Viking River Cruise – Kehl/Strasbourg (Day 3)

Day 3 saw us firmly in cruise mode spending most of the day sightseeing and then travelling up the Rhine by night.J  We were still straddling the French/German border and moored at Kehl (Germany) in the wee small hours.

After breakfast (and the usual problems with allocation of numbers for buses!) we headed off to see Strasbourg, the largest city in Alsace (France). After a quick bus tour of the city environs, another beautiful medieval city centre was explored on foot and some incredible architecture on display

 

One of the highlights was undoubtedly the Strasbourg Cathedral with its astronomical clock which was incredible and well worth seeing if you are in the region

 

After a buffet lunch on the ship, we then set off on the optional tour to an Alsation winery and the old town of Obernai. The winery was a disappointment as the only thing we saw was the cellar containing old vats and sampled four wines.  Obernai was another lovely example of a medieval walled town – overall I felt that this optional was not worth the 49 Euro each!

Rhine River locks

As we travelled along the Rhine we were constantly travelling through locks on our way downstream.  After dinner on Day 3 we decided to go up to the sun deck and have a look at the scenery passing by. We were lucky that we were in a lock at the time and stayed up there to watch the ship travel through this one.  It was a strange sightseeing 2 river cruise lines (almost 200 metres in length) side by side in the lock with two tankers behind us!

 

The last photo was taken as we were travelling through the lock (roadway above us)

Viking River Cruise - Day 2 Breisach

 

 

Day 2 saw us moored at the German port of Breisach, nice and close for our morning excursion into the Black Forest. It was the day that we realised how difficult it is for people to follow simple instructions such as

1. Pick a number from a basket - if you want to travel together, make sure you pick a number from the same basket
2. Go and sit on the bus with the corresponding number, for example if you picked 2 then you went and sat on bus 2
3. You need to be ready to leave at 8:00 am

This would be a recurring and annoying theme throughout the trip as everyday we went through the same procedure and every day without fail, someone couldn't work it out!

We had a very scenic drive through the Black Forest and the countryside was so different to Jan 11 when it was under snow!

 

 

We visited a factory where cuckoo clocks were made:

 

We then returned to the ship and had lunch. There were two optional excursions in the afternoon:

 

1. World War 2 battlefield tour
2. Colmar tour

We had signed up for the Colmar tour. http://www.ot-colmar.fr/en/?lang=en

So across the border we trotted to France :)  Colmar is a very old and pretty town in Alsace and has a very chequered history as this region has been hotly contested between France and Germany for a number of centuries. This has resulted in the architecture reflecting aspects of both countries. It has a number of canals and our guide for the walking tour through the old part of the city was former Edison Lighthouse guitarist Andy Locke! There were some unusual old buildings:



 

 

and like most European cities it had a cathedral - St Martins

 We really enjoyed Colmar and would love to visit this area again :)

Viking River Cruise - Day 1

 

 

After our exploration of Basel it was time to set sail on our river cruise.  We caught a taxi out to the docking area at Dreiländereck only to find that we couldn't see our ship anyway. The information Viking gave us did mention that there was a second dock that they sometimes used so the taxi driver then took us up to there - diddly squat. At this stage we were starting to get worried! The lovely taxi driver rang the contact number for us and was told that the first docking area was correct - the Viking Sun was docked alongside another river cruise ship and could not be seen from the dock!

 

Note to Viking: perhaps some signage would be useful in cases like these - it's not like we have xray eyes and can see through one ruddy ship to the other. We were not the only ones caught out!!!!

 

After grateful thanks to the taxi driver and a few more Swiss shekels placed in his hand, we then boarded the first ship, walked across the lobby, across a gangway and arrived aboard the Viking Sun our home for the next seven days :)

 

The ship was well appointed with a lounge area, library and large dining room (below).  We loved the fact that you were not allocated to a dining table but were free to sit anywhere and we met quite a few lovely people over our copious meal breaks :)  The food was very good with lots of choices - we usually had lunch in the Lounge where they had a range of different foods each day!

 

 

 

Our room was on the third floor, quite roomy and with floor to ceiling sliding doors. Don't you love the swan on the bed?  This was the attention to detail that was common on this cruise.

 

After dinner we set sail for Breisach in Germany but that's a whole different saga .....





