Rhein cruises
 

Martin wrote:
On Sat, 10 Sep 2016 13:41:50 -0500, Erilar wrote:

Martin wrote:
On Sun, 4 Sep 2016 15:03:39 -0500, Erilar wrote:

http://www.kdrhine.com/

I've considered that, but detest one-night hotel stays and living out of a
suitcase. It's one of the reasons I like taking my hotel and restaurant
along, aka river cruise. The problem for this trip is that the only
company offering a route and services I approve of, one I've particularly
liked in the past, is that it's German, which means its tours are in
German, and my friend doesn't speak German. Add this to my now-limited
walking ability so that I can only be her translator on wheeled excursions,
and we have a problem. What I could do five years ago is no longer possible
8-(

because it is German doesn't mean that tours are only in German, unless they say
so. Multilingual German tours and guides do exist. I've made visits to Rhine &
Mosel castles which had English speaking tour guides, for example, Cochem,
Marksburg, Stolzenfels and Kaub.IMO the advantages of being independent and
staying in a hotel outweigh having to sleep in a cramped cabin eating poor food
drinking cheap wine and being stuck with a bunch of people I don't like.

The cruises I've taken have all had excellent food, and unless the wine is
included, in which case I avoid the white(snob problem), it's often
possible to buy a bottle of something decent 8-)
With some companies cabin size is decent and can be checked out in advance.
Taking along a companion guarantees good company, and that's the current
plot.

--
biblioholic medievalist via iPad

Rhein cruises
 

On Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 2:28:29 PM UTC-4, Erilar wrote:
Martin wrote:
"Happy.Hobo" wrote:

While I still don't think cruises are worth the expense, I've never
heard anyone but you complain about the food.

Erilar complained about the food. I've never been on a cruise.

Odd. I don't recall complaining about the food. Eating arrangement
on the most recent one, definitely. The food itself was excellent.

Apologies for not reading rte for awhile. In breezing through, the
complaint I thought I read was on the level of quality of the wine.

In any event, I've DIY'ed and River Cruised the Rhine - both have their
advantages/disadvantages (unsurprisingly).

For EU river cruises, we used AMA Waterways on the Danube and
Uniworld on the Rhine (and Venice). Giving a quick broad brush,
I'd say that the table wine service was better on AMA than on Uni.

For the rivers themselves, we liked the Danube a bit better - - the
ports were more frequently "in town", requiring no bus transfer for
the included city walking tour routine. This freed us up a bit more
to strike out on our own (& at our own pace).

Uniworld did feature a "slow walkers" group which might be of some
interest here. Similarly, the Uniworld tour director also made arrangements
at times for taxis for some of the slow walkers to get them back to the boat.

FWIW, one thing with the river cruise companies - they often include a
complimentary pickup from the local airport on your day of arrival ... *IF*
said arrival day is the same as the boat's departure day. Arrive early and
you're on your own. We've done this both ways and one trick that did
work out pretty well was to fly to some city in EU that you want to visit
and spend a couple of days (jetlag recovery, etc). Then take a morning
flight ("puddle jumper") to whatever the arrival city is for the cruise and
they'll pick you up.

For DIYing, the last time that we did so were for a December Christmas
market tour for my parents (Dad was 80 at the time). Rented a car for
this and for the most part, arranged things to be able to drop them off
at the hotel, then go park the car ... found small places to stay down
near the Black Gate in Trier (Mosel River), in downtown Wursburg
(probably 2-3 blocks from the Residenze). A B&B in Bacharach on the
Rhine proper ... used the car to get around to see the various sights on
daytrips/stopovers. Also stayed in Rothenburg ob der Tabor .. think it
was the Guesthouse Griffin? It was ~1 block downhill from the main city
square & had parking inside their private courtyard.


-hh

Rhein cruises
 

On Sat, 17 Sep 2016, -hh wrote:

Also stayed in Rothenburg ob der Tabor ..

In three tents ? :-)

Rhein cruises
 

-hh wrote:
On Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 2:28:29 PM UTC-4, Erilar wrote:
Martin wrote:
"Happy.Hobo" wrote:

While I still don't think cruises are worth the expense, I've never
heard anyone but you complain about the food.

Erilar complained about the food. I've never been on a cruise.

Odd. I don't recall complaining about the food. Eating arrangement
on the most recent one, definitely. The food itself was excellent.

Apologies for not reading rte for awhile. In breezing through, the
complaint I thought I read was on the level of quality of the wine.

In any event, I've DIY'ed and River Cruised the Rhine - both have their
advantages/disadvantages (unsurprisingly).

For EU river cruises, we used AMA Waterways on the Danube and
Uniworld on the Rhine (and Venice). Giving a quick broad brush,
I'd say that the table wine service was better on AMA than on Uni.

For the rivers themselves, we liked the Danube a bit better - - the
ports were more frequently "in town", requiring no bus transfer for
the included city walking tour routine. This freed us up a bit more
to strike out on our own (& at our own pace).

Uniworld did feature a "slow walkers" group which might be of some
interest here. Similarly, the Uniworld tour director also made arrangements
at times for taxis for some of the slow walkers to get them back to the boat.

FWIW, one thing with the river cruise companies - they often include a
complimentary pickup from the local airport on your day of arrival ... *IF*
said arrival day is the same as the boat's departure day. Arrive early and
you're on your own. We've done this both ways and one trick that did
work out pretty well was to fly to some city in EU that you want to visit
and spend a couple of days (jetlag recovery, etc). Then take a morning
flight ("puddle jumper") to whatever the arrival city is for the cruise and
they'll pick you up.

For DIYing, the last time that we did so were for a December Christmas
market tour for my parents (Dad was 80 at the time). Rented a car for
this and for the most part, arranged things to be able to drop them off
at the hotel, then go park the car ... found small places to stay down
near the Black Gate in Trier (Mosel River), in downtown Wursburg
(probably 2-3 blocks from the Residenze). A B&B in Bacharach on the
Rhine proper ... used the car to get around to see the various sights on
daytrips/stopovers. Also stayed in Rothenburg ob der Tabor .. think it
was the Guesthouse Griffin? It was ~1 block downhill from the main city
square & had parking inside their private courtyard.


-hh


I wonder whether my friend would like to drive in Germany? Cities don't
drive her into a blue funk as they do me. . . It's not something I'd
considered. Hmmmm

--
biblioholic medievalist via iPad

Rhein cruises
 

Erilar wrote:
-hh wrote:
Erilar wrote:
Martin wrote:
"Happy.Hobo" wrote:

While I still don't think cruises are worth the expense, I've never
heard anyone but you complain about the food.

Erilar complained about the food. I've never been on a cruise.

Odd. I don't recall complaining about the food. Eating arrangement
on the most recent one, definitely. The food itself was excellent.

Apologies for not reading rte for awhile. In breezing through, the
complaint I thought I read was on the level of quality of the wine.

In any event, I've DIY'ed and River Cruised the Rhine - both have their
advantages/disadvantages (unsurprisingly).

For EU river cruises, we used AMA Waterways on the Danube and
Uniworld on the Rhine (and Venice). Giving a quick broad brush,
I'd say that the table wine service was better on AMA than on Uni.

For the rivers themselves, we liked the Danube a bit better - - the
ports were more frequently "in town", requiring no bus transfer for
the included city walking tour routine. This freed us up a bit more
to strike out on our own (& at our own pace).

Uniworld did feature a "slow walkers" group which might be of some
interest here. Similarly, the Uniworld tour director also made arrangements
at times for taxis for some of the slow walkers to get them back to the boat.

FWIW, one thing with the river cruise companies - they often include a
complimentary pickup from the local airport on your day of arrival ... *IF*
said arrival day is the same as the boat's departure day. Arrive early and
you're on your own. We've done this both ways and one trick that did
work out pretty well was to fly to some city in EU that you want to visit
and spend a couple of days (jetlag recovery, etc). Then take a morning
flight ("puddle jumper") to whatever the arrival city is for the cruise and
they'll pick you up.

For DIYing, the last time that we did so were for a December Christmas
market tour for my parents (Dad was 80 at the time). Rented a car for
this and for the most part, arranged things to be able to drop them off
at the hotel, then go park the car ... found small places to stay down
near the Black Gate in Trier (Mosel River), in downtown Wursburg
(probably 2-3 blocks from the Residenze). A B&B in Bacharach on the
Rhine proper ... used the car to get around to see the various sights on
daytrips/stopovers. Also stayed in Rothenburg ob der Tabor .. think it
was the Guesthouse Griffin? It was ~1 block downhill from the main city
square & had parking inside their private courtyard.

I wonder whether my friend would like to drive in Germany? Cities don't
drive her into a blue funk as they do me. . . It's not something I'd
considered. Hmmmm

If it helps, here's a rough cut at what I recall our itinerary was,
from roughly a decade ago. I've used Google to try to fill in some
of the gaps.

Arrived - Frankfort. Rental company was probably AutoEurope. Was
an Audi A6 Avant with turbo diesel. Nice car; averaged a respectable
27mpg over ~1000km, with stuff about equally split into thirds
on time (not mileage): 25mph city/urban, 45mph countryside, and
95+0mph Autobahn. Only complaint was that with five adults & bags,
it was tail-heavy, so the nose got a bit uncomfortably light when
cruising above 120mph, especially in the rain.

I think our overall route was something like this:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Airp...50.0379326!3e0

In case that doesn't come up, its
FRA
Bacharach (on the Rhine)
Trier
Widdern (day stop)
Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Bamburg (day stop)
Wurzburg
FRA

For hotel specifics, I think we originally found most of
these through the Rick Steves guidebooks.

Bacharach:
Pension Lettie
Address: Kranenstraße 6, 55422 Bacharach, Germany
Phone: +49 6743 2115

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pe...99!4d7.7685024

Parking for Bacharach is outside of the city wall, near
the Rhine river. IIRC, they started to charge a nominal fee.

FYI, I've also stayed at "Kranenturm" here too, but prefer
Lettