Kinderdijk

Kinderdijk is an Unesco World Heritage site that is preserving Holland's windmills.

Approximately 43% of The Netherlands is below sea level. They started using windmills to remove the water to reclaim land as the population grew. It was fascinating learning about how they work and the life of the millers who kept them running. 

Tonight is our last night on the boat. Tomorrow we transfer to a hotel in Amsterdam for a few days before we come home. We couldn't leave without getting a picture with Nikola.

I have done a little painting while on board; paintings of castles, and towns and windmills. I even talked the chef out of a raw egg to create an Easter decoration...it took 15 minutes to convince him I wasn't asking for a cooked egg...,"you want whites? No, just an egg. You want fried? Or boiled? No, just a raw egg. An egg? Yes, an egg. How you want it cooked?...."

I'm showing the chef what I wanted the egg for.

I'm so glad its not time to fly home just yet.

Floating down the river

Yesterday, we woke up to snow in Speyer, Germany. 

The Speyer cathedral is the largest Romanesque church in all of Europe. 

In the afternoon, we cruised the river to the city of Rudesheim. During the trip, Charlotte and Holly entertained other passengers displaying all of our wares from shopping in Strasbourg the day before.

Rudesheim is a charming little village with shops and wine bars, surrounded on three sides by vineyards.

I had made reservations at a restaurant but frankly, it was not a very good choice. The biggest event that place has seen in a week was Charlotte and Howie dancing to Glenn Miller swing music.

Today, we floated down the middle Rhine, respendant in a castle or two or three around every bend.

We arrived in Koblenz in time to take a tour of Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, with an "actor" tour guide who brought the past to life.

Drink, shop, drink, shop

Today we are in Strasbourg, France and Charlotte is the guide as the rest of us don't speak French. It was rainy and cold but we enjoyed the Viking walking tour of Strasbourg nonetheless. 

After the walking tour we decided to stay in town and go back to the ship later in the day. We made a plan to eat lunch, shop for an hour, then find another bar, and repeat. Stone was the time keeper.

There are fabulous restaurants in Strasbourg and lots of shopping. 

We enjoyed the Pinot Blanc and sampled it at several places.

Notice the large shopping bags.

I'm not sure it was a good thing, but we found a street stall selling Gluewein (on top of all the other wine). 

Of course we stayed later than the Viking shuttle buses ran so had to find our own way home. Stone wandered off to find a bathroom and then could never find his way back to the shop he left us at....he swore they removed the sign. He is now not allowed to go anywhere by himself. Howie's feet were wet and Charlotte was tired so tried to hail a cab but that was an epic fail. Luckily Holly had somewhat of an alternative plan to take a tram back, but it took all four of us to figure it out!!

 

Nikola Putica

Yesterday we boarded the Viking ship Lofn. In 2017, on our last cruise, we fell in love with the maitre d. Because Charlotte and Holly eat a gluten free diet, the maitre d met with us every morning to plan our lunch and dinner choices to meet our dietary needs. As you can imagine, we basked in the extra attention. So much so that we got to hear stories about his kids, life in his home town....we fell in love with him. Handsome; wicked sense of humor; a smile to die for. Reluctantly, we shared our sadness to think that the maitre d on this cruise would not be able to measure up to the standard set in 2017......

To our amazement, the maitre d on this cruise is Nikola Putica. He did not remember us, but we remembered him!! To be honest, we cried when we saw him. This is only the 2nd time he has been on the Rhine cruise! We are sure it was devine intervention. We got to see new pictures of his son and daughter. He is keeping the waite staff hopping at our table, making us laugh, and again, we are basking in the extra attention. For those of you considering a Viking cruise, I'd pick the one where Nikola is the maitre d!

We left Basel last night and spent the day in Beisach, Germany. 

St. Stephen's Munster was a bit of a climb but the view was perfect.

On an unrelated note, did you know that European men's underwear has no fly? A lesson we learned after Howie's luggage was lost and we needed to replace his necessities. Who knew?

