Avalon Romantic Rhine - Basel to Amsterdam - We are there now

[KarenRivera]

Day 5: Wednesday, AM Rudesheim, Rhine Gorge, PM Koblenz:  At around 7:30 am we sailed into Rudesheim, in front of a grassy park right in town.  I was looking out the cabin window as we sailed past the Niederwald Monument.  My son and dad slept in and the rest of the team visited the amazing Mechanical Instruments Museum.  At 10 am we joined the hike up to the monument with the ship's adventure guide, and came down in the gondola.  Lunch at the ship was delicious German buffet.  We sailed at 12:30 pm and started our trayectory thru the Rhine Gorge, during a sunny, breezy, perfect afternoon to enjoy the gorgeous scenery, villages and castles.  We arrived at Koblenz around 5 pm and took the ships bikes and biked all over this pleasant town. This day was my birthday and was surprised by the dining room attendants with a cake and candles, and sang me Happy Birthday, a very nice touch, and they did the same for a couple of other passengers who also had birthdays during the trip.  After dinner there was entertainment at the lounge with the Groove Band, a local band from Cologne, who did covers of 50s, 60s and 70s songs, very well done, and some passengers danced, no restrictions to dancing.

 

Day 6:  Thursday, Cologne AM.  Upon arriving my husband and I walked to the nearby train bridge, 5 m walk, to take in the views and see the locks.  My dad had dialysis and was escorted by my sister to the center in Leverkusen (25 m taxi), my son slept in and my husband and I took the walking tour of Cologne and after the tour climbed the Cathedral towers.  We could not visit the interior of the Cathedral because it was not open until 11 am due to services.  Went back to the ship to meet my son, took the ship's bikes and biked to the Chocolate Museum but could not visit that since it was sold out for the day.  We did drop in to the shop and got some goodies.  I did not think getting tickets in advance was necessary because I thought there were not that many tourists, but be warned if you want to visit best to purchase tickets on line in advance. 

 

So we biked to Peter's Brauhaus and tried the kolsch beer and some local fare instead.  It turned out a nice morning.  Weather was overcast and bit cooler than the days before.

 

My dad and sister returned safely to ship at 12:30 pm.  At 1 pm we sailed for Amsterdam.  Afternoon we rested, packed and took care of different things like tips, paperwork, etc.  Avalon  provided free  COVID testing required to fly back to the US which you had to sign up for and was done on the ship on Friday.   We did not take advantage of that because we were staying in Europe for another week.  Nico did a very good presentation on the Netherlands in the lounge, and also a disembarkation orientation.  That evening we had the farewell dinner which included lobster and was great.  Also the presentation of the crew which had provided excellent services to us all week.

 

Day 7:  Amsterdam, we arrived at around 6 am and docked right in the city, next to the train station, wonderful location.  We took the included Canal Boat tour, all except my son who slept in again and later took out the ship's bike and biked on his own thru the city.  Amsterdam was sunny and cooler, temps in the 60s, great weather.  Canal boat tour was great.  We finished and were bussed back to the ship around 11 am.  My husband and I took public transport to do a quick visit to the Willet-Holsthuysen Musuem, a 17th century mansion, and enjoyed it very much.  At 1 pm all of us took the ship's optional tour to Zaanse Schans, the weather was lovely and we had a great time touring the little village and admiring the colorful windmills.

 

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW

[KarenRivera]

CONT.:

 

Day 7: Friday After the Windmills tour, we were back to ship before 5 pm.  My husband, sister and I immediately went out to walk around the city center, enjoying the lovely weather and lively ambiance, since Amsterdam was the busiest place we had visited on the trip so far.  Streets were full of people and sundown was at 9:30 pm.  We walked all over the Red Light District, Dam Square and the main commercial streets, crossing bridges many beautiful canals.  Outdoor cafes and canal boats with small parties were in full swing.

 

We were back on board around 8 pm.  Sadly that was our last night on board the Avalon Expression.  Our last dinner on the ship with a view to the city was as good as the rest of them.   We said our goodbyes to the Expression crew, distributed tips, and finished our packing.  

