Heidelberg and Rudesheim

Our shore excursion this morning left at 8.30 a.m. and again was one included in our cruise holiday. We were heading from our mooring in Mannheim to travel to Heidelberg to visit the town and the castle.  The weather however wasn't too promising, so we made sure we had some waterproof jackets and an umbrella with us.

The plan was that while we were completing our visit here, the boat would sail to Gernsheim where we would rejoin it for the next part of the journey which was a sail down to Rudesheim.  In Rudesheim there was an option extra tour that evening which included a mini train ride and a traditional dinner and show.  We chose to stay on board that night for dinner as usual.

But, to get back to our morning tour, we were taken to Heidelberg Castle high above the town.  It was an impressive castle, partly in ruins, but with really good facilities for visitors. It also boasts that it has the biggest wine barrel in the world!! The weather held out quite well, but we did have a torrential downpour at one stage when we were luckily sheltering under a huge parasol umbrella!

Here are some photos of the visit.

You can see by the puddles that there had been a fair bit of rain!

Heidelberg Castle

Heidelberg Castle

Lion's head at Heidelberg Castle

Diorama (tilt shift) view from Heidelberg Castle

Diorama (tilt shift) view from Heidelberg Castle

This is a monkey!

There seems to be a big tradition in this part of the world that when a couple get engaged/married, they put their names onto a padlock, lock the padlock onto a bridge then throw the key into the water. This is the first example I have seen, but there's more to come in later photos!

Entrance to the bridge at Heidelberg

Now, during the free time part of our visit to Heidelberg, we done a spot of shopping! Do NOT miss the Christmas shop!!  It is one of the best that I have ever seen and, although it's obviously mostly Christmas items that are on sale, there are other things as well and it is just wonderful!

After our visit here, we headed to pick up the boat at Gernsheim for our onward journey to Rudesheim and, when we got back to the boat, we were met by the staff welcoming us back!

Staff welcome

After we re-joined the boat, we headed for lunch and, as the weather had really cheered up, we sat up on the sundeck and enjoyed a leisurely sail to Rudesheim.  We were to be docked here overnight so, after dinner, we took a short walk into town and had a couple of drinks in one of the local hotels.

Here are a few photos taken during the sail down to Rudesheim.

Unfortunately, I don't know what this building is, but it is certainly very impressive!

One of the many barges on the Rhine

Container barge

The Gullveig and the Ingvi moored together

When we moored up, one of the other Viking boats, the Viking Ingvi, moored right up beside us, which is something I touched upon earlier in the blog. This is entirely normal and is to be expected. Also, in Rudesheim, I have never ever seen so many swans in my life!

The boat was moored here overnight all set for the scenic part of the cruise which was to start in the morning. We would be sailing to Koblenz and had a tour to Marksburg Castle to look forward to.  It was fingers firmly crossed for good weather for this part of the cruise!!

Strasbourg, France

We had a little bit of a longer lie this morning as the tour for Strasbourg didn't leave the boat until 9 a.m. The boat actually moors in Kehl, Germany, and the coach takes you into Strasbourg where you are given the choice to then go back to the boat or stay in Strasbourg for the remainder of the day. If you do choose to go back to the boat for lunch though, there is a shuttle bus laid on to take you back to Strasbourg if you want to do that.  We chose to stay in Strasbourg all day.  There was also an optional extra tour today, which was an Alsace Wine Tour.

Strasbourg was very picturesque and, after we completed a walking tour with the guide, we decided to take a canal tour on one of the canal boats, which was really very good.  We also had lunch at a local cafe and we visited the Cathedral.

It was fun at lunchtime I have to say as the cafe we used was a small local one where the waitress didn't speak English and everything was written in French! We reckon it was the 'dish of the day'.

This is what we ordered ...

... and this is what arrived.  And very tasty it was too!!

Here are some photos of Strasbourg. I can certainly recommend just staying in town for lunch and a wander around, plus you can do some shopping here too!!

Strasbourg

Strasbourg

Strasbourg - the most photographed building in town!

Strasbourg

A small detail at Strasbourg Cathedral

One of the stained glass windows in Strasbourg Cathedral

Strasbourg Cathedral

Strasbourg

Strasbourg

All too soon our visit here ended and we made our way back to the coach for the short journey back to the boat. We were not in time, as usual, for any of the activities on board as we were getting ready for dinner, then we went to the fun music quiz night.  We really didn't have a hope of winning anything as a lot of the questions were to do with American music, however we did manage to score 13 out of 20 and we weren't last, so I think we done quite well!

We went back to our cabin fairly early that night and I done some hand washing.  There is a line in the shower that you can hang washing on, so that was one chore out of the way.  The boat does have a laundry service however, at more or less 2 Euros for each item of underwear, it was way better just to wash these things through myself!  The final game of the Football World Cup was being shown on TV so my husband was happy watching that while I got the washing done! Germany won the game and almost immediately we could hear people celebrating with the sounds of horns and fireworks outside on the riverbank.