Cocktail hour fashion show

We started the day going to the basil paper museum. The first thing we did was to make our own paper but it took Howie three tries.

We visited the Basel Munster that has been standing over 1000 years.

Next, we went to PKZ to shop for clothes for Howie. Howie doesn't like to shop for clothes, so all the staff and Charlotte and Holly are running thru the store pulling things for him to try on. We were a little pressed for time, so decided to buy everything, and then he could try it all on back at the hotel and return anything that didn't fit. After the cost of a monthly mortgage payment, Howie left with lots of options. It was at that moment that we learned the suitcase would be arriving at the hotel tonight.

After speed shopping, we went to BodyZone, where each of us got a hot stone back massage. I think everyone wants that to be a staple of all future trips.

We shopped Old Towne (including the Swarovski store) and then had dinner at, Gifthuttli, a Bavarian beer hall. Wienerschnitzel and brats later, we took the tram home.

Now, we are having a cocktail in Charlotte and Howie's room while Howie puts on a fashion show. Only 2 items are being returned!!

 

Basel Day One

Day one: happy accidents. Our first happy accident was that Air France lost Howie's luggage. We still don't have it. With a brief visit to H&M, Howie had a  chance to experience the high cost of living in Basel.  

Our hotel, The Movenpick is new, modern and wonderful...we recommend it highly.  The views from our room are breathtaking.  

 We took a long walk and ended up at the Tinguely fountain.

Then we practiced riding the tram (you get a Basel card free from the hotel that allows you to ride the tram for free and get discounts at museums.)

Dinner, a five minute walk from the hotel, was a cozy Swiss restaurant with cheese fondue (with gluten-free bread), veal cordon bleu, and roasted potatoes with cheese and ham.  When I made the reservation I learned that it was Allen's birthday. Allen was our waiter. As typical loud Americans, we sang him Happy Birthday in 3 part harmony. Allen brought us some lemoncello as a surprise. 

Dinner was a delight in every way.

We were a little tipsy after dinner but stumbled our way to a chocolate shop for some Swiss chocolate to enjoy with a night cap back at the hotel. We declare Day 1 a success!!

 

Forget Corona - We Gonna

Can you tell Stone named this post?

My sister, Charlotte, and I and our husbands are going on a Viking River Cruise on the Rhine River from Basel, Switzerland to Amsterdam, Netherlands, April 3 to April 15, 2022. My kitchen chalkboard is wishing us a Bon Voyage. 

I have started this blog so that friends and family can "follow along" as we have a trip of a lifetime. I have been planning this trip for over four years, and can hardly believe it's here. We were supposed to go in 2020 originally; then 2021. I could hardly sleep last night, trying to convince myself there was nothing more to do. I have worked to make this trip effortless for my traveling companions. I realize there will be "happy accidents" that are those little surprising things that don't go the way you planned but often turn out to be hidden gems. And even if things go awry, I know my crowd will ensure there is lots of laughter and good times! Howie will pour the drinks while Stone keeps us in stitches.

We have carefully selected our travel wardrobe (to make sure it all fits in a carry-on); notified the bank of our travel plans so they don't freeze our bank cards thinking a $150 restaurant charge in Cologne, Germany is fraudulent; gotten cash in Swiss Francs and Euros; meticulously planned what we need access to on the plane (lip balm, Kindle, sleeping pills, etc.); made reservations for dinners and a hot stone back massage in Basel; and made plans to visit the historic medieval Basel Paper Mill Museum to learn how paper was made over the centuries because our niece, Carrie, has a fetish for hand-made paper. (A stop in the gift shop is a must!) In Amsterdam, we have tickets to the Keukenhof Gardens so Charlotte can see the tulips and tickets to the Van Gogh museum for Holly. We have our Verifly QR Codes, Passports, Airline tickets, Vaccination Cards, travel itineraries, and Negative Covid Tests. Phew!

All this as a way to say, WE ARE READY TO GO! I hope you will enjoy following along. Check back after April 5 to see what happens next!