 

Day 8:  Saturday, August 21.  Disembarkation in Amsterdam.  Breakfast was served in the dining room as usual until 9 am.  We brought our bags up to the lobby around 8:50 am.  The front desk had scheduled a taxi for us to transfer to our Amsterdam Hotel, Hotel Estherea, which was recommended here in Cruise Critic boards.  Taxi was timely and in less than 15 m we were at the beautiful Estherea Hotel.  We could not check in since it was too early, but they graciously stored all our bags.  They have complimentary coffee/tea/ice water/hot chocolate/cookies and snacks in the lobby 24/7.  Elegant, cozy, comfortable lobby that invites lounging.   I walked with my dad 10 m to a nearby free COVID testing facility (free PCR test by the Dutch government!) that he needed for his next dialysis session.  The rest of the team walked 10 m in another direction to visit the Anne Frank house which we had booked in advance for 10:15 am.  We met back at the hotel around 11:15 am.  My  husband and I rushed to visit the Maritime Museum to which we took Uber there and back, easy and fast.  Sister and son stayed with my dad at the hotel and checked into the rooms at noon, large and beautiful rooms with views to the canal.  Highly recommend Hotel Estherea, and the value for the money unbeatable.

 

At 2 pm sister, son and I took a bike tour of Amsterdam with Mike's Bike Tour (husband took turn to stay with dad and was happy to lunch with him in a cafe near the hotel).  Mike's Bike Tour was a lot of fun, there were about 15 pax in the group and we zipped for about 2 hours all over Amsterdam starting with Vondelpark, and around to the waterfront, feeling safe in the heavy bike traffic with our guides.  We stopped for a beer/refreshment in a 17th c pub which was a great treat.  Highly recommend this tour for active people.

 

After the tour we went back to the hotel around 5 pm to rest for a bit.  Husband and I went out for dinner around 7 pm (Italian outdoor cafe), sister and son went out a bit later (Turkish grill cafe), and we took take out for our dad, who was a bit tired and was enjoying his room at the Estherea.  We walked around the city some more after dinner, returned to the hotel, arranged taxi pickup for the morning at 8 am  to transfer to Schipol Airport and then went to bed quite exhausted, after filling out the forms to obtain the QR code for entering Spain.  Our flight to Madrid was Sunday at 11 am.  We stayed 5 additional days in Madrid, which I will write about later.

 

This concludes my review of the river cruise portion of our trip.  It was overall a wonderful experience.  Just for some background, I lived in Europe for 5 years in the 90s, I worked as a licensed tour guide, and have travelled extensively all my life.   I have taken several ocean cruises in the Mediterranean, Greece and the Caribbean.  Up until this cruise I have always done only independent travel; so this was a first for us. I was a bit apprehensive that the schedule would be too rigid and that we might feel confined on the small ship, however I was open to enjoy the experience regardless.  It turned out to the so much better than I expected.  I think that it is a perfect trip for multigenerational family groups that have teenaged/young adult children.  There are so many options of activities outside the ship and a lot more flexibility than I thought.  We were able to do a LOT of independent touring and never felt herded like sheep.  My son specially made use of the ship's included E-bike and had a blast biking by himself in different cities.   Three nights the ship remained overnight on port and that allowed us to roam the cities later on our own and enjoy some local night life.  

 

At the same time, the river cruise's services - included tours, onboard entertainment, amazing floating hotel and specially the gourmet, delicious included meals with bottomless wine and beer-  allowed us for a hassle-free, comfortable, thoroughly enjoyable week that we are eager to repeat.   We felt right at home and extremely pampered by the ship's crew. Specially for my 83 year old dad the ship was heaven, he was treated like royalty and we felt comfortable leaving him by himself on the ship for short periods, since he could easily walk to the dinning room and lounge and back to his stateroom on his own, and would not get lost or confused like he might have in a large ship.   Crew was always there to assist, the elevator worked wonderfully well.  He loved the views from the ship's lounges and from his stateroom, he never tired of looking and exclaiming over every new landscape.  I cannot compare this to any other experience (in non-pandemic times, or on another river  cruise line), since this is our first river cruise; all I can say is that it will be hard to top our experience in the Avalon Expression Romantic Rhine.

 

With lots of planning, we were able to fit in my dad's dialysis treatments in the ship's schedule, and the ship crew was extremely cooperative and accomodating to our needs.  I am happy to report, what seemed impossible was actually quite doable, and my dad was able to enjoy his bucket list river cruise, while taking his dialysis treatments, remained thanks to God thoroughly healthy and is already planning his next trip.

 

IF you all have any questions I'd be happy to answer.  I will post some photographs tomorrow if I can figure out how.

