Saturday, December 20

Up at 7am, buffet breakfast at 8 and off to the airport by 9am. We were done with baggage checkin, security, and passport control by 9:45. A very efficient system, or we were extra early or both.

We are flying out of Terminal 2, Gate D10 for a 12:25 departure. We should arrive about 2:15 pm today!

We were both pretty much exhausted and the food on the plane was not the most appealing, oh well. A long 10 hour flight and we arrived at 11:24 pm AMS time or 2:24 MST. Passport control was super quick with the Global Access cards and Customs was a breeze as well.

We were home by 7:00 or so and getting ready for bed by 8pm. I calculate that to be a 22 hour awake day.

Takeaways:

• Markets on the weekends are extremely crowded
• Make sure you dress in layers
• SilverSeas package really not required
• The Veranda Suite AA room is well worth the upgrade, even if you don’t use the balcony because of the cold.
• If you need snacks during the day, bring them. The galleys are closed except for meal times.
• Walking can be extensive, think about being in the L (leisure) group.
• The Marriott Sheraton AMS Airport hotel is literally in the airport. A great and convenient way to fly out of, no shuttle required. You walk 5 minutes to the terminal.

Friday, December 19

8 am suitcases out for a 9 am tax departure to the Sheraton Airport hotel. One last breakfast, we passed out our gratuities to Lawrence, our stateroom attendant, Vukacin and Eric, our restaurant stewards, and Rofi and Alexandra, our lounge attendants. They all worked tirelessly to keep us clean, fed and watered, an amazing staff!

The room at the Sheraton was ready, amazingly and we walked over to Shiphol airport to get our bearing for tomorrow’s KLM635 departure, should be easy. This is a great hotel to depart from, literally you walk to the airport entrance. We walked to the airport gate to get a lay of the land.

The driver of the taxi service, Mounir, (mounir1095@gmail.com) mentioned a tour to a cheese farm and fishing village that he ran. He convinced us to spend our last day out, instead of in the hotel. We booked a nice private trip for 1:30 and we were on our way to Simonehouve for the cheese and Volendam for the peppernuts cookies, poffertjes (mini pancakes) and fishing village. Very quiet, clean and picturesque town, easily worth a day trip to explore the shops, bakeries and restaurants. It reminded me of an upscale Solvang.

A nice sunset, finally, to boot, tomorrow a long day. It will be good to be home.

Dinner in the hotel, basic faire, nothing really appealing.

Thursday, December 18

A down day for me, feeling a cold/cough coming on. I had no energy for the last walkabout. Dordrecht, Netherlands will wait for another trip.

Mark found me some dry cough tablets and some Ricola cough drops. One more day to go.

With the excursions in the afternoon, why cut off breakfast at 9:30 is a mystery. So much for sleeping in, folks said. A brunch would be much better and accommodating. Oh well.

We better find hot chocolate and the glühwein tomorrow!

Wednesday, December 17

We arrive in Cologne right after breakfast. The highlight today is the Cologne Cathedral.

Our tour left about 9:30 am, and the boat is parked across the river. It was a 0.8 mile trek to the Cathedral (1.6 mile total) before the city tour started.

The tour of the Cologne Cathedral and the 3 Christmas Markets was pretty cool, if we hadn’t walked from across the river, the enjoyment would have been even higher. My highlight was the relics of the 3 Magi in the rear of the church. There was a ‘monument’ from the triple sarcophagus that could be touched, way cool.

After the tour, we had lunch at Früh, a local brewery/restaurant. Delicious hunter schnitzel, best I’ve had in a while!

We retraced our steps and did all 3 Christmas Markets one last time. No more for the remainder of the voyage.

Dinner, at 7pm, was ok. I think we are getting ‘food-id’ out, I am for sure.

Tomorrow, we cruise and arrive at Dordrecht, in the Netherlands. We are starting to wind down.

Tuesday, December 16

A slow morning, halleluia. Breakfast, then cruise viewing. But, the weather is cold and foggy on our journey to the port of Koblenz, Germany.

The mid Rhine river section reveals castles on both sides of the river as we sailed down river to Koblenz. Beautiful scenery!

Lunch onboard and our walking tour began about 2:15. There will be no more bus rides for our tours as we wrap up the trip. There are 7 Christmas markets and we discovered 3. Sandy is about shopped out. We visited the Church of Our Lady where we found a painting of St. Nicolas, the Sinterklaas chase we were after for the girls.

The weather today was better, but it does get cold as soon as the sun goes down. Back on board by about 4:30, with dinner at 7. We are still not adjusted to later dinner meals.

Monday, December 15

We have 3 stops today. We arrive in Mannheim, tour the Christmas markets, the boat moves to Mainz, and we re-board to our port of Rüdesheim.

Off we went at our 9:15 bus ride to the 15 minute center of town trip. Again, lots of Viking folks and we had the guide with us until 10:45 or so. The markets don’t open until 11am, so I can’t figure out why they drag us out before the markets open. She took us to the high end shops as a delay. This is worth a comment on the evaluation. It has been true throughout the Christmas markets we’ve visited. Sandy found a shoulder purse in one of the stores on the boulevard. Beware pickpockets!

Back to the bus for an hour’s drive to Mainz. The boat had floated ahead and picked us up, I guess to speed up the float down to Rüdesheim.

We arrived in the city right on time. The Christmas marketplace is a walkable pier to town stroll, much more refreshing. Dinner was at 7pm, so we had to visit the town before. It was cool and dark, but this market was the best so far, IMHO.

