Viking Jarl Rhine Review

This is from my 2013 trip.

Long Flight #1: The first long flight we took was from Washington, DC to Amsterdam, Netherlands. For me, the flight was not very good at all. My seat stereo wouldn't work, but I had The Hunger Games on my iPad so I watched that. I also couldn't sleep while sitting up... I took all of Dustin's pillows and his blanket and still couldn't get comfortable. The food was pretty good though. I got a vegetarian Indian dish that had curry peas, rice, and lentils. We got to our destination an hour early, so timing was great!

Amsterdam: When we got there it was 7am! They took us to the boat right away which was great to see but we couldn't get into our room until later. They had this coffee machine that was 24 hours and was great. It made everything.. cafe au lait, decaf, latte, reg coffee, and even mochachino! They also had littles snacks like cookies and muffins to go with your coffee! We had a coffee with a little snack and then went out to see the city on our own. First impression was TONS of bikes. The streets of most of the places we went were super small and old so there isn't much room for everyone to have a car. Even the cars they do have are super small looking. We walked around for a good long while. Just looking at everything. Saw some coffee shops, which seemed to have multiple purposes. Went and had lunch in a little shop where half the people were smoking. There was one table up top that they said was no smoking... but even if you sat up there you couldn't escape the smoke. The local beer there was only okay. The sandwich we had though was great! Ciabatta bread with cream cheese and tomato. Sounds so simple but it was great! I added capers to mine which I think made it even more awesome. We went and found the Dam, which is this big center square for them. There was some street performers that were pretty cool. There's pictures of this. Then we walked by a bunch of canals. We could have tried to find a canal tour, but walking by everything was fine with us. We walked by the red light district during the afternoon and it was mellow. Girls dance in windows in underwear and bathing suits etc. Most of them were talking to each other or on their phones and kind of boring. I didn't see any men prostitutes, which I thought interesting. You won't see any pictures of these ladies... we were told the pimps do not like that. OMG I almost forgot the best part of Amsterdam... we found the best bars to drink in! We found this one randomly called the Red Boot (Proevery de Roode Laars) that was so cool. Very small. It seemed like they were just opening and were super casual. At one point they left us in there alone, very trusting I guess. Jeremy kept seeing this bottle of alcohol called Jenever and asked the bartender/owner what it was. He said it was like gin, and we tried some. To me it tasted more like moonshine/gin. Then he suggested we go down the street to the oldest bar in Amsterdam. It was called Cafe Int Hepjen (forget what it means) and the whole outer wall was made of an old boat! The spiral stairs inside I also think were from this old boat. VERY cool place. We went back to the boat to look at our rooms and unpack and have dinner. I don't remember what exactly I ate this night, but I will talk more about the meals later. At dinner a couple sat with us, Max and Debbie. Debbie was much younger than Max. After dinner we felt a second wind and went back out to see the red light district at night. Debbie and Max came with us, but I'm not sure if they much fun. They didn't sit with us the whole rest of the trip lol. It was much more crowded, lots of men wandering around. More girls in windows. We had lots of questions: how much did it cost? If you decide to do it do they just close the curtain of their window or do they bring you to another room? Do the girls ever say no? I think we had more but I can't remember them. We tried to find the Dam again but couldn't so we went back to the boat.

General things: This is where I will put general info. The boat was great! It was small, but I liked that about it. Easy to find everything, not too crowded. Most times when we came in from an outing we got little shots of local inspired drinks. Usually fruity. Sometimes we got free champagne or special cocktail in the evening before the daily briefing. They also had little lectures sometimes. We had a tea time that was actually coffee spiked with something. We had another fancy coffee tasting near Drosselgasse. Cheese tasting. There was a cooking thing about the onion pie (more on this later) but we somehow missed it. They still gave us our free drink and tasting though. My favorite part of the ship was the front when the weather was good. Great views, very pretty. They had little warmers out there too so we didn't get too cold. Above that was the sun deck with many seats, but it was too cold to be up there much. They also had a cute herb garden, putting golf stations, and shuffleboard. On another boat we saw they had a big chess set to play up top. Downstairs they had a little library, a couple computers which I saw many people use, and some board games. We played some cards and European Yahtzee (spelled different and different scoring) at some point. The meals were the best part of the cruise! Three course meals (five on Captain's night!), salad bars, pasta station, sometimes carving stations, free wine and beer with lunch and dinner. All fancy stuff too... more later! Lutz was our program director and was very fun. He made jokes and did a shot of Jenever (I think it was) with Captain Eddy. Every day they left us the Viking Daily about the next day and our itinerary. We also had daily briefings to go over this, usually right before dinner. Only one day did we get fancy towel animals :( Wish I had more of those, but Dustin and I got two swans. Alison and Jeremy got a piggy that was holding their iPod lol. A couple of the waiters were our favorite and we sat at the same table nearly every time we could. Denitsa and Pavlin were my favorites, but Mihai and Marlon also helped us a few times. We talked to Pavlin about working on the ship and he stays there for several months. Nearly a whole year. I think he said they only get 3 months off or something. Basically he said where he was from there aren't many options for working, making money, and seeing the world. So many of them when they are young will go work on cruise ships and stuff like that. The shuttle buses they used were amazing! We actually didn't even find out everything they did until the second to last day lol. The seats reclined back and moved over to separate yourself a bit from the person next to you. They had little tables that come down with a cup holder like on an airplane. A little bathroom which I never ended up using. TV screens and a PA system for them to tell us cool stories about the area while we traveled. The cabins in the boat were pretty good. The TV came with a bunch of TV stations, all of Downton Abbey, and several movies. We watched Sound of Music one night and Dustin said I was sleep singing.

Kinderdijk: The next day was the windmills. These are the older kinds made of wood with a little house inside. We didn't wear our "Quiet Vox" ear pieces because we thought we would be able to hear the lady just fine. But it turns out she talks and walks at the same time and unless you wanna stand next to her all day you wouldn't be able to hear her. So we learned our lesson and wore them from then on. The windmills had cute little bed closets in them for the family to sleep in. Nowadays they have people live in them and take care of them, but one was a museum for us to go in. We found our first coin machine and Alison was thrilled since she has a collection of these! Then they took us in this room to talk about the windmills and the wood they use. It was neat to see how they reused the old wood for furniture and things. Back on the boat for safety drill and lunch. Had the dutch cheese soup which was amazing! Kind of like our beer cheese soup here actually. Then had a cheese tasting (Edam, gouda, and maasdammer) with more of the Jenever that we had in Amsterdam. After that they served the "tea" which I think was really coffee with some kind of liquor in it. Dinner this night was amazing! Well I can't really remember which night we had what, but if I'm right I think this was Chateaubriand night! I LOVE Chateaubriand!! Alison ordered this as well, but didn't know it came med-rare and wouldn't eat it... so I got two portions! In fact many of the nights I had two portions because they would just bring me whatever I wanted. I got made fun of for this, but I only gained 3 pounds on this trip! After dinner there was a German language lecture which we only half listened to.

Koln (Cologne): We went on a tour of the city this morning. They said the shops are normally closed on Sundays but since there was a chocolate festival a bunch would be opened. We didn't see much in the way of chocolate, but I was glad the shops were opened. This is where they have a padlock bridge, where couples put a padlock on the gate and then throw the keys into the river. I have heard of several other bridges, but this one seems like the most famous. Both couple did this and it was kinda neat. Maybe someday our kids or grandkids will come and try to find our lock :) I heard sometimes they have to clear them... I hope this is not true. The tour guide sang us a song, but I can only remember one part of it, "de lust!", because she did a funny dance when she said it. We saw the Dom, big cathedral, but did not go in. The tour ended with this cool kids story about the Elves of Cologne and a statue made for it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinzelmännchen Check it out if you want to; I thought the story was neat. Back to the ship for lunch. Lots of yummy creamy french style soups were served at lunches. Tomato, spinach, cauliflower. Yummy! So then, we went to the Museum Ludwig, a modern art museum. Lots of walking, interesting pieces, some I didn't understand at all, others were very thought provoking. We had a good discussion at dinner about some of the stand out pieces. Then we actually met up with our friend Shaefer! We met him several years ago at the Gainesville Ren Faire which he started to work with us when he was like 14! We only see him once every 1-2 years, but he is living in Germany now for an internship and wanted to meet up. We went to a bar that our tour guide recommended. We thought about eating dinner there but couldn't really understand what we were ordering. Shaefer was trying to help, but we ended up going back to boat to eat later. And since we decided not to eat there the waiter said we couldn't sit in the restaurant. We had to go stand outside if we wanted just beer. Also the beer places are kind of strange. Most only have three beers. One kolsh (the beer that is made in Koln) and one or two seasonal beers. The second bar we went to was a lot of fun. Good beers- we had Chimay Blue. I guess we got there early though because eventually it was packed with people standing. Dinner that night was the veal tenderloin I think and was super yummy. We went back out thinking we were going to drink more, try more bars, but we ended up going to the Dom again. At night it was light up and very pretty. We couldn't get inside, as they had locked the doors. We tried to find a bar that the tour guide recommended again but it was so packed and we didn't feel like standing after so much walking. Back to the boat we went!

Marksburg Castle: This was the only castle we got to go inside and have a tour in so therefore I liked it a whole lot! Lots of cool tiny doors, little niches, small furniture, etc! There were some cannons, an armor room, a bathroom that was right over the garden, and a teeny stairway up to the top. It was one of the only castles on the Rhine that hasn't needed to be restored. It is located on this high top and so wasn't attacked much during the wars. This tour said you should be in very good physical condition... well some people with canes even tried to do it all. One lady did most of it, but couldn't make it up the teeny stairs. This company really focuses on mostly older people. We were definitely the youngest on the ship. We went back to the ship and had lunch. On this day they had a special lunch. It was a buffet of special German foods. I was not thrilled with the mostly sausage and dark meat selection, so I went downstairs and ordered the beef stroganoff from the restaurant which was delicious. After lunch we sat in my favorite spot under the heater in the front for the only "scenic river cruising" of the cruise. During this we saw many castles and cute little towns. Lutz, the program director, did a cometary and told us a lot about the castles and history and German things which was cool. There was a pair of castles that two brothers owned that hated each other. They built a wall in between the two. One stole the others girlfriend while he was away at war I think. There was another pair of castles called the Cat and Mouse castles. These were not very close to each other though. Some of the castles were hotels you could stay in. One was a school for kids now... lucky kids.

Rudesheim: This was the same day as Markburg. After the scenic river cruising we had Rudesheimer Kaffee, which was coffee and brandy in a fancy cup. When sold the cups have the recipe on them. Melt some brown sugar, pour brandy in, the coffee, then top with whipped cream and chocolate powder. Yum! There was a galley tour which we forgot to sign up for :( Then we arrived in Rudesheim (I think this is the same as Drosselgasse). They took us on a walking tour, but we stopped it early to go in some shops. This town, however, was mostly closed. Only like 10 max shops and restaurants were open. Very dull and we were the only tourists there. Some people went on a little train tour with dinner included, but we ate dinner on the boat. Pork tenderloin I think. Pavlin and Denitsa helped us find a cool bar to go to after dinner. They said the crew sometimes goes there. No one showed up by the time we left, but it was indeed a cool bar. It was a scottish bar that had cool little rooms you could sit in. Pretty good beer. They played a mix of music, but mostly it was American music from the 80s-90s. Back to boat to sleep!

Heidelberg: This town was my favorite! There is an old castle on the hill, and below there is a very active college town. It is the oldest college in Germany I believe. They also have a cool red stone bridge that goes across the river to these neat large houses. The tour guide said the red stone is from the mountains surrounding the area and is very soft. They have to repair the bridge very often and the castle, which is also made of this stone, has had to have several repairs and is mostly in ruin. We did get to go into one room of the castle which was the wine barrel room! This is the largest barrel I have ever, or will ever see. There are stairs up to the top of it. It has its own room. There is a little door at the bottom that they used to put a child inside to go and clean the inside of the barrel. They would tie a rope around the child so that they could pull it out in case it passed out from the alcohol fumes inside. Crazy! In this castle the toilet dropped into the mote... a little smarter than the last castle I think. The guy who originally built the castle loved lions, so there was a lot of lion decorations. The big houses around the town were mostly fraternities for the college. Once you graduate you have to continue to pay to help the upkeep of the house. The students that live there only pay 150 EUR per month. Very cheap! They said they frat guys would often have sword duels and still do in this building across the river. There are only two sororities in the entire city of all these big frat houses. I never had a sorority house pointed out to me, but I hope they are huge since there's only two of them. The college had an old student prison that was very cool. When students got in trouble they were sentenced to the prison. They had to stay at least 3 days there. The first two days they had to eat only bread and water and had to pay for blankets and other things. The third day they could have friends come in and bring them food. Some people had to stay there for up to 4 weeks! They were allowed to go to class, but otherwise had to stay in the prison. Eventually it became a right of passage sort of, and everyone wanted to spend at least three days in the prison. They would draw graffiti on the walls. It was very cool. We tasted some yummy white chocolate liquor that I bought to have later in the states (more on this in a bit). We had breakfast early this day, so we had a snack in town. Some thick pizza thing that we could walk with. I found a statue I wanted of leo woman but ended up not buying it. Didn't want to ship it and would worry about it breaking. Found it cheaper online, so this is fine :) Back to the boat for lunch and cast off.

Speyer: Later that afternoon we got to Speyer and went on a walking tour. Saw another cathedral that was big and pretty. Went walking down their main street which had a lot of shops open. We went in several. We ended up buying some good wine, though we only drank one of the bottles on the ship. It was a grauburgunder (gray burgundy) which is dry like pinot gris, though it was in a Riesling type bottle. I kept the bottle because the artwork on it was local to Speyer. Then we went to this cool looking bar that made local beer. We tried all three and they were all very good. The guys bought a couple small growlers to drink on the ship (they got tired of having the same beer... spoiled beer snobs :p) and so we can keep the growlers at home. Back to ship for another cast off. I think maybe this is the night I had the ricotta and spinach cannelloni as well as the roast beef. Dustin's looked so good and I mentioned it to Pavlin and he said he would bring me one :) I shared with everyone though, so it wasn't just me eating two whole meals lol.

Strasbourg: This was our only French city and was very fun! We went on the walking tour and went to the "Little France" area. Apparently this area changed nationalities from German to France like 5 times and some parts are more German and others are more French. Some families even got separated during all this changing and had to fight against each other in WWII. Anyway, we explored the French part. Saw their big cathedral, Notre Dam. Bought some yummy snacks and then had lunch in a little restaurant. Alison and Jeremy got what I thought were little pizzas originally, but turned out to be the onion pie they told us we HAD to try while in Strasbourg. Dustin also got an amazing thing; it was like hash browns, cheese, and sausage. I got the onion soup which was okay, but honestly I like Bouchon's better here in Asheville. Alison and I finally got some pinot gris which they make in the area. The shops were already setting up for the Christmas markets they do in Germany and I guess also France. We did more touring and shopping then had a snack. I got a cheese crepe and the rest got some street food. Jeremy, Dustin, and I got some local beers which were good. Took a shuttle back through the city which was much more modern than what we toured. That night for dinner I also had the onion soup, which was good. I didn't really like anything on the featured menu, so I had the New York Strip which was always available and it was very good. After dinner we stayed up, drank our wine and beer that we bought in Speyer and sang with Laslo the piano man! I sang "Someone Like You" (Adele) and "Wannabe" (Spice Girls), and Dustin sang "Stairway to Heaven" (Led Zeppelin). I think it was this night that Captain Eddy was hanging out downstairs and had Laslo sing "You Are So Beautiful" (Joe Cocker) to me.

Black Forest: This was most a bus tour that made a couple spots. Dustin particularly liked this tour because we were in the mountains and it had just snowed the day before. Very beautiful. We stopped at a little town to see their cathedral and then got back on the bus. They took us to a little shopping area that had glassblowers, cuckoo clock makers and, of course, black forest cake. We didn't much time here in this shopping place. We wanted to have time to hike a bit in the forest but we couldn't. There was a couple optional excursions when we got back to the boat but we didn't go on them. We walked around Breisach instead. There was a creapy church up on their hill. The city reminded me of Minas Tirith in The Lord of the Rings how it circles up and up. Well we went up to the church which actually quite pretty until we noticed the scary paintings on the wall. Lots of demons terrorizing people. We wondered if they did that to make people want to sit up front away from the paintings. After the church we got some coffee (which they served with a straw for some reason) and the guys got beer. Then we walked to this old ruin-type place. There were some people's houses that had ruins and stairs in their backyards which I thought was cool. There was also a vinyard all up in the ruins. Also cool looking. After this we did some shopping and went back to the boat to pack.

Captain's Farewell Dinner: The last dinner was SUPER fancy. Five courses. I had the potato cake with caviar. The caviar was not good by itself but was very good with the potato! They then served two things we couldn't choose: mushroom soup and then mullet with pea puree. The soup was good even though I don't like mushrooms but the mullet was not good. Even Dustin didn't like it and he likes fish. Then for the main course I had filet mignon with fois gras. I tried the fois gras and tasted fine, but I felt bad for the ducks and didn't eat it. Then dessert was a yummy chocolate delight cake! I wanted to stay up a bit after dinner because I didn't want it to be over... but eventually I went back to our room to sleep because we had to be up early.

Long Flight #2: We didn't spend much time in Basel at all. We got to the airport at like 7am. I was silly and forgot to put the white chocolate liquor we bought in my checked bag and of course they caught it in my carry on in security. Oops! So I had to go back downstairs and check that bag as well. I was afraid they would break all the glass that was in there but it came out fine, thank God! We had a short flight over to Munich where we had to go through security again. This time it was VERY strict. They opened everyones bag and had everyone get a pat down. The lady went up underneath my shirt! Alison was laughing at me a lot but then when it was her turn the lady felt her up a bunch too. Then the metal detector kept going off in one of Alison's shoes where they found a toe ring that she forgot about. Was very funny lol. The second long flight was much better than the first. Since we were getting into Charlotte at 330pm, I didn't feel the need to fall asleep like I did on the first flight. So I stayed up and watched lots of movies. They had iPad shaped TV screens for us on this flight, and mine worked this time! A lot more options of TV and movies as well as fun games! The seats were also more comfortable and I think with more space. Great flight back.

Overall, I loved Viking and the Rhine! I loved all the countries that we visited and would love to see more of them! It was an amazing trip and a great way to start our marriage!