 

 

[Lois R]

Good morning Karen, thanks for the beautiful review and as an aside, you sound like you have an awesome family and it brings a tear to me.....(good ones).I was very close to my Dad and it sounds like you and yours are that way as well. What a wonderful thing to be able to take a trip like this together🙂

And yes, whoever that company is that specializes in getting his treatments together? WOW......they sound fantastic. 

Again, thanks for sharing your family experience with the us.🙂  I sail solo but that doesn't really matter.

I have been on 2 river cruises and now, after reading your review, I want to do another another one even more (and I know I wanted to do one before I read it LOL). 

[KarenRivera]

1 hour ago, Lois R said:

Good morning Karen, thanks for the beautiful review and as an aside, you sound like you have an awesome family and it brings a tear to me.....(good ones).I was very close to my Dad and it sounds like you and yours are that way as well. What a wonderful thing to be able to take a trip like this together🙂

And yes, whoever that company is that specializes in getting his treatments together? WOW......they sound fantastic. 

Again, thanks for sharing your family experience with the us.🙂  I sail solo but that doesn't really matter.

I have been on 2 river cruises and now, after reading your review, I want to do another another one even more (and I know I wanted to do one before I read it LOL). 

Hi Lois, thanks for your kind words, yes I thank God my family is pretty close and we shared a great trip together.  The company is called Nephrocare, here's the link to their website, https://www.nephrocare.com/patients-home/holiday-dialysis.html they were awesome and made this trip possible for my dad. I hope other dialysis patient's will take the leap and use these services to travel.   River cruising was a great experience, definitely will repeat as soon as possible. 

[Loreto]

Thank you so much for your Avalon review!  Such an ambitious undertaking and I am glad everything worked as planned.  We leave soon for our Avalon cruise and your information was very helpful!

 

[KarenRivera]

36 minutes ago, Loreto said:

Thank you so much for your Avalon review!  Such an ambitious undertaking and I am glad everything worked as planned.  We leave soon for our Avalon cruise and your information was very helpful!

 

Yes I am happy to report, since I enjoy everyone else's reports very much and the info has been so helpful to me.  I hope you have great river cruise, AVALON is an amazing company.

 

[BPCruiser]

On 8/15/2021 at 11:25 AM, Loreto said:

So glad to get your information!  We sail on Avalon Imagery II Sept. 22-Oct 4.Basel to Amsterdam with the Mosel River 13 nights.  Flying fro Las Vegas to Zurich 2 precruise nites in Avalon Radisson Airport hotel.  Not many booked on our ship, just 17 cabins, I hope it goes!  I am looking at the required forms for entry to Amsterdam and Switzerland to make sure everything is in order.

Karen

We are on same cruise as you. Basel to Amsterdam 9/22-10/4. We are traveling with another couple and are flying from USA to Basel, arriving Basel 9/20 and staying 2 pre-cruise nights in Basel. Our ship passenger bookings look pretty low, quite honestly I am surprised they have not cancelled but very happy that they have not. We are not to new to Avalon and have always had a great experience and trip. Looking forward to seeing you on board!

Edited September 4, 2021 by BPCruiser
typo errors

[BPCruiser]

On 8/16/2021 at 1:13 PM, mapsd said:

2 things I was hoping to hear!

 

On 9/1/2021 at 8:02 AM, Daisi said:

So glad you had a great trip.  We did the Rhine in 2018.  We met a great couple on the first day, and he was also in a portable wheelchair.  My husband pushed him around for the tours (much easier than his wife trying it on the cobblestones), and I remember touring Heidelberg well.  He was perfectly happy to sit and have a beer in the main square with my husband after the tour while his wife & I went to the Käthe Wohlfahrt shop.

 

So glad you were all able to enjoy the trip, and yes, Avalon is very good at going above and beyond to provide great service.  We moved our trip to Sept 2023, hopefully Covid will be more "normalised" by then and much easier to deal with.

Glad to hear that you were able to get in to all French sites with only having your CDC Card as that is what we will have for our upcoming Rhine Cruise in 2 weeks.

[Wings55]

34 minutes ago, BPCruiser said:

 

Glad to hear that you were able to get in to all French sites with only having your CDC Card as that is what we will have for our upcoming Rhine Cruise in 2 weeks.

We spent 2.5 weeks in France and we got our Passe Sanitaire codes after a couple of days in Paris. We had to skip some restaurants in Paris and a few museums elsewhere but most on both river cruises got by just fine with their CDC vaccination cards. Enjoy your trip!

Paul

[BPCruiser]

11 minutes ago, Wings55 said:

We spent 2.5 weeks in France and we got our Passe Sanitaire codes after a couple of days in Paris. We had to skip some restaurants in Paris and a few museums elsewhere but most on both river cruises got by just fine with their CDC vaccination cards. Enjoy your trip!

Paul

Thanks for the follow-up. I see you are from McKinney, TX. We are traveling with great friends who live in McKinney on our upcoming Avalon Rhine River Cruise. Really looking forward to it!

[Loreto]

4 hours ago, BPCruiser said:

We are on same cruise as you. Basel to Amsterdam 9/22-10/4. We are traveling with another couple and are flying from USA to Basel, arriving Basel 9/20 and staying 2 pre-cruise nights in Basel. Our ship passenger bookings look pretty low, quite honestly I am surprised they have not cancelled but very happy that they have not. We are not to new to Avalon and have always had a great experience and trip. Looking forward to seeing you on board!

Hi BPCruiser!  I had an update the other day from Avalon that our cruise is a go...I hope so!  We, too, wondered how Avalon could sail with only 15 cabins booked.  Other sailings appear to be more well booked so maybe it compensates.  I think the cruise line feels obligated to show they are ready to get back to sailing.  One person posted from the first Viking cruise that there were only 15 passengers on board.  We haven't been to Europe in 5 years.  We lived in Germany in the late 70's for 3 years.  This ship visits so many cities we used to drive to with our children...especially along the Moselle, namely Trier and Bernkastel.  We have been to Heidelberg  Castle many times.  I took a Rhine river cruise from Basel to Amsterdam years ago with my mother and enjoyed seeing the sites from the water, especially through  the Rhine Gorge.

 

I managed to scrape together all my Delta miles for round trip  first class flights.

Looking forward to meeting you on board!

Karen and DH Rick

[Ballwin Babe]

On 8/16/2021 at 10:57 AM, KarenRivera said:

Hi everyone, sorry late post- been quite busy.  We flew into Zurich from Dulles.  Yesterday went excellently well- clear blue skies, only a bit too warm.  We did a private tour from Breisach with Alsace Safari which was from 9:30 am to 5 pm, to visit the stunning Chateau Haut Koenigsbourg, beautiful alsatian villages Riquewhir and Kaysrberg, and also wine tasting at a local winery near Colmar.  Were promptly picked up at our docking station in a very comfortable Mercedes minivan by guides Ana and Eric, and returned on time.  The tour was amazing especially the castle.  The wine route is movie-caliber picturesque. We also made a quick detour to see the ramparts of Vauban- designed Neuf Brisach. Highly recommend Alsace Safari.

 

Before the tour my husband and I used the ship’s ebikes to do a quick visit to the village of Breisach, which was quite deserted on a Sunday at 7 am but very pretty.

 

We passed on the ship’s included Black Forest tour because we had visited the Swiss Open Air Museum -which is the same concept as the one visited in the ship’s tour,- 2 days earlier and we would rather  experience the Alsace for a whole day.
 

The ship is having buffet breakfast snd dinner, no restrictions only mask wearing, you can help yourself, as usual.  The food and service have been outstanding.

 

I applied for the french pass Sanitaire, and did not get it, however we were able to go everywhere in France (castle, winery, shops, etc). with our CDC vaccination card.

So far, everything’s great and the temperatures are in the 70s today.

Regarding bikes...were there also regular bikes?  Were there some available when you wanted to use them?  or are they in short supply, first come, first served?  Thanks!

[BAYA]

Thanks so much for the very detailed trip report, @KarenRivera.

To follow up with an urgent question: I'm sailing on the same itinerary Basel to Amsterdam in April 2022. I just learned today that what I expected to be a pre-cruise hotel in Basel was instead going to be the Zurich Blue hotel near the airport. I am upset since that doesn't seem amenable to enjoying Basel for a day before we embark. Can anyone reading this thread recommend a hotel in Basel for pre-cruise?

TIA!

[Kellybc]

We stayed at Hotel Basel in October 2017. It was well situated for exploring the town. 

[need2travel1]

We stayed at the Hotel Les Trois Rois in 2019.  It wasn't cheap but was very nice & well appointed as well as right on the Rhine.  We had a water view room w/ a balcony & enjoyed sitting out & watching the locals swimming & floating in the river.  We had dinner at the hotel restaurant & it was delicious.

