"He thought his happiness was complete when, as he meandered aimlessly along,
suddenly he stood by the edge of a full-fed river."
Wind in the Willows.
It started with a bit of pension payout money coming our way because I hit the incredibly ancient age of 55. So we decided we would treat ourselves to a getaway of some kind. Many different options were thrown into the mix but we ended up on the idea of a river cruise (not the sea, coz my internal balance does not like being on the waves). We were tempted by the idea of being looked after, not having to cook and travelling gently down the river watching the world go by.
Of the many options available we chose the Rhine; starting at Basel, Switzerland and heading up the river through Germany (with one stop including France on one side and Germany on the other) and ending up in Amsterdam eight days later.
Big shout out to Viking River Cruises because the organisation and attention to detail was fantastic. They took care of all the travel arrangements there and back, looked after us impeccably during the trip and were quick to answer any questions we had. The ship, the Sigrun was beautifully designed and the staff were totally amazing, every single one of them. The food, oh the food...not only did we not stop eating - buffet and menu breakfast, pastries and cookies and coffees throughout the day, three course lunch and a three course dinner but it was all absolutely delicious. We both put on half a stone in a week, seriously good nosh.
We didn't do any of the guided tours (which were all included in the price) because we preferred to wander off on our own at each stop. This was easily facilitated by the provision by Viking of detailed maps at each port.
Breisach was lovely, we walked up to the church on the top of the hill and had an amazing view of the town and the river.
Cologne was fabulous, we even stumbled upon a market there which was fascinating.
Koblenz was my favourite, it has so much to look at and a wonderful energy to it.
Each stop had its own interests and we loved exploring all of them.
Our favourite part was cruising along the river through the mid part of the Rhine where we saw an incredible amount of castles on either side.
For me personally, I fell in love with Germany. I had never visited before but it captured my heart and soul.
As a side note:
As a Witch I am always conscious of synchronicity and things happening for a reason. We booked our cruise in the autumn of 2023. In January 2024 I took an ancestry dna test thingumyjig, the results of which showed 47.2% English (no surprise there), 5.6% Scandinavian (again no surprise) but what was a delightful discovery was the remaining 47.2% North and West European which covered German, Dutch and French...(pauses for mic drop) - darn near the exact same countries we had chosen for our cruise. Don't tell me it was a coincidence.
I could write pages and pages about each stop and how much we enjoyed it but I don't want to bore you, there are photos on my fb page and a little video if you are interested.
