BarbaraTVan: July 2014

The Rhine Getaway

The Viking Gullveig
Named after Gullveig, (meaning Goldbranch) a bright & beautiful sorceress & seer,
who desired nothing more than gold, and is the reason for how the fabled war
between the worlds began.

OUR CRUISE - BASEL TO AMSTERDAM

"There are some people who live in a dream world and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other." -Desiderius Erasmus

We had flown to Basel the previous day as that was where we were supposed to board our home for the next week. We stayed in a place called Stucki (Shtoooookee).

We stayed in the Stucki Best Western and it was pretty fancy. They gave us a travel pass for the time we were in Basel. Their public transport was fantastic and so easy to navigate, with a tram leaving every 8 minutes and just a short walk from our hotel. We hopped aboard and toodled into the Basel city centre.

The Basel Town Hall

It was beautiful, clean, friendly and had a wonderful atmosphere about it. I had never heard of Basel before our trip, and didn't know what to expect. We stopped in the main square for a beer. It was warm and thundery and didn't take long for the rain to come down, but we were under a big umbrella and very relaxed ☺ We hopped back on the tram and hopped off at an interesting looking place that was full of tents and food vans. It was a Sausage Expo or something, so we had a sausage and beer under one of the tents out of the rain.

Prost!!

Switzerland was pretty damn good so far!!! We hopped on another tram that took us to the Port of Basel where the border to Swizterland, Germany & France met.

France to the left & Germany to the right

Had a coffee in the sun......yes, it had stopped raining by this time.....and we toodled around the port and watched the giant gantry cranes unload the container ships.

Back to our hotel with a stop off for pizza and more beer. I think this is where I started gaining weight!!!

We had a quiet night and were up bright and early the following morning. We had contacted Viking Cruises the night before to be told we would be picked up at a certain point to be taken down river to Breisach as the river was too high and the ship was unable to reach Basel.

We went back into Basel, had a coffee, then had a lovely walk along the Rhine.

Time to go on another adventure!!!!

THE VIKING GULLVEIG

Our ship hiding behind the trees.

A sister ship

Our welcome back from one of the tours

The ship is a Long Ship, named after the traditional Viking Ships. There were 189 Guests and 54 crew on board.

The crew were fantastic. Our Maitre'd, Dejan was great value, a wicked sense of humour and genuinely happy to stop and talk. We had favourite table staff Chill (Christine), cheeky little thing that somehow managed to remember everyone's names....I was Madam Soooooosssssseeeeee, GM was Ahhhhh Mr. Peeeeter (always said with a raised eyebrow and cheeky grin).

Chill

Cheeky Chill

Julius greeted us at every meal with a wonderful smile and a chat about almost anything,

Julius

then there was Ignacio and Tess, a little quieter, but absolute sweethearts.

Graham, Tess and I

We were given their stories on how they became members of the crew.....such different lives and opportunities. The crew were all different nationalities, but there seemed to be a number from Romania and Indonesia. Our Captain was Andre Rohn, a gentleman, Rebeka was our Hotel Manager and ran the ship beautifully. Our Program Director was an American called Ryan, whose voice was quite monotonous and sent me nodding off every time it was his turn to talk. But he was quite nice otherwise. There was Adrian....he cleaned our room each day, made sure we had fresh linen, stocked our bathroom with delicious l'occitane products, and turned down our bed at night while we were at dinner.

The floating Passion Pit

Then there was Valentin our Chef.....the reason my weight kept rising!!!

Valentin

The rest of the kitchen staff

The food was delicious and plentiful, and he made the most amazing triple choc brownie cookies I've ever had!!! I tended to eat a couple of these with a cup of coffee each afternoon while relaxing on the balcony of our room, or on the upper deck in the sun.

Captain Rohn, Rebeka & Ryan

Julius with Julie & Peter

The management

The tables were large and you sat wherever you liked. This was wonderful, as no matter where we sat, we managed to meet new people at nearly every meal. Some were to become great company throughout the cruise, and hopefully life long friends :-) Some people though, were quite standoffish and weren't interested in forming new friendships. On our final night, we saw people we had never seen before....they had kept to themselves the entire week and only came out of their rooms for the Captains farewell toast. I was amazed at how many people hadn't made new friends. It was probably the major highlight of the trip for me. Oh, the wine helped too ;-) We had the most amazing wines with our meals, and after dinner drinks :-) We had ordered the Silver Package...an extra $300 for the two of us. This covered ALL drinks aboard ship. Without it, you only got drinks with meals, and these were limited to house wines.......I think we spent our $300 worth the first afternoon we were aboard!!!!

Dinner the first night.....they were the same standard every night :-)

The last supper!!

Dress code is casual on the ship, but most people dressed a little better for dinner. Luckily I had packed a couple of outfits that made me feel a little more comfortable in the dining room.