We had been underway since 6.30 p.m. that evening and on our way to Mannheim where we'd be leaving in the morning at 8.30 a.m. to visit Heidelberg.

Breisach and the Black Forest

I hadn't slept well the previous night, not for any particular reason and nothing to do with the comfort of the cabin, probably just because it was my first night in a strange place!  I wasn't even hungry that morning and only had toast!!  However, that had still set me up for the first tour of the day - a bus trip into the Black Forest. This was one of the excursions included in our cruise package.  We had an optional extra one in the afternoon which was to Colmar, a quaint Alsatian town.

However, back to the Black Forest.  When we got to our destination in the woods, you could either go shopping or go with the guide for a short walk.  Not being one for the 'tourist' shopping kind of thing, my husband and I went for a walk through the woods up to a waterfall and back.  If you're thinking about doing the walk instead of shopping, it's not too strenuous, but the ground can be a bit rough and there are some inclines.  It's not suitable for wheelchairs or buggies, and you'd need to be wearing suitable footwear.

I think I had better start including some photos now, so here are a few to get us going:

We visited here and now I can't remember the name of the church - I think it was St. Martin's, but I'm not 100% sure!

Interior of the church - it was magnificent

View over the misty hills from the courtyard

Shopping area

Woods and waterfalls during our walk

Small house

Largest cuckoo clock in the world - apparently!

Our visit here was soon over and it was time head back to the coaches to be taken back to the boat, or is it a ship - I have no idea!! A word about the coaches while I remember - they are fabulous. Very clean and comfortable and all of them have on-board toilet facilities.

Once back to the boat, we had a safety drill.  Your lifejackets are kept under the beds in your cabin should you need them, and our drill went off without a hitch.  It was then lunchtime, and very nice it was too. You can choose to have lunch either in the restaurant or on the Aquavit Terrace for a buffet lunch.  We gave each of them a try and both were lovely, so do try both styles to see what you like best. Remember too that on this cruise, your drinks at lunch and at dinner are included in the price of your holiday.  You can choose from beer, wine or soft drinks.

It was off to Colmar next. Now, I had done some research here and was looking forward to seeing Colmar and the waterways there, but I was in for a big disappointment. When we got to Colmar the guide gave us the option of doing a walking tour, which we chose to do, and it was good, but we never saw any canal systems.  Well, it turns out that they are at least a 20 minute walk away from where the walking tour takes place, but it was my fault as I had never asked about it.  By the time the tour was finished, we didn't  have time to walk to the 'Little Venice' area and back again, so I was really very disappointed that I had missed my chance to see this area as it looks very picturesque if you look at photos on the internet. So, if you want to go to this area of Colmar, skip the walking tour and do it yourself so that you leave yourself plenty of time to get back to the meeting point for your coach back to the boat.

Meanwhile though, here are some photos of Colmar, which is a really lovely place to see.  It's well worth taking the optional tour to visit here.

Colmar

Colmar

Colmar

Of course, these are not the photos that I had hoped to have, but that can't be helped! I just wish I had asked about the 'Little Venice' area prior to the guided walk, so don't make the same mistake as I did! Anyway, we were taken back to the boat by coach and we got ready for dinner. This was the welcome dinner night but, don't worry about dressing up on this boat, you're not expected to wear a dicky bow and dinner suit here, unless you want to of course.  Smart but casual is the order of the day on every night, even on the welcome night.

I did find the timings of things to be a bit odd, because cocktail hour was normally 5.30 p.m. to 7 p.m. and then the daily briefing took place at 7 p.m.  Well, that was usually when we were getting ready for our dinner, so we missed all of those events, although plenty of other people did find the time to attend - I really don't know how they done it!!  Perhaps they are more seasoned to cruising compared to us!! Anyway, dinner was lovely, as it always was, and then there was a concert that night in the lounge area by the Black Forest Voices, which was fairly entertaining.  However, don't expect entertainment on the scale of an ocean cruise - there's none of that on this boat. The only normal kind of entertainment was a chap who played piano and sang in the lounge.

That night we cast off at 11 p.m., the next stop being Strasbourg, France.

Day of arrival, boarding and cabin

We were booked to fly by scheduled airline (KLM) from Edinburgh to Amsterdam then from Amsterdam to Basel before being taken to the boat berthed in Basel.  I was pleased with the baggage allowance too - none of the 15kg only!!  You were allowed one item of hold luggage each, weighing no more than 23kg and one item of regulation size cabin luggage each, weighing no more than 12kg.  In addition, I was also allowed a handbag!! I was surprised at myself however as my cases weighed way under the 23kg allowed, so I'm wondering if I've eventually found the secret of packing light!!

On arrival at Edinburgh we were able to check in our luggage straight through to Basel, which left us free to go and have some coffee and breakfast.  The flight over to Amsterdam was only 55 minutes and once into the airport we had some free time to explore the airport and do some shopping before the short hop over to Basel.