Yodel lay hee hoo - Basel

 

 

On Saturday 15 September we flew from Terminal 5 (the new one) Heathrow to Basel - a short flight of just over an hour.  We cleared customs quickly at Basel and headed off to the city on the free shuttle. We had booked a night's accommodation at the Ibis near the railway station which was handy to just about everywhere.

 

 

We had lots of time to explore this beautiful city which was made easier by the Basel Card which allows you to travel free on public transport (buses, trams) while staying in the city. First stop was the Rat Haus (Council Chambers). a rather apt name :)

 

 

 

Our first view of the mighty Rhine

 



 

and a wonderful view of the Munster

 

It was near the Munster that we were stopped by a group of young guys out on their buck's night and I was asked to sign the condemned man's shirt :)

 

The following day we went exploring the streets and alley ways of Basel.  We were sitting down on the banks of the Rhine when we saw a horse and cart procession

 

 

Basel was in the grips of a fun bike marathon and we dodged cyclists of all ages and abilities through out the city. We headed uphill and stopped at the St Peter's Church (Peterskirche) a very old and beautiful building!

 

http://www.aswitzerlandattraction.com/switzerland-attractions-ah/st-peters-church.htm

We then explored down near the Rhine and came across St Alban Tor a former city gate in the city wall

We really enjoyed Basel and would like to see more another time :)







Cruising on the Thames

 

 

Each time we have come to London we have walked past the various cruise boat companies on our way to Kingston and  always said we would like to do one. Today was finally the day that it happened. As we were nephew sitting, Eddie came with us on the cruise from Kingston to Richmond which took around an hour each way.  This was the view of the Thames downstream from the pier with the Kingston road bridge in the distance.

There were a lot of boats moored along the river...

 

and the odd island or two...

 We had to travel through Teddington Lock which was a fantastic experience and Eddie's eyes were like saucers as the water dropped and the gate opened...

 And also the odd grand building or two

 

 

We spent an hour or so at Richmond, had a bite to eat and then completed the return journey.  A fun day had by all :)

 

Stripefest 2 - 11 September 2012 Windsor, Berkshire

 

Many will be aware that one of my past times is to play a FB game called Fairyland and over the past three years I have met a lot of wonderful players. Some time ago I became friends with Rowan, Liz and Vivien and was invited to join the 'Positive Thinking Takes the Chocolate Biscuit aka the Choccy Biccy Club" :). Our avatars on FL were all stripey animals:

• Rowan - Zebbie the Zebra
• Liz - Dunkie the Donkey
• Vivien - Scary Tiger
• Jan - Bandy the tabby cat

Rowan, Liz and Vivien live in the UK and some time ago Rowan and Vivien met at the London Zoo for the inaugural Stripefest. They had an absolute ball so over time we decided to hold Stripefest 2 and this time Liz and I joined Rowan and Vivien at Windsor.



 The surprise of the day was the gorgeous Bandit doppelganger that was presented to me by Rowan :)  Here are the Stripeys sitting patiently on the seat outside Windsor Castle - no doubt waiting for the humans to behave themselves!

We had a great day exploring Windsor including a 40 minute boat trip on the Thames. Here is an image of Vivien, Rowan and Liz getting into stripey mode!

 

It was with a lot of sadness that I left the others that afternoon - although lots of  great memories for the day and planning for Stripefest 3 ahead!



Enjoying the delights of Kingston

On Monday we set out for Kingston along the Thames which takes about 15-20 minutes along the Queen's Promenade. We really enjoy the changing scenery along the river!

 

One unusual feature is the benches - most contain a memorial plaque

There are lots of different craft moored...

 

 

And of course the odd swan and duck!

We always enjoy looking at "Whirlygig" which has a permanent mooring near the city centre. During footy season there is usually a Fremantle Doctors flag flying so we can only assume that one of the residents is an Aussie :)

 

 

Kingston is a very old market town and while there are all the major stores and supermarkets, there is still a market area near the centre of town which sells fruit and vegies....

 

I hope you can why we really enjoy this part of London!

It's a long way....

Finally arrived in London after an action packed and very long flight. I really enjoyed being randomly selected by Border Security for explosive screening. However on the bright side that meant I could tell the guy sitting next to me on the plane that he could feel safe that I was not carrying any!!

Great flight to Singapore then everything went pear shaped with a 2 1/2 hour delay which meant it was almost 2.30 am before we left for London.

Great being at Tan and Tas' place. Eddie has grown so much!!! Lovely and green here