We met Julie & Peter from Tasmania, Di & Graham from New Zealand, Tracey & Paul from Long Beach California, Tammy & Chris from Wisconsin, Nikki & Ian from England, Robyn and her mum Josie from South Australia. Josie lives in the same Adelaide suburb as my eldest son, and I met an Australian woman, Ruth Juriansz, who has lived in America her whole adult life,

Ruth Juriansz and I watching everyone depart.

but has a sister in Briagalong.....I have a sister in Briagalong....a tiny little town in Gippsland.......it sure is a small world :-) We had a couple of meals with a lovely couple from England. He was Celanese descent and wore a jacket and tie, even on the hot humid tours, and I can't forget Hans.....the hugest man I've met, he was about 10 feet tall and 3 feet wide at the shoulders....his hands were the size of dinner plates and he had to duck to get under the doorways.....an older German/American who had a fag hanging out of his mouth whenever we saw him. The only person in the world I've ever met who walks more slowly and leisurely is Pinky, an old, laid back bloke I work with :-)

Julie & Graham

Tammy & Chris

Prost!!

Prost!!!

Tracey & Paul

Chris & Tammy with Dejan

Our new found friends were loud, laughed a lot and loved to hang shit.....can't for the life of me think why I liked them ;-)

The Aussies/Kiwis are different from the others as we tended to get excited when we met each other, but the Yanks and Poms didn't give two hoots about fellow travellers......the exceptions being the ones we made friends with. We did meet an elderly couple celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary (not a bad effort!!!!)....Ed & Arlene. Ed was a retired police commander from Detroit or somewhere and every time we saw him he would shake hands and have a story to tell. Poor Arlene had struggled with jet lag and was exhausted. When the cruise was over, Ed thanked us for making his trip so enjoyable and wouldn't release me from his hug. He said he didn't want to let me go :-) He was so sweet!!!

The ship cruised mainly at night, and you would wake up the next morning in a different port. We travelled through a number of Locks along the Rhine, and even stayed up late one night to experience them. They are very clever, and I'm so glad we did this.

GM was in his element....he also did a tour of the engine room and the Wheelhouse...I chose to sit on my balcony and watch the river go by. Oh, and have coffee and triple choc brownie cookies :-) See, sometimes I don't drink wine!!

Yummo!!!!

We spent a very laid back afternoon of Scenic Sailing.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't so kind, and it was very cold, wet and windy on the top deck. There seemed to be an old castle on every bend of the river and even one on the river!!!!
......so different from home.

So lush & green wherever you looked and so much history. A stunning country!!! We even passed the Loreley Rock where so many ships came unstuck. The legend of the Loreley says that when the rocks in the Rhine Valley glowed in the evening sun, or when the cliffs were reflected in the moonlight upon the river, a figure could be seen on the top of the rock and a mysterious voice could be heard echoing through the night. The hearts of countless men beat faster and trembled with delight. Sailors would sink into the waves never to be found......yeah right.....typical males, blame it on a make believe woman so no one would know they were crap sailors!!!! That's my theory anyway, and I'm sticking to it!! ;-)

The Loreley Rock

Loreley

PLACES WE SAW & THINGS WE DID

We did a walking tour of Breisach & St. Stephen's Cathedral. A medieval fortress built in the 1600's by Louis XIV of France. Pretty place.

We had a Black Forest Tour where the cuckoo clocks are made, and glass blowing is blown. What a beautiful part of the world. We had the famous Black Forrest Cake...another kilo to my collection ;-) but I think they could have put more cherry schnapps and less cream in it!!! I prefer the Australian version....far richer, and not as sweet or creamy. Our tour guide was Felicity, she had us in fits of laughter the whole time. One of the two best guides we had for the week.

Felicity, our tour guide. She explained how the cows in the Black Forest were free range....."They are very happy cows......and then they die" she explained :-)

We went to Strasbourg France, where we saw the European Parliament, European Court and did a walking tour around the city. The Cathedrale de Notre Dame was beautiful, and the city so pretty and clean with pots of flowers everywhere. We saw the storks nesting on the rooftops and in the trees but didn't get the chance to stop and take photos which was unfortunate.

The Cathedrale de Notre Dame

We went on an Alsace Wine Tour with the worst guide ever!!!! Not how I would picture a French woman at all. She was dumpy & frumpy and monotonous!!! She wouldn't shut up, even when she promised to keep quiet and let us enjoy the scenery. But the winery was quaint, the wine delicious and the Gugelhupf....a sweet lemon/vanilla cake you have with a desert wine....before dinner.....I don't understand how the French & Germans aren't hugely fat!!!!.....It was delicious!! Another Kilo!!!

Wouldn't mind taking one of these barrels home ;-)

Santé

Gugelhupf

I did like their Vins very much!!!!

We went to Heidelberg where we visited the castle. I loved this place, so beautiful, so picturesque.....the castle was wonderful, the weather perfect and the photo opportunities amazing!!

Their lions are fare more fierce looking than the Italian ones!!

This is more my size :-)

I hope to become rich from this!!!

Someone's been rubbing the wrong end....it looks a wee bit shiny to me!!!!

I found a bloody tourist!!!!

Rudesheim......my favourite place on the whole trip. A quaint little village along the Rhine. We decided to skip the tour and go for a wander on our own. We did a little souvenir shopping, then followed our ears. We could hear music and found our way to the town square, where we enjoyed our first bretzel (a bread like giant pretzel, salty and heated up....my new favourite food)...another kilo.......and a glass of riesling, where we sat in the square listening to the Harrogate Youth Band play Mozart and Bach. It was thundery and humid and the atmosphere was incredible!!! We didn't want to leave, but it was time to head back to the ship to get ready for dinner.

Koblenz, where we had a tour of Marksburg Castle. This was a great castle sitting high above the Rhine. The castle was very touristy, but well worth the trip. I loved the short beds, where they would sit up to sleep, because lying down was the position of death. They even had a toilet that emptied down the outside of the castle.

The Royal Throne

It was a stronghold fortress and very well protected. They had the rack, and other torture tools for naughty people.

The kitchen was amazing and the fireplace was huge!!!

Cologne(Koln).....what a wonderful city :-)

The home of 4711 Eu de Cologne....or as Marcus put it "the smell of Grandma" ;-) Our tour guide was Marcus, my other favourite guide!!! He was so funny, and showed us the quirky things about the city. St. Peters Cathedral was beautiful and was severely bombed in the 2nd world war.

They removed the stained glass windows to protect them and had them reinstalled after the war. We learned words like "driss" meaning shit!!

Apparently this was erected here to driss (shit) on the people going past

The statue of Tunnes is a man with a very large nose and wooden shoes. It is said that if you rub his nose, you will receive a free wish and by rubbing his wooden shoes, you will become immensely rich. Naturally of course, I was compelled to rub the statue of Tunnes for free wishes and boatloads of money. Schal, on the other hand, is cross-eyed and considered to be very untrustworthy. So that's the nickname they give to people who are sneaky.

Marcus our guide, standing on Tunnes

Not only did I rub his nose & feet, but I gave him a hug as well......still waiting on my riches!!!!

GM and I went for a wander around and found the bridge with all the padlocks. There's a lot of true love in the world :-)

So Romantic :-)

We went on a tour of the Lindt chocolate factory....the samples were delicious!!!

Please sir, can I have more????

but I didn't buy too much there....you can get it all at home.

After dinner that night we went on a beer tour......

Our first stop was Peters Brauhaus,

The Peters (and Paul) in front of Peters Beer House :-)

and quite enjoyed the Kolsch which is unique to Cologne. Marcus was our tour guide here as well, and surprisingly only a small group came along on this.

Prost!!!

Who's a happy little camper then??

It was a great tour, and we had a very funny, hilarious time.

Think it's been there for a while!!

A wedding. People in Germany have 2 weddings. They must have a civil ceremony first to make it legal.

Farewell Cologne (Koln)

Kinderdijk was our final tour, and we went for a walk to the windmills.

The sails in the position of mourning :-(

It was very flat here. We were in Holland, the lowlands of the Netherlands. Not a very pretty place but the windmills were amazing.

We had a tour of one of them and climbed to the top. You wouldn't want to live in them if you were a drunk or afraid of heights. The stairs are very narrow and steep. We saw the Archimedes screw that feeds the water uphill and helps flood control.....GM was quite interested in this.

The Achilles Screw

The sails on the unused windmills were set pointing to the sky. A sign of mourning following the Ukraine air disaster. We have our flags at half mast. It was quite poignant to see this. We were so isolated from what was happening in the world while on holidays.

These boys were having such a good time :-)

My little clog wog :-)

Look Mum, guess where we are????

SUMMARY

Germany is a beautiful place, the people were so warm and friendly, the food is amazing, and the beer is pretty good!!

The first day of our tour in the Black Forest, I got the Lonely Goatherd song from "The Sound of Music" stuck in my head....I have no idea why, but it stayed with me all the way up the Rhine :-/

High on a hill was a lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Loud was the voice of the lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

In the past the colours of the houses had a significance, and town houses, which often had shops or boutiques on the ground floor, were painted according to the type of shop - bakeries in one colour, butchers in another, shoemakers in a third colour, and so on.

These river cruises are not for children. About 50% were around our age, and the rest were retirees. There were a couple of younger families aboard, but the kids were bored out of their skulls!!

I had a chat to some of them while they were playing shuttle board on the top deck, and their thoughts on the cruise were hysterical :-) The only positive was a young 18 year old American boy who was rapt because he was allowed to drink booze. They have to be 21 at home.

The night before departure was a little emotional. Some of our new friends joined us on the top deck with the complimentary bottles of champagne we had received with our rooms.

Di, Julie, Me, Peter & Graham

A rather funny enjoyable time, then off to dinner for the Captains toast and farewell. We would wake in the morning in the Port of Amsterdam, where everybody would say their farewells and depart for home or other places. I sure hope I get the chance to meet our new friends again!!

Port of Amsterdam

It was a fantastic experience, one that I would like to do again. One of the other cruises.......maybe the bigger ship from Istanbul and around the Italian coast......I hope GM is listening to this???

Oh, and did I mention the wine was delicious????

Oh, and I put on a couple of Kilos :-/

PROST!!!!!!

Signs we saw along the way.....they made us giggle like silly school kids :-)