[BAYA]

Thanks for the hotel info. I booked a hotel online that looks fabulous, SET Hotel.Residence by Teufelhof Basel at Leonhardsgraben 46. Now I just need to organize the transport from the Zurich airport to this hotel.

[kaysha2004]

On 9/27/2021 at 8:15 AM, BAYA said:

Thanks so much for the very detailed trip report, @KarenRivera.

To follow up with an urgent question: I'm sailing on the same itinerary Basel to Amsterdam in April 2022. I just learned today that what I expected to be a pre-cruise hotel in Basel was instead going to be the Zurich Blue hotel near the airport. I am upset since that doesn't seem amenable to enjoying Basel for a day before we embark. Can anyone reading this thread recommend a hotel in Basel for pre-cruise?

TIA!

We just returned from our Avalon river cruise, Amsterdam to Basel.  Post-cruise, we stayed at the Hotel Schweizerhof Basel adjacent to the train station.  https://www.schweizerhof-basel.ch/  Very clean hotel and awesome staff.  They put out a nice buffet breakfast spread.  I would highly recommend this hotel if you need access to the train station for exploration in Switzerland.  We took the train to beautiful Lucerne for a day trip.

[tfred]

5 hours ago, BAYA said:

Thanks for the hotel info. I booked a hotel online that looks fabulous, SET Hotel.Residence by Teufelhof Basel at Leonhardsgraben 46. Now I just need to organize the transport from the Zurich airport to this hotel.

taxi right outside the airport.  There are two exit lines - Switzerland and France.  The taxis follow suit

 

It is a short (albeit expensive ) ride - it is Switzerland after all 

[BAYA]

15 minutes ago, tfred said:

taxi right outside the airport.  There are two exit lines - Switzerland and France.  The taxis follow suit

 

It is a short (albeit expensive ) ride - it is Switzerland after all 

😊

[gnome12]

Note that the transport being asked about is from Zurich airport (wholly in Switzerland) and not the Euro airport that serves Basel, Frieburg, Germany and Mulhouse, France. Transportation from Zurich airport is best done by train, and then a taxi to the hotel in Basel. 

Edited October 6, 2021 by gnome12

[BAYA]

10 hours ago, gnome12 said:

Note that the transport being asked about is from Zurich airport (wholly in Switzerland) and not the Euro airport that serves Basel, Frieburg, Germany and Mulhouse, France. Transportation from Zurich airport is best done by train, and then a taxi to the hotel in Basel. 

Thanks, @gnome12. We are flying into Zurich.

[tfred]

11 hours ago, gnome12 said:

Note that the transport being asked about is from Zurich airport (wholly in Switzerland) and not the Euro airport that serves Basel, Frieburg, Germany and Mulhouse, France. Transportation from Zurich airport is best done by train, and then a taxi to the hotel in Basel. 

my bad - this is correct. .  

 

ZRH airport is bigger than you think and is serviced by many trains.  It may take you a few minutes to find where you have to go to find the train 

[TMLAalum]

So happy to have found this thread and your great report KarenRivera!

Planning the reverse itinerary for 2023 and really appreciate the info about Alsace Safari since My DH and I have spent time in that region on land in 2019, prior to our Avalon Danube cruise. I see the cruise line offers an excursion to Colmar, a town that did not impress me much. Loved Riquewihr, Ribeauville, Hunawihr and the tiny village of Zellenberg where we stayed at Clos du Froehn.

 

[SML123]

Interested in knowing how you got from Zurich Airport to Basel. Everyone keeps repeating info about the train but I will be traveling with an elderly Aunt and with signs in languages I’m not familiar with, helping her with an arm and carrying luggage, I’m not interested in the train. I need a car service, limousine or taxi if there are any recommendations. I’d appreciate the info if there are others with similar travel scenarios. Thank you! Susan 

[kaysha2004]

2 hours ago, SML123 said:

Interested in knowing how you got from Zurich Airport to Basel. Everyone keeps repeating info about the train but I will be traveling with an elderly Aunt and with signs in languages I’m not familiar with, helping her with an arm and carrying luggage, I’m not interested in the train. I need a car service, limousine or taxi if there are any recommendations. I’d appreciate the info if there are others with similar travel scenarios. Thank you! Susan 

If you do a Google search for "Switzerland car service" there's quite a few options.  Also try www.mydaytrip.com or www.rome2rio.com.