were totally in the fog!! It was exciting-then we went out of the fog to pure sun!
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| The Lion Monument |
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| The Lion Monument |
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| Walking near Lake Lucern |
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| We were in total fog at points during our Lake cruise |
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| And then...we were out of the fog!! |
After the boat ride, it was still brilliant sun so we walked to Mr. Pickwick Pub to have a glass of wine on the river. We sat at an empty table-but the person next to us put up their umbrella to keep the sun off, and it was a little chilly for us. We moved, and fortuitously ended up next to a lovely couple from Tennessee! In our time in Lucerne we rarely heard English spoken-mixture of High German, Swiss German, French, and Italian. We sat with them for a good hour!
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| Chapel Bridge backdrop to our wine!! |
Dinner that night was at Restaurant Einhorn-the Italian restaurant that was closed the night before. Unfortunately, we went early (about 4:30), and they have a limited menu before 5. It was good-but we should have waited until 5 for the choices that we really wanted.
We returned to the room to crack open our final bottle of wine, and pack for the next day of travel. The hotel had a very deep soaking tub, and housekeeping delivered bath salts. So relaxing...and literally the perfect end to a wonderful trip-soaking tub and wine!!
Day 14 Flight home from Zurich, Switzerland Our bags had to be out in the hall at 9:00 for our 9:25 departure from the hotel by van to Zurich. Our flight to JFK was unremarkable, and we arrived as scheduled. Walked to customs...easy, thru 15 minutes. We were overjoyed to get thru so fast. Grabbed checked luggage, dropped it back off, and headed to our connecting gate as we usually do when we come in from the Caribbean. But...instead we had a 1:45 wait getting back thru security to get to our gate!! Grrrrrrr.... We had a 6 1/2 hour layover...luckily!! We had an excellent dinner in the airport at a new place Boulton & Watt that was a welcome place to reax. We had a place to charge our phones at our table. The flight back to Syracuse was fine...and the Hampton Inn & Suites van came to pick us up for the transfer to the hotel quickly!!
Viking is the #1 River Cruise Company for a reason...they are literally the best! We were very glad that we added the pre and post for a more relaxing beginning and ending. We also were glad that we went Amsterdam to Basel instead of with the river as others have mentioned. For us, staying in Amsterdam for 3 full days (arrived 8AM Friday-boat did not leave until 11PM Sunday) was terrific. Amsterdam has so many things to do-we could have stayed there a whole week. We also loved Lucerne on the other end. We were only in Lucerne from 10AM Sunday until 9:30AM Tuesday...much less time. If we had to pick a place to be in for the most time-for us it was Amsterdam.
Nothing was too much to ask for the entire time that we were on the ship, as well as the pre and post. Viking took care of us-but gave plenty of time for people to make decisions for themselves about what to do, or simply take a nap if needed. The staff on the Kara was exemplary...and we were sad to leave them. We did not have any days that we felt that we had to get up super early. We were happy with our choice of excursions, with absolutely no regrets. We skipped all extra dinners and beer or wine tastings-we can do those on our own in the US...and did do them on our own while in Europe. For us, those excursions were not necessary.
We did get Euros and Francs from our bank before departing...$250 in Euros and $100 in Francs. We knew we needed cash to tip our guides and drivers. In reality...we could have gotten away without Francs in Lucerne and just used Euros. Lucerne is close enough to Italy that Euros are accepted just about as readily as Francs. Although I thought I had planned the amount well...and added extra, I had too much cash. Europe is a very tap and go culture. At the Zurich airport I combined leftover Euros, Francs, and credit card to buy a Swiss sweatshirt!! We did tip in Europe...that culture is definitely changing from when we were in Italy in 2013. It is not the 20% plus that is expected in the US...but tipping is now part of European culture.
We did book our flights with Viking, and added Air Plus ($100 each), so that we could pick our own flights that worked for us. Our travel agent Cindy found good flights, contacted Viking one month after we initially booked-and we were all set. Over those 9 months we only had a slight 2 hour change. Other than that-we had smooth flights, and we were happy with our choice. There has been much discussion about booking with Viking vs doing it on your own. We were happy with this experience with Viking.
I will close with this. The final night on the ship, the Hotel Manager Nina thanked us all for coming on this trip. She reminded us that experiencing new cultures is imperative to understanding, appreciating, and accepting others. She said that our world is always a lot better when we have this respect and value for others.
She is correct!! Just book the trip (and slow that aging along the way) ...you will not regret it!!
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