Viking Rhine Getaway - Our photo intensive review on the Viking Ingvi, Summer 2014

[Lovetotraveltami]

Hi: Again thank you. Your report is so helpful. There are four of us traveling end of September 2015. We are thinking 2-3 nights in Germany, then two nights in Switzerland prior to boarding our boat for the cruise. Would 1.5 days be sufficient for Lucerne?

[cruisinskier]

Hi: Again thank you. Your report is so helpful. There are four of us traveling end of September 2015. We are thinking 2-3 nights in Germany, then two nights in Switzerland prior to boarding our boat for the cruise. Would 1.5 days be sufficient for Lucerne?

 

Hi Tami, your question is hard to answer as it really depends on what you are hoping to do in the 1.5 days. If you are looking to see the main sites of Lucerne similar to what we did, this is probably sufficient time. If you are wanting to see more of Lake Lucerne, visit the transport museum, etc, then you would need more time. Also if you wanted to do one of the mountain top visits (Pilatus, Titlus, etc), you would be entirely reliant upon whatever the weather was that day which will affect your visibility (we had this issue). So it really depends on what you want to see and how important seeing more of this area is to you in relation to other areas you want to visit on your trip. Hope that helps.

Jerry

[cruisinskier]

After our Mount Pilatus trip, we had a quick lunch and then decided to see a few more sites around Lucerne including a few more churches.

 

Church of St. Leodegar

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

Next we visited the Jesuit Church: http://lucerne.all-about-switzerland.info/lucerne-jesuitchurch.html

 

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

We made one more stop at the Chapel Bridge

 

 

Nearby there is a model of the city

 

 

And then we went back to the hotel, relaxed for a while and headed out for dinner. And finished off a great day by trying another beer...

 

 

Our time in Lucerne was coming to an end and tomorrow we would return to Basel for one night before heading to Paris....

[cruisinskier]

So our time in Lucerne had come to an end and we walked back to the train station and boarded our train to Basel.

 

We arrived back in Basel

 

 

We were staying at Hotel D, very close to where the Viking Ingvi had been docked

 

 

Lobby

 

 

Truly "pop art" in the lobby

 

[cruisinskier]

The rooms were very nice and highly recommended on Tripadvisor

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

Once we were settled into the hotel, we wandered some around Basel. It was very overcast and the rain was threatening....

 

The Rhine river, just down from where we had disembarked the Ingvi

 

 

 

 

Basel City Hall

 

 

[cruisinskier]

 

The trams are free with any hotel stay

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

We made our way to the Basel Cathedral

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At this point, the skies opened and it poured rain. We stayed in the Cathedral for a while but there was no sign of the rain letting up so we ventured back to the closest tram station and went back to the hotel. We ended up ordering in pizzas and playing cards in the lobby of Hotel D. After lots of running around, I think we were ready for a bit of down time. We played cards well into the evening and around 11:00am headed for bed. Tomorrow we had reservations on the train to head back to Paris!!!

[mimmy52]

Hi Cruisinskier,

 

What a great trip review! I hope you don't mind a couple of questions about your photos. Did you have to resize them to post them to cruise critic? And what photo hosting service did you use?

 

Thanks for any help.

[cruisinskier]

Hi Cruisinskier,

 

What a great trip review! I hope you don't mind a couple of questions about your photos. Did you have to resize them to post them to cruise critic? And what photo hosting service did you use?

 

Thanks for any help.

 

Hi Mimmy. I use Photobucket to host (upload) my photos which I have used here. I did not resize them, I just copied and pasted the link from Photobucket. Hope this helps.

Jerry

[mimmy52]

Thanks, Jerry. Yes, that helps.

[cruisinskier]

On we go....we were picked up at our hotel again by Patrick's Limousine Service

 

 

And we were back at the Basel train station one last time

 

 

For anyone looking to book trains in France, TGV is there national train service. http://www.sncf.com/en/trains/tgv

 

This site will also give you lots of info for train travel in Europe: http://www.seat61.com/

 

 

And we were on our way to Paris! (with Swiss chocolate!)

 

[cruisinskier]

We arrived at Gare de Lyon

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

We had arranged for Shuttle - Inter to meet us at the train station. http://www.shuttle-inter.com/?gclid=Cj0KEQjwpvufBRCwzp_zyqfkhrcBEiQA8b-SHGdfoHC18v2sVjtRnYCcWaN95QiIxWXAY0DZoT-uWY4aAv-28P8HAQ

 

They actually met us right on the train platform. It is always great to arrive in a city and have someone holding a sign with your name to escort you away.

 

And off we went to our Paris apartment which we had booked via Adrian Leeds, who we had used the year before in Nice. http://www.adrianleeds.com/parler-paris-apartments

 

This was our apartment based centrally in the Marais

 

 

So much better than a hotel room, we had this 3 bedroom flat which was the entire floor of the building

 

 

[cruisinskier]

I am not going to list our day by day agenda for our time in Paris. For those interested, last year was our first time in Paris and we spent a week doing all the touristy things....you can see the details here: http://bondfamilytravel.com/paris.html

 

I will post here some of our highlights...I will say that we had 3 full days of rain to end off our time in Paris. But once again it did not keep us from venturing out. So here are a few of our highlights from Paris!

 

The Seine at night

 

 

Notre Dame all lit up

 

 

Sacre Cour in Montmartre

 

 

And the Eiffel Tower as viewed from Sacre Cour

 

 

Moulin Rouge

 

[cruisinskier]

An afternoon in Jardin des Tuileries

 

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

The Rodin Museum - if you do not have a museum pass and want to go to the d'Orsay, there is a combo ticket that lets you jump the line at d'Orsay...all for only 1 euro more than the d'Orsay entrance fee! This was a great way to spend a rainy day and maximize our time instead of waiting in lines (research pays off again!!!)

 

 

Rodin's The Thinker

 

 

Musee d'Orsay

 

 

The old train station....now our favorite museum

 

[cruisinskier]

Checking out the artists along the Seine

 

 

A little bit of home!

 

 

Walking along the Seine

 

 

Notre Dame

 

 

 

Edited August 29, 2014 by cruisinskier

[cruisinskier]

A great place for dinner...we have also enjoyed the sister restaurant in New York City

 

 

All they serve is Steak Frites...when you eat this, they bring you a full second serving!

 

 

A few Eiffel Tower shots

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

What to do in Paris when it rains....

 

 

Arc de Triomphe

 

 

Climbing up!

 

 

The reason to climb the Arc at dusk....

 

 

The Champs-Élysées

 

[cruisinskier]

 

 

 

And on the hour, the twinkling of the tower lights!

 

[cruisinskier]

Around the Marais.....

 

 

 

 

Places des Vosges

 

 

Bastille

 

[cruisinskier]

One of the best things we did this trip was visit Palais Garnier. If you get a chance, visit this Opera House and do the self guided tour...splurge for the headphones!! http://visitepalaisgarnier.fr/en

 

 

 

 

The Chagall ceiling

 

 

 

The meeting hall....based on the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles