Today we get on the boat! Yipee! I'm super excited to get going on this cruise. It's been a long time coming. Mom and Dad talked about this river cruise all the time. I was sad they didn't get a chance to enjoy one.
We had nothing scheduled for today, so we took our time getting ourselves up and down to breakfast. The breakfast spread in this hotel really is something. But honestly, the coffee was over the moon good. From the first morning when the waiter asked if we wanted coffee with warm milk, I knew I was going to miss this coffee the most.
We sat and enjoyed breakfast and our coffee. Then suddenly the waiter walks two coffees over to a couple near us. The glass coffee mugs showed 4 layers of something. Some kind of goodness. They looked stunning and I was sure they'd be delicious.
Janet ran up to the room for something and when the waiter walked by, I asked him what those coffees were. He said they were simply macchiatos. He asked me if I wanted one and I said, "Yes please. And bring one for my friend."
Now, keep in mind, by this time we were at the end of our breakfast and we both had already had three cups of coffee with warm milk. Smaller mugs, but still, a lot of coffee.
Our waiter did not disappoint. He brought these bad boys over. I couldn't help myself with taking photos. They were just so pretty.
We decided since it was check out time we'd just head over to the boat. And since we'd become experts at the one tram (tram 11) we hopped on to our stop for the boat. Turned out the stop was almost right on top of the boat. As we walked down the little alley we were greeted by the Program Director, Radim, with the most brilliant smile and welcoming look on his face. (Janet would later come to call him "Tall, Dark, and Handsome - and she would not be wrong).
They took our bags and said we were the first guests on the boat. They invited us to go on down and lunch would be served to us in the dining room. So that's exactly what we did after getting checked in.
The Viking Longboats are pretty nifty boats. They are, well, long, and have a capacity of 150 guests and 50 crew. This means it's small and intimate in that you aren't fighting 3000+ people for every little scrap of space on a ship.
We are on the Viking
Hlin. (heh-lean). Each Viking boat is named after a norse god. Ours is Hlin.
Hlin - Norse Goddess of Protection
The task of the Norse goddess Hlin is to protect and shelter humankind. She is also the goddess of consolation and brings comfort and solace to those who grieve, kissing away their tears. Hlin is deeply compassionate in an unsentimental way, and a wise teacher. Thanks to her guidance, we learn how to honor our dead, and integrate their love and wisdom into our daily lives.
- Only 190 guests
- Crew: 50
- Length: 443 feet
- Year built: 2014
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| Two boats connected in port. |
We found our way to the dining room - it's really not that difficult since the boat is so small. Found a young couple sitting at a table for 6 and asked if we could join them. Colleen and Doug from Chicago. We didn't know then, but we'd spend a good part of our trip with them - joking that they were stalking us.
The beer was cold, and the food was good. Nothing overly exciting, normal lunch stuff - burgers, salads, soups, etc.
The boat was offering a Basel walking tour in the afternoon. I wasn't that interested in going so I hung back and Janet took off. Turns out I'm very glad I didn't go. Janet said it was mostly uphill and not what she would consider "moderate". In fact, on of the older ladies on the tour complained the whole time. I suspect it would be considered "moderate" if it wasn't 50 THOUSAND degrees outside.
We attended a small orientation about the boat and the cruise. After we had our "safety" practice. Those are always fun. We had to show up in our life vest.
The boat was shoving off that evening and we'd be on our way. They told us that we'd be going through our first of 10 locks that night around 9:30. So we took ourselves up to the "sun deck" to watch the sun go down and watch us go through the first lock.
Now locks aren't new to us here in the PNW. And I would have thought they weren't new to a lot of people, but the folks up on the sun deck with us seemed to not fully understand how locks worked. Ok, to be fair, it was one person and she may have been buzzed, but she could not comprehend how locks worked. I even explained it s-l-o-w-l-y. Finally her husband couldn't take it anymore and used a toilet bowl analogy that she finally got.
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| It really was a beautiful night to be out on the top deck. |
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| Approaching the locks. |
I think I was more interested in how the captain was going to get this boat into the skinny lock than how the lock actually worked.
The water started draining to get us at the same level to the river on the other side. The boat really only had inches on each side of the walls. It took about 20 minutes for the water to drain. And unlike our locks here, the door doesn't open out, it goes up.
We stood there like giddy school children watching the door open and the boat to start to move. I couldn't figure out how the pilot box on the boat was going to fit under this lock and turned around to see it collapsing. It's on stilts and it can go up and down to fit under low bridges and locks! Engineering!! Ain't it great?
As we got closer to going under the lock door it dawned on all of us that we were about to get wet since the door had just left the Rhine River...dripping. We didn't mind. I mean how often could I say I had Rhine River cooties on me?
The whole lock experience took about 45 minutes. In the part of the Rhine there are 10 locks on it and we'd be going through all of them. 4 tonight, 4 the next night and the last two towards the end of the cruise.
Tomorrow we dock in Breisach, German and will go to the Black forest and the off to see the Medieval town of Colmar.
Total Steps 8601
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