MDPastor

Thank you for the discussion on this thread, particularly Notamermaid's very helpful reports. We were on the Rhine Getaway (Basel to Amsterdam) last week and it really helped to be prepared for what may come. We had a wonderful time, and perhaps if we hadn't been mentally prepared for the ship swap it would have been more disruptive. As it was, the cruise was normal from Basel to Strasburg. The night after touring Strasburg (probably our favorite place on the trip, BTW!), we were instructed to have our luggage packed and in the hall at 8:30 the next day. At 9 we boarded buses for Speyer, and after the guided Excursion we had 2:30 to tour on our own. That sounds like a lot but we spent most of it in a delightful beer garden under a shady tree eating lunch and of course drinking beer. Viking gave us 25 Euros apiece (credited on our final bill) for lunch or whatever we wanted to spend it on. Then we were bused about 2:15 to Braubach, where we boarded the Mani right under Marksburg Castle - a great view from the ship! Our luggage was waiting for us in the "same" room we had on the Eir. That night, we sailed to Koblenz. The next morning we toured the castles in the Rhine Gorge on a smaller boat. We were greeted with coffee and pastry. I understand there were drinks and other food available as well (maybe free?), but we stayed up on the top deck not wanting to miss any of the scenery. After that it was back to Koblenz and the schedule continued as "normal" - included excursion of Koblenz in the afternoon, then free time until the ship sailed at about midnight. Then on to Cologne - the only hitch was not being able to dock under the Cathedral bridge, but there were every half-hour shuttles to get into town. The only thing that was missed was Rudesheim, which is a shame but all things considered not as bad as it could have been. Viking made everything as smooth as possible. (And we got extra champagne - a welcome and farewell toast on both the Eir and the Mani!)

On a positive note, I've been tracking the Viking Eir since we're supposed to get on it Friday in Basel. With the water levels and reports of folks being transferred, I wondered if the Eir would make it to Basel from Amsterdam this week. Yesterday, it looks like The Eir successfully got through the Rhine Gorge. I know it doesn't mean anything for our trip next week because river levels change, but it is at least hopeful.

We are flying into Zurich a day early for our river cruise from Basel in a couple of weeks. With air travel so messed up, we decided to fly into Zurich rather than Basel because we didn't want to chance a connection - we could get a direct flight there as opposed to having to transfer somewhere to get to Basel. Trains run every hour from Zurich to Basel so getting to the cruise the next day shouldn't be a hassle. We're looking forward to having a day to explore Zurich and recover some from the time change. The Zurich Airport has both trains and trolleys that run into the city.