Rhine Cruise 2017

Two years ago I documented our Danube cruise from Budapest to Prague. If you are interested in another cruise on an equally historic river, I will offer in the next few weeks an account of our journey down the Rhine River with Avalon Cruise Lines from Basel, in Switzerland to Amsterdam in the Netherlands.  The trip occurred over a month ago, but I do not recommend a lot of general posting while traveling.  Why advertise you are away from home to every potential trolling burglar?  A new post outlining each day of the journey will now appear every day or so over the next week or so.  I invite you to read along and enjoy..

First up is the departure, which often today seems the hardest part of any trip.  As we get older, we have tried to make getting there as easy as possible. We elect to avoid flights from the Quad Cities or Peoria in favor of driving to Chicago and staying at one of the several Park and Drive Hotels convenient to O'Hare airport.  This eliminates some of the weather and schedule difficulties associated with feeder airline schedules. Given the expense of those flights some additional hotel costs are almost a wash. We like to  arrive on the day before our flight and also stay overnight on the day we arrive home--especially if the arrival is later in the day. We also try to book Economy Plus flights if possible as our old bones don't take too kindly to the cramped seats in regular Economy.  We don't fly enough to get a lot of miles so the pleasures of Business class remain above our pocket books.

We arrived at our Chicago hotel in late afternoon. We had a lovely dinner, watched TV, got a good night's sleep, and had two fine meals the next day before taking a late afternoon shuttle to the airport.

AA 46 and its partners awaited on the tarmac and it deposited us

right on time in London the following morning. In another three hours we were flying again on our connecting flight on to Zurich.

At Zurich a shuttle took us to the nearby Movenpick Hotel where all of the cruisers were to assemble for transport to the ship on the following day. The hotel was not much architecturally, but the rooms were spacious and comfy.  Luckily the airport closed down fairly early as we were definitely on the main flight path. I took this shot from our hotel window,

 Later that evening we also discovered that their restaurant was first rate.

Fully rested from our long flight the following morning, we were pleased to see that there were two optional side trips offered before we had to head to the ship. One was to Mount Pilatus and one to the Rhine Falls.  We chose the Falls as we had taken the trip up Pilatus on a previous European trip.

A short coach ride took us to the Rhine Falls. A building on the cliff-side had an elevator that took us down part way into the gorge.  Then we walked down several more stairs to viewing areas that got closer and closer to the water.

The Rheinfalls are touted as the largest in Europe. (150 meters wide but only about a 23 meter drop.) The largest claim is obviously based on volume of water passing rather than height.. They are impressive but do make their statement more as a roaring cascade than an actual waterfall like Niagara or Yosemite.

From above you look down

Then a bit further down

Closer

Finally way down where it starts getting a bit damp with spray.






Just below the falls little boats, like Niagara's Maids of the Mist,  ply the waters.






One company will drop you off at a rock in the very middle of the cascade.



From there you can climb a steep set of stairs to a pinnacle that allows you to stare right in the heart of the water.



Sometimes you see the boats clearly

And the next minute they are almost hidden by the spray.

Rainbows also pop up  frequently in the spray below the falls.

Our our way back to the coach we passed a lovely little church and heard music.   We  saw a wedding rehearsal taking place inside, but did not wish to intrude too far.  It was our first unanticipated pleasure-- one of those small surprising human moments that make travel enticing.

 We returned to the hotel around 3:30 in the afternoon and picked up some folks who had either just arrived or had chosen not to go on one of the excursions.  Then it was out onto a freeway for the hour's drive to Basel where our boat was moored.  One thing learned on the drive was that the Swiss engineers don't go over things, they go through them. We wound our way through at least a half dozen tunnels (some of them quite long) on our short trip to the ship.

Here she is is in all her glory--the MS Avalon Tranquility II waiting for us to come on board.

And here are the intrepid travelers and your personal guides for the trip. There's Jim and there's Jan.

Our luggage was already in our cabin on board. We just had time to do a bit of unpacking  before being called to the lounge for our get acquainted talk and the introduction of the crew.

Here is Katy our multi-lingual cruise director.

And here our Captain, Chef, First Mate, and some of the crew.

 The Captain graciously provided sparkling wine for a welcome toast and then we adjourned for our first on-board dinner.  It was fresh halibut and it was delicious.  After dinner we got fully unpacked and organized our efficient little cabin.  There was just enough room to change our minds if necessary.    See you on the river tomorrow.