alliecat61

This was probably my least favorite day on the entire cruise. Your morning is basically free, as you are traversing the Rhine on your way to Kinderdijk. In the morning, breakfast is the usual – starts at 6:00 am for early risers, but the buffet begins at 7:30 am. Morning activities include a presentation on Dutch Water Management, followed by a Dutch table shuffleboard game called Sjoelen. I did not attend the talk on Dutch Water Management. After a leisurely breakfast, I decided to have quite time on my balcony with a strong cup of coffee. It was a very enjoyable morning watching the landscape sail by from the balcony.

I also used this free time to repack my suitcase, as our luggage had to be out at very specific times the next morning (depending upon our after-cruise plans). Viking’s plans were to leave luggage tags with the schedule for transferring bags in your room during the evening dinner. With the farewell dinner that night, I needed time to pack my bags.

Lunch was served at 12:30 to 2:00 pm in the restaurant or Terrace. After lunch, Ryan our Program Director, presented a talk on all things Dutch, including Dutch painters and cheeses. The Gullveig arrived in Kinderdijk at 2:15 pm. The shore excursion of the windmills began at 3:00 pm and ended at 5:00 pm. This excursion required a lot of walking. The terrain was flat, but it was a fairly good distance. I did not find the windmills that interesting and could have skipped this excursion.

The Gullveig cast off for Amsterdam at 5:30 pm. Evening activities included a farewell reception at 6:30 pm and farewell dinner at 7:00 pm. The reception and dinner were great fun with new friends from around the world.

Regrets for the day – going on the Windmill excursion

Best part of the day – the farewell dinner with new friends

The Ship was positioned in a very good location. The walk to the Cathedral was not bad. In fact, I think the walking in Cologne was less than the walking in Strasbourg. When we received the sheet describing the optional excursions, we did not know about classical concert on the Ship that night. That information was provided in the Dailys left in your room the night before.

Day 8 – Cologne, Germany

Before describing the day, my apologies for not finishing the posts sooner, but I have been ill. Feeling better now and can continue with my journey.

The Gullveig sets sail for Cologne at 3:00 am. When the Ship sails this night, all is quite on the Sundeck. Breakfast is served at the regular times. Coffee, juice and pastries are set out at 6:00 am for early risers. The Terrace Breakfast begins at 6:30 am and the Buffet Breakfast starts at 7:00.

The Gullveig arrives in Cologne at 9:00 am and the shore excursion begins at 9:30 am. Getting off of the Ship this morning was difficult. You walk up the plank to a sidewalk (of sorts). It is crowded with citizens from Cologne going about their daily activities – walking and backing on this sidewalk. Then you add the passengers from the Gullveig and it becomes very, very crowded. Finally, our guide had the common sense to move our group out of harm’s way. Just be careful because the bikers are not.

I must admit at this stage of the tour, I'm beginning to get a little tired and need a day of unorganized activities. I thought about skipping out of the excursion, but I’m glad I didn’t. The Cologne Cathedral is something you should not miss. It is absolutely spectacular! Be careful on the plaza outside the Cathedral – our guide warned us of people trying to pick your pockets. Such a shame in such a beautiful place.

The guide provides a very thorough tour of the Cathedral and then you have extra time to spend inside the facility. You finish the tour at the Cathedral around 11:30 and the afternoon is yours for free time. You can return to the Ship for lunch or have lunch in the City.

The optional excursion today include a trip to the Working World ChemPark (39 Euros) from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm and an evening trip to explore the Bierhaus culture in Cologne (29 Euros) from 8:45 pm to 10:30 pm. Initially, we signed up for the beer excursion; however, we backed out when we found out that it started so late. If this was earlier in the trip, we would have gone. I just think we were all getting a little tired.

So instead of doing an organized tour, we decided to do our own tour during our free time that afternoon. We went to three or four Bierhaus before settling at Bierhaus am Rhine. This Bierhaus is on the Rhine and a great place to people watch. The food and bier is not too bad either.