Now here's a strange thing, Basel Airport is actually in France!  This is all explained in the very comprehensive notes you get from Viking, but when you leave the airport in Basel you MUST make sure that you exit through the Swiss gates and NOT the French ones!!  Everything is very clearly marked so we had no problem in exiting through customs and finding the Viking reps who pointed us in the direction of the transport awaiting us.  Within about 15 minutes we were on the boat!

However, due to us arriving a wee bit on the late side due to the timings of our flights, we did miss some of the introductory talks and briefings aboard, and we floundered a little to begin with, but we soon found our feet and got settled into our cabin before making our way to the dining room for our first dinner aboard.

Now, prior to going on this cruise I looked for photos and reviews and could find hardly anything, so I'm hoping this blog goes some way to rectifying that until more reviews and photos start to come online.  I will be posting photos here, but for those of you who would like a sneak preview of the cabin we had and some views of the boat, this is the link to my Flickr album of the Viking Gullveig

Flickr album for Viking Gullveig

Our cabin was very nice.  It was bright, airy and modern and decorated in nice neutral colours.  Our cabin No. was 334 and we had a 'French balcony'.  A review that we had read on Cruise Critic criticised these cabins for being too small as other cabins with just a window were actually larger, and what the reviewer said was true.  The cabin is really tight for space.  However, there is good storage space which is a bonus.  We had the beds configured to a twin orientation, but you can have them made into a double if you wish.

All of the following are included in your cabin: 40" flat screen TV, hairdryer, mirrors, power sockets, walk-in shower, L'Occitane toiletries (Verbena), telephone, safe, fridge (empty for your own supplies), complimentary water every day, clothes drying line in shower cubicle.

The toilet was lovely too, but I would say that the shower cubicle was rather narrow and perhaps a bit on the small side for a large person.

Dinner was scheduled for 7.30 p.m. so there was really no time for us to change, so we just made our way to the dining room.  There are stands containing hand sanitation units at the doors for everyone to use on entering.  We were on holiday with our friends, so we sat at a table for six and another Scottish couple joined us.  I must say that dinner was lovely.  There is a different menu every night, but if you don't want what's available, there are other things that you can have which are available every night, such as roast chicken, salmon or New York strip steak. You are always served with an amuse bouche prior to your meal. I would not however recommend the cheese plate - that was a bit of a joke really. There were only two small slivers of cheese, a spoonful of chutney, a strawberry and one or two crackers.

After dinner we headed back to our cabin where we found that our luggage had been delivered, so we unpacked and had an early night after a long day of travelling.  Our trip the next morning was to begin at 8.30 a.m. so we wanted to have a good night's rest.

I should say now before I forget, is that this is a river boat and, if you've ever been on a Nile cruise, you'll know what I mean.  Sometimes the river boats moor up together when visiting their various ports of call, therefore you can sometimes find that when you open your curtains, you're tight up beside another boat. When moored together, it also means that either you will have to walk through the foyer of another boat to disembark, or people from another boat will have to walk through your boat to do the same.  It's a completely normal practice, but it is something you need to be aware of.

This was a very quiet running boat, so we were never interrupted by engine noise during any time when we were travelling at night.

Introduction

I have chosen to do this blog, not only because I enjoy doing holiday blogs as I've done a few over the past few years, but because I could find virtually nothing about the Viking Gullveig before I travelled on her, so I hope this can be found out there in the wide blue yonder, and I hope it is of use to my fellow travellers.

Away back in the dim and distant past sometime in 2013, we took the bull by the horns and booked a Viking river cruise on the Rhine, travelling from Basel to Amsterdam through Germany.  This trip can also be done in the reverse and you also get the option to extend your seven day cruise at either end if you wish.  You can organise this either through Viking or do it yourself.  If you let Viking do it, then your transfers etc. are all included, but if you do it yourself although your flights will all be organised by Viking, you need to take care of your transfers yourself.  We chose the DIY version as it was really vastly cheaper to do it that way.  Viking cruises are not the cheapest on this earth, but now that we have experienced the service etc. for ourselves, you can see why!

This is the document wallet you get - very posh indeed!!

Despite the costs involved, these cruises get booked up very quickly, so if you do want to try one out, get in there quick while there are cabins available!  Also, don't be worried about seasickness or anything like it!  These are river boats and there is virtually no movement, so you won't feel any waves and you won't feel the slightest bit sick at all.  The boat we were due to sail on was the Viking Gullveig, and she wasn't even built when we booked to sail on her!!  She only started sailing around April 2014 and we were booked for July 2014, so that was enough time for everything to still be new, but hopefully any minor problems would also be ironed out by then!

You also don't need to get all glammed up like you maybe would on an ocean liner, not unless you want to of course, but you would kind of be the odd one out if you did!  It's not formal at all and smart casual is the order of the day.  I never even took a pair of high heels with me!!

This is probably enough of an introduction - I expect you'll be wanting me to start on the actual cruise!!