Dinner was with a new group, 2 sisters and another couple from South Carolina. Toni and Mark were off to their monastery wine tasting and dinner extravaganza! Great dinner conversations.

A nice slow morning tomorrow, we float down the middle Rhine with castle views beginning at 9:10.

Sunday, December 14

Strasbourgh, the Christmas capital of France.

Four Viking boats are tied up here in the port on the river. A leisure breakfast today, woke up about 6am, maybe we are adapting. Instead of the menu, we both ordered from the egg station.

We met our 9:20 departure bus for trip to the inner city. The city was interesting and compact, conquered by the French and German people many times over history.

The central focus of the city is the Cathedral of Notre Dame, beautiful architecture. The weather is cold and foggy again, not prime for photos.

The Christmas Markets are blending together, the more crowded areas are around the food vendors. We were back on board around 1pm for lunch.

We passed on the afternoon 2:50 excursion to Gegenbach. Too much walking and cold and lots of people = our 1 excursion per day limit.

Dinner was German-themed, sausages and schnitzel and snapps. So-so, I missed the real-deal gravy of Thomas’ Euro RV trips.

We seemed to be sailing a lot over the evening, kinda odd.

Saturday, December 13

We tossed and turned all night but managed to sleep through until 8am. Breakfast was done at 9:30, but we snuck in. Pancakes, 3 tiny, were delicious from the menu. I went back to the breakfast buffet for the normal stuff. Tip, forget the fixed menu, stand in line for the omelette station. Sandy’s egg benedict was just that, one egg.

Our tour for today at 2:15 was the Christmas Market in Freiburg. The morning time was for a quick walk into Breisach and see the sites. The Christmas Market was not found, the flower mart and farmer’s market were disappointing. The weather did not cooperate either, cold and foggy.

Our bus trip into Freiburg for the Yuletide Market and organ concert was super packed. A Saturday Christmas Market and we were in a mosh pit, most uncomfortable. We arrived at the bus barn about 3:30, missed the concert because of the walking to the market. There are several wings through out the downtown area and we couldn’t shop comfortably. There was a scuffle, which didn’t sit well, someone yelled ‘pickpocket’

It was cold and foggy and out gathering time of 5:15 couldn’t come fast enough. A nice bus ride back in the dark and dinner at 7:30. They eat late, because of the excursions. There is one seating for all 200 or so of us. A little vodka shot was awaiting our return on the gangplank.

Dinner was ok, I had the ‘potroast’ prime rib and Sandy had the chicken. The Gnarly Head cabernet, on our Silver spirit package was quite good. Mark and Toni had boarded earlier from their tour, so we had a nice gathering for dinner.

Tomorrow, 2 4 hour tours, we’ll see how that goes! Sleepy time about 11pm and a wake up alarm about 7am, ouch.

Friday, December 12

Not a good night sleep. Woke up early and hit the road. Taxi to the airport at 6:30.

Flight KLM1943 was pretty much on time, we were shuttled to the City Hopper area on the tarmac to board our flight to Basel.

Arrived at the Basel airport, met with Viking staff and escorted to our bus for the trip to the Viking Eistle. There are 3 Viking ships in Basel loading today. The Eistle, the Vili and the ? Lunch on board waiting for us and the room, 316 was ready. As ae had lunch, Mark and Toni came down the gangway and joined us.

We had an included Basel city tour scheduled, but we blew it off and spent the afternoon unpacking and relaxing through dinner. The Angus rib eye steak was so-so.

Thursday, December 11

A nice leisurely breakfast in the M Lounge, a good spread. Douwe Egbert Nespresso machine in room 721 is a life saver.

Christmas Market in the Museumplein for the afternoon. It was a short walk, and the Market was so-so. Lots of food and trinket vendors, the authentic pork frankfurter was small for the price, even though it looked huge on the grill.

We had the Festival of Lights at 5pm, a 90 minute tour, so we time for a quick rest and bite at the hotel. We used the Tram to get to the boat launch, the Stan Hugyens awaited. The tour included an open bar and the Tempranillo was pretty good. Tram in reverse back to the hotel.

An early morning 9am flight tomorrow from Amsterdam to Basel, 1:20 or so, then transfer to the Viking Eistla. Our stateroom is 316.

Wednesday, December 10

Arrived right on time. Customs took about 15 minutes, no issues and luggage was waiting after. We stepped out, took a taxi (50€) to the Marriott Central and room was ready. We were unpacking by 12:30 or so.

Mark and Toni were in the lobby and we caught up for a bit and a lunch bite at a local pub around the corner. Public transportation is huge and very efficient.

We are taking a Pure Boats boat tour of the Festival of Lights tomorrow. Mark and Toni did it yesterday, it includes a wine and cheese cruise. We hopped on the tram and wandered over to the pickup location for tomorrow’s voyage.

Back to the hotel for happy hour and then the M Lounge for munchies. By 5pm I was fading, but got a recharge and we both made it off to bed by 8pm.

Tuesday, December 9

Off we go! We left about 12 noon for our 4pm KLM636 flight to Amsterdam. We should arrive around 11am tomorrow, Wednesday.

Arrived at LAS about 1:45, we are clear on the east side of Terminal 3, between pillar 29-28 in spot 31. Sky Priority of KLM636 was quick and painless, 17.6 and 17.4 kg per suitcase. Clear and TSA Pre were quick as well. We are in The Club at LAS lounge awaiting boarding at gate E3, 3:30 pm for a 4:05 flight. Took off about 4:40, but captain mentioned a tail wind.