After we finished our own pub crawl, we walked to the Chocolate Museum. We decided against the tour because it was 12 Euros, but visited the gift shop and had lots of candies to bring back with us. Others on the tour went to the Love Lock Bridge, which was a short walk from where the Ship docked.

Activities on the Ship this afternoon a Post Cruise Extension briefing at 5:45 pm and then a Disembarkation Details briefing/Daily briefing at 6:00 pm. Dinner tonight was served at 6:30 pm. Since we had a late lunch, we decided to have a light dinner in the Terrace. It was my first time and the food was very good.

Quite a few number of passengers attended the pub crawl. For those that did not, there was entertainment in lounge. Tonight it was classical music by Classical Cologne. They were very good.

The Gullveig set sail for Kinderdijk at 11:00 pm. The pub crawlers returned to the Ship right on time at 10:45 pm. As I said in earlier posts, Viking is very punctual.

Regrets for the day – not being on the Sun Deck when the Gullveig set sail at 11:00 pm. Other passenger’s pictures of the Cathedral at night were awesome.

Best thing for the day – the Cologne Cathedral

Hello alliecat61,

 

Thank you for the great detailed posts! A very enjoyable read.

 

The booklet on the castles is available in kiosks almost everywhere in that area, 8 euros on the ship seems a little higher than in the shops. If you have not got this book by the time you are in Rüdesheim or Koblenz, respectively (i.e. before the scenic sail through the gorge) it is probably a good idea to check the local shops before buying the guide book on the ship.

 

@ In Retirement

 

Marksburg Castle towers above the little town of Braubach. I recall past Viking cruisers posting that they were dropped off in Braubach to explore the castle while the ship sailed on to Koblenz. That is if you have booked the northbound route. It was obviously different on this sailing. I wonder if Viking has changed this for all northbound sailings?

 

@alliecat61

I do not want to dampen your spirits but I am somewhat a bit sceptical about a dinner in the Galley for hygienic reasons.

 

But I am sure it was fascinating to see the Galley.

 

A lecture on the European Union sounds an usual, good idea.

 

Again, thank you for the great report.

 

notamermaid

 

It has been or felt cool in the Rhine valley, mainly because it is very windy. Rain on and off for three days. Unpleasant and quite unsettled weather for May.

I wish I would have had the map to study prior to leaving for the cruise. I like to know where I'm going and where I have been on trips. I should have had it before I left for Switzerland.

As to the Galley, I thought it was clean and safe to eat the food from the Galley. On that night, food was served buffet style in the Galley and two other stations in the lounge. I hope the lounge was as clean as the Galley.

The most anticipated day of the trip has arrived for me. After spending the night in Rudesheim, the Gullveig casts off for Koblenz at 8:30. The next 2.5 hours is spent viewing the magnificent castles and villages along the Rhine. You could participate in the viewing in a number of areas – the sun deck, the lounge, your room (if you have a balcony), or the Aquavit Terrace. We spent the majority of the time viewing the castles on the sun deck. The weather that day was cool and overcast. We needed our gloves and coats plus coffee and hot chocolate to stay warm. Even though it was rather cool, the sun deck was pretty crowded. Most observers wanted to be at the front of the Ship. If you want to be at the front of the Ship to see the castles, plan to arrive early to secure good seating.

There was a lot to see that morning. Viking provides a book in your welcome packet that highlights landmarks along the Rhine. I did not take it upstairs with me initially, but I soon returned to my room to find the book. I wanted to follow along with the Program Director and make notes in the book as the Program Director highlighted various items of interest. The Ship sells a good map of various locations along the Rhine and I found the map to be very handy during the presentation. It cost approximately 8 euros on the Ship. Many tourist kiosks sell it in various ports, but not sure of the cost.

The Gullveig arrives in Koblenz around 12:00 and lunch is served at 12:30 pm. The afternoon excursion is Marksburg Castle. Tour buses leave at 2:00 pm and return to the Ship at 4:30. I did not think that the Castle was very crowded when we toured it. However, it might be very crowded in the summer. They do break the groups down into smaller groups to tour the Castle. The climb is steep, and you do walk over cobblestones. Some of the hallways of the castle are very narrow and I do remember handrails to hold onto. It started lightly sprinkling on us at the end of the tour. The walking tour could be dangerous if it is more than light rain. Beware!

After returning to the Ship around 5:00ish from Marksburg Castle, you have free time to explore Koblenz before dinner. There are many beer gardens and outdoor cafés to visit. Activities on the Ship include a presentation on the European Union at 5:00 pm. The daily Cocktail hour begins at 5:30 and ends at 7:00 and the daily briefing is at 6:45 pm. Dinner is served at 7:00 pm.

Dinner tonight was an authentic German meal. Everything on the menu was German and fantastic. Dinner is served buffet style in three locations, including the Galley. The crew loved showing off the Galley. While all the meals were wonderful, this was a truly outstanding experience.

After dinner activities included a music quiz in the lounge. You could also leave the Ship to further explore the town of Koblenz. You just had to be back on the Ship by 2:45 am because the Gullveig set sail for Cologne at 3:00 am.

Regrets for the day – not spending more time reading about the Middle Rhine Castles before I left from the States.

Best part of the day – enjoying the authentic German dinner prepared by the fabulous Chef Klaus!

Thank you. Before I cruised I looked for detailed info on my trip on Cruise Critic and could locate any info. I decided when I returned I would write length posts on each day to help us know how to plan. I hope my rants are not too long. I'd rather leave you with more detail than leave something out. I'm have made the front page of each Daily into a picture. I would like to be able to post those in each post, but have not been able to determine if that is possible.

I don't know about St. Stephans in Breisach or tour within Colmar; hopefully, someone else can add insight.

I hope to be able to provide additional information on your other questions in additional posts.

The Gullveig arrives in Mannheim at 2:00 am. Interesting note – if you are on the third floor, you sometimes hear the Ship’s crew running down the sundeck to securing the Ship during docking. On a couple of nights, their activity woke me up.

The planned excursion was to the city of Heidelberg and the Heidelberg Castle. We left on time at 8:30 for our bus ride to the Castle. In the Daily today, Viking announced a leisurely tour. This was a nice touch by Viking who realized that a group of travelers wanted a more leisurely excursion that did not walk as far or as fast. Today, they dedicated one tour bus to this group. By the end of the cruise, this group had grown so much that two buses were needed.

Our bus trip to the Castle took about 30 minutes. When we arrived at the Castle, the grounds were not too busy and we were able to navigate easily through our tour. By the time our walking tour of the Castle was finishing, the number of tour groups was growing. I cannot imagine how crowded this place would be in the summer when more people are vacationing.

We spent approximately 1.5 hours on the Castle grounds, which was really not enough time. Exploring this place was incredible and I would have liked more time here. While we in the part of the Castle overlooking the River Neckar, I heard two travelers asking our tour guide where to meet the buses in the Alstadt (Old Town). They must have been to the Castle before and wanted to spend more time exploring Alstadt so they left the tour group. I don’t think the Viking reps were too thrilled about this, but they did it anyway. They made it back to the tour group to return to the Ship.

We left the Castle and drove down to the Alstadt. Our guide took us on a walking tour that took about 30 minutes and then we had free time on our own for about 45 minutes to an hour. We went through the Cathedral on the square and then found an outdoor café (which were plentiful here) to have coffee/local beer/pastries. This was one my most enjoyable times on the trip. The weather was beautiful – clear sky, temps in the high 60s/low 70s, no wind). We ordered an apple strudel from one of the coffee shops – it was outstanding.

Afterwards, we still had time to souvenir shop or explore before returning to the buses. We split up – two of us went shopping and the other two went exploring. The exploring group found a brewery and bought a growler filled with a local Heidelberg beer. We brought the growler back to the Ship and enjoyed it on the Sundeck another day. Interesting note about your in-room refrigerator on the Ship – the shelves come out easily for storage of wine bottles or growlers.

We found our tour bus and returned to the Ship at little before 1:00 pm. After the Ship dropped us off in Mannheim it cast off for Gernsheim. If you stayed on the Ship instead of going on the exploration of Heidelberg, you arrived in Gernsheim around 12:45 pm. Lunch was late that day at 1:00 pm. At 1:45 pm the Ship cast off for Rudesheim. Afternoon activities included Rudesheim Kaffee cooking lesson in the lounge or taking in the gorgeous day on the Sundeck. We did both! We were scheduled to arrive in Rudesheim at 5:00 pm, but were about 15 minutes late.

Today’s optional excursion was a mini-train ride and dinner in Rudesheim (59 euros). We did not participate in this excursion, but heard that the food was just ok and the entertainment was “cute”. Dinner on the Ship was earlier than normal today – it was at 6:30. The cocktail hour and daily briefing were held prior to dinner, as usual. After dinner, we were able to leave the Ship and walk into Rudesheim to explore the city.

At 9:00 pm, the Ship had a glassblowing demonstration by a traditional German glassblower. The demonstration lasted about 30 minutes and he brought trinkets for purchasing if so desired. That afternoon another Viking Ship docked next to us and travelers from that Ship came over for the glassblowing demonstration.

The Gullveig spent the night in Rudesheim that night.

Regrets for the day – not having more time in Heidelberg

Best part of the day – sitting in the square in Alstadt enjoying coffee, beer and pastries

Day 5 – Kehl/Strasbourg (Easter Sunday)

We arrived in Kehl on the German side of the Rhine at 8:00 am. Our group excursion for the day departed the ship at 8:45 am for a three hour tour of Strasbourg, France. The plan was to spend 45ish minutes on a driving tour of the modern portion of the city, 45ish minutes on a walking tour of the old city, and 45 minutes of free time in the city. This tour required a lot of walking, which started with walking from the Ship to the street to board the tour buses. There were lots of stairs involved in getting up to the street from the dock, but a ramp was also available for those who did not want to take the stairs.

I will digress here a little bit about leaving the ship for tours…Viking requires you to have a card for re-entry onto the ship (safety reasons). You must obtain the card at the front desk before you leave. Right before leaving, the front desk gets very congested. Plan ahead. You can obtain you cards at any time before departing.

The first 45 minutes of the excursion visited modern parts of the city, particularly, sites of the European Union. Our bus took a little longer because our tour guide decided to stop on a street with numerous light poles, with stork nests. (These stork nests were in the other French towns we visited too.) This street had approximately 15 to 20 light poles with nests containing young storks. The tour guide let people out to take pictures. It was hard to gather everyone up again to make our way to the old city, but we finally did, albeit, a little behind schedule.

We started on a 45 minutes walking tour of the old city, Petite France, which was beautiful. The buildings, landscapes, and smells were out of this world. We ended our walking tour at the city cathedral. We were able to sneak inside and catch the last few minutes of the Easter Mass.

Afterwards, we spent our free time (45 minutes) exploring the square. Once free time was over, we walked 10 to 15 minutes back to the tour bus to return to Kehl and lunch on the ship. Lunch was served at 12:30.

Afternoon activities included an optional wine tour excursion (49 euros) in the Alsace region that lasted from 1:45 to 5:45, free time in the City of Strasbourg, or just hanging out on the ship. The ship activities included a cooking demonstration at 5:30.

