Christmas along the Rhine 2018

The company we travel with is Grand Circle Travel http://www.gct.com

Day 1 – December 3rd 2018 – Depart from America

Day 2 December 4th – Arrive in Basel, Switzerland – Embark ship

This morning we arrived at the Basel airport, we where transferred to the pier to embark your river ship. From Basel, located where Switzerland, Germany, and France all meet, ships can navigate the Rhine all the way to the North Sea.

Day 3 December 5th – Breisach Germany

This morning, we sailed toward Breisach, Germany, set just on the edge of the Black Forest.

Upon arrival we headed into Alsace, on the French side of the Rhine, to visit Kaysersberg. This was the birthplace of Albert Schweitzer, the great humanitarian and recipient of the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize, who is famous for his philosophy of “reverence for life” and his work in Africa. We visited Dr. Schweitzer’s former home, now a museum, where his study is preserved exactly as he last used it in 1959.

Day 4 December 6th – Strasbourg

Day 5 December 7th – Speyer

We visited Speyer Technical Museum https://speyer.technik-museum.de/en/ 

In the evening we visited a local Christmas market.

Day 6 December 8th – Heidelberg Tour

The earliest castle structure was built before 1214 and later expanded into two castles circa 1294; however, in 1537, a lightning bolt destroyed the upper castle. The present structures had been expanded by 1650, before damage by later wars and fires. In 1764, another lightning bolt caused a fire which destroyed some rebuilt sections.

Views from the castle.

Day 7 December 9th – Mainz

We enjoyed a walking tour of Mainz in the morning and in the evening visited the local Christmas market.

Day 8 December 10th – Rhine River Valley

Today, the ship cruises along some of the most beautiful and inspiring parts of the Rhine as you sail for Koblenz. views of the castles from the sun deck (only 5 degrees C) were fantastic. Below is a map with all the castle which we could see from the boat as we cruised on the Rhine.

Day 9 December 11th – Koblenz

We spent the whole day walking in Koblenz visiting the Christmas Markets and buying souvenirs.

Day 10 December 12th – Cologne

As always we are moored right in the center of the city.

Day 11 December 13th – Nijmegen (Operation Market Garden)

Day 12 December 14th – Amsterdam

We arrived in Amsterdam around midnight, it’s time to pack the suitcases because we leave the boat in 12 hours.

This was the final picture of our 2018 Christmas river cruise on the Rhine.

We spent 4 days in Amsterdam, staying in our usual hotel American Hotel Amsterdam.

Okay the vacation is over, a 1 hour flight to Frankfurt then a 10 hour 50 minute flight to Seattle, pickup the cats from their resort http://www.paradisepetlodge.com/boarding/cat.aspx