We opted for the optional wine tour along with about 20 other participants. The tour took us to Molsheim and its region. Not sure if this winery is visited each time by Viking. We toured the Vins et Cremant d’Alsace. The owner, Philippe Heitz, showed us his bottling operations conducted in his home. It was very quaint and informative. We tasted four wines and were able to purchase wine to take with us. We purchased two bottles, a dry Riesling for 7.5 euros and a Pinot Gris for 8.7 euros. The wines were so good that I wish I would have purchased more. Unfortunately Philippe told us that we could not by the wine in the States, and the bottles did not last the cruise.

After the tour of the winery, we toured the countryside by bus and stopped by a small village. We were able to get out and explore the village as they celebrated Easter Sunday afternoon. Many of the stores in the village were closed for Easter, but each square had vendors selling items from their stands.

We returned to the ship around 5:45ish and went up to the sundeck to enjoy a glass of wine (on the Rhine) and an hour of sunshine before dinner. If you wanted to, you could join the daily cocktail hour and daily briefing. The ship departed for Mannheim at 7:00 pm.

It was nice to have a seat at the window to watch the sailing and enjoy a wonderful Easter dinner.

Regrets for the day - none

Best part of the day - optional wine tour

I didn't hear anything about the other optional tour. If I was given an option between all three, I would not have selected the Black Forest.

We were transfered from Lucerne to Basel relatively late in the day (4:00 pm) and had no time to explore the city. I cannot tell you the location of the dock in Basel. Sorry.

The water level of the Rhine was low, as they did not have much snow this year.

We had a full balcony. I don't feel that I missed anything being on that side. If I really wanted to see something, I just went up to the sun deck.

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Before I begin, I have all of the Viking Dailys that I'm trying to post to this thread. I'm not sure if this is possible. Does anyone know how to post pictures into threads?

Also, a little bit about our room. We were on the third level with a balcony. The room was very nice and very well thought out by Viking. I was worried about the size of the room and the bathroom. Neither were a problem. One of my traveling companions is 6'6", and he did not have any problem in the shower. The amenities are top notch. There were plenty of 110 plugs for all of our electronics. The bed was comfortable; but, the pillows were not my style. The tv was great, except, it was suppose to have a map that pinpointed our location along the trip, but it never worked. The tv has a bow webcam and a lounge webcam. It was fun to watch the lounge webcam, especially at night. At the first part of the cruise, I don't think people realized that they were on the webcam. It was quite entertaining!

The wifi worked fine in my room and on the sundeck I did hear others on floors below us say that the wifi in their rooms did not work well. I was really surprised at how many people had tablets/computers/smartphones on the ship. Viking needs to increase its broadband.

Today's excursions included a trip to the Black Forest and a choice of two optional excursions in the afternoon. The optional excursions were either a WWII trip (39 euros) or a Medieval City Tour (34 euros). We decided to do the WWII optional tour and we are really glad we did it. It was one of the best excursions on the entire trip. Our guide was fantastic - he would have been a great history teacher/professor.

The excursion to the Black Forest was my least favorite on the entire trip. I thought it was a little touristy - it reminded me of some of the ports on ocean cruises. Plus, our guide for this portion of the tour was not very good. I heard from others on different buses that their guides were good. I guess it is just the luck of the draw when it comes to your tour guide.

Before getting to the touristy stop, you stop at St. Peter's Abbey in the Black Forest, Schwarzwald. You then hop back on the tour bus for a trip to a stop that includes a Cuckoo Clock store, a glass blower, and a cafe. The Cuckoo Clock store was very crowded with other tour groups. It was hard to navigate the store. Same with the glass blowing store. We decided to go down to the cafe and sampled a piece of black forest cake. It was very good. After cake and coffee, we loaded back onto the tour bus to make our way back to the Ship for lunch and the safety drill.

Lunch on the ship - very good. Good selection of foods - they always had three to four prepared salads plus lettuce and all the trimmings for making your own salad. Everyday there was a "hot" pasta selection too. You could also select the daily sandwich or daily soup. If you like, you could have all the wine/beer that you wanted with lunch too. Lunch was served in a come and go manner, as compared to dinner where everyone set down at the same time.

Optional WWII tour - very good tour, highly recommended. As I mentioned before, the guide was excellent. He definitely made the tour excellent. Tour was long - started at 2:15 and finished at 6:15, but was worth it. It followed Audie Murphy's one man stand against the Germans in the Colmar Pocket in WWII. During the tour, we stopped in a local village to enjoy a coffee/wine/beer with the locals. While this stop was brief, it was one of my favorite things on the entire cruise.

We returned to the Ship at 6:15 to get ready for our Welcome Cocktail party @ 6:45, daily briefing at 7:15, and dinner at 7:30 pm. The optional excursion made this day a long day, but it was really worth it.

The ship cast off from Breisach at 11:00 pm.

Regret for the day - I did not know about the optional WWII excursion before the cruise - I should have studied up beforehand.

Best part of the day - WWII excursion - just walking on the same ground where Allied forces stood decades before gave me goosebumps.

It is Day 3 and we have finished the pre-cruise extension in Lucern.

4/18/14 - we left the Palace Lucern promptly at 4:00 pm. Since it was Good Friday, and a national holiday in Switzerland, the traffic was light. We made it to the ship by 5:30 pm. We walked on to the Ship and checked in like a hotel. We went down to our room to check it out briefly because there was a "Welcome Aboard" gathering starting at 6:00 pm in the lounge. We arrived right at 6:00 and had to sit at the bar. We learned during the week that if you want a good seat for the presentations, it is best to arrive 10 to 15 minutes before the schedule start. Since there is a cocktail reception in the lounge everyday between 5:30 and 7:00, the prime seats go quickly.

The "Welcome Aboard" presentation ended before dinner was scheduled to start at 7:00 pm. We went back to check our room to make sure our luggage was in our room, which it was. We quickly unloaded our suitcases and made our way back to the restaurant. We met up with other travelers and settled in for a nice dinner. Note, if you want a table by a window, arrive a little early. They go rather quickly. As we set down for dinner, the Ship cast off for Breisach and the Black Forest.

Unfortunately, I did not transcribe our meals at all. For every night's dinner, except, the night we had all German food, there is a good selection of food. You were give a choice of one of two appetizers, one of four entrees, and one of two desserts. If you wanted two desserts, they would bring you both. One of the four entrees was a vegetarian selection. Also, available everyday was a selection of either fish, chicken, steak or pasta. You select one of those, and you are given a choice of one of the appetizers, sides, and desserts from the regular menu. If you enjoy wine or beer with lunch or dinner, you can have as many glasses and you can consume. Each night the wine changed to a wine from the local region.

If that is not enough beer and wine for you, you can select the premium liquor package. We debated it amongst the four of us , as we like to have different wines with dinner. We decided not to do so due to the cost of 30 euros a day per person. It paid off at checkout - my bar bill was 76 euros, not 210 euros. Viking is also good about letting you bring beer or wine back onto the ship to have with dinner or up on the sundeck. We took advantage of this several times.

I'll close each post this way going forward:

Regrets for the day - not getting to see Basel, Switzerland.

Best thing for the day - getting to say that I have been to the Swiss Alps (Mount Titlis)

We enjoyed Bierhaus am Rhein in Cologne and Molly Malone's in Amsterdam.

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As noted in an earlier post, we traveled on the Gullveig from Basel to Amsterdam between 4/18/14 to 4/25/14, on her fourth voyage. Before the trip, we signed up for the pre-cruise extension in Lucern, Switzerland and the post-cruise extension in Amsterdam. Our entire vacation was booked with Viking - flights, transfers, etc.

Day 1 - this was the only day we experienced any problem on our trip, as our flight between DFW and Newark was canceled due to weather problems on the east coast. We called United to make air changes and flew from Chicago to Zurich on SwissAir. It was a great airlines and flight.

We arrived in Zurich around 10:30 am. The Viking Rep was waiting for us as we exited from Passport Control. We were told that we were going to wait on others in our transfer party - the total wait was approximately 50 minutes. We walked to our bus - Viking had very nice buses throughout the trip - most were new. The only place we did not use a Viking bus was during the post-cruise extension in Amsterdam.

The bus ride to Lucern took 45 to 60 minutes. Our pre-cruise extension hotel in Lucern was the Palace Lucern. Our rooms were ready upon arrival. We were free to explore the city on our own that afternoon. We explored the city trying to stay awake until 7 or 8 pm to adjust our internal clocks. One thing we found interesting is that the restaurants did not open for dinner until 6:00 pm. It was hard to stay awake until then, but we made ourselves. We found good spots for food near the Chapel bridge. Be aware - everything in Switzerland is very expensive. I had a tomato/mozzarella sandwich for dinner and it cost 17 swiss francs. One of my traveling companions asked for tap water and it cast 3 swiss francs.

Palace Lucern is very nice. My only complaint was that we were not in a room on the lake side of the hotel. I thought by having committed to the trip with Viking early in 2013, I would have had a lakeside room. Instead we were on the street side. This was my only disappointment for the pre-cruise extension. Lucern is beautiful and I would have liked to look out at the lake in the mornings and evenings.

Day 2 - on the pre and post extensions, breakfast is included. Breakfast was between 7:00 and 10:00 am each day. At 10:30, we left on a walking tour of Lucern. It was not a strenuous walk and I did not encounter any cobblestones. The walking tour ended at 12:30 and we had the afternoon to explore the city. Lunch and dinner are on your own.

We found a pub, Pickwicks, near the Chapel bridge. It had good, reasonably priced food. On our tour, our guide pointed out several grocery stores. We went back and bought cheese, meats, bread and wine for dinner.

After lunch, we walked to the Lion's memorial and explored the old city wall.

Day 3 - this was the last day of our pre-cruise extension in Lucern and we were given an option to take an optional excursion to Mount Titlis with Viking or continue to explore the city on our own. We decided to take the optional excursion. It cost approximately 149 euros and was the most expensive optional excursions on the entire trip. But, it was worth it.

We were driven by motor coach to the town of Engelberg where we toured a cheese factory in a monastery. The tour lasted about 30 to 45 minutes and was very informative.

Afterwards, we rode the lifts to the top of Mount Titlis - 10,000 feet high. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and snowing at the top of the mountain. But, we were able to eat lunch at the restaurant at the top. There were two restaurants at the top. It was very crowded at the top with other tour groups. It was Good Friday and a holiday in Switzerland - I'm not sure if this is the reason that it was so crowded or not. At times, it was hard to navigate through the crowds. I still enjoyed the excursion.

We left the mountain around 2:00ish and returned to Lucern for our transfer from Lucern to Basel, which left Lucern at 4:00 pm. (One thing I liked about Viking was their punctuality - if they said we were leaving at 4:00 pm, we left at 4:00 pm. This was true throughout the trip.)

That morning we set our bags outside our room at the Palace Lucern and the next time was saw them was in our room on the ship. Great not to have to cart the bags around.

The trip from Lucern to Basel took approximately 1.5 hours because we arrived at the Gullveig at 5:30 pm.

I will continue this post in another post that covers our time on the ship. Stay tuned.

I traveled on the Gullveig from Basel to Amsterdam on 4-18-14. I did not have any problems with the ships wifi in any area of the ship. We were in a room on the third level, near the back of the ship. But, I was able to use the wifi on the sun deck at the front of the ship too.

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I just returned last night, 4/27/14, from a cruise on the Gullveig. As soon as I get my river-legs back under me, I will posted details about my travels. We embarked Friday, 4/18/14 in Basel and cruised to Amsterdam. We disembarked on Friday, 4/25/14. We did the two-day pre-cruise stay in Luzern, Switzerland and the two-day, post-cruise stay in Amsterdam.

It was a wonderful trip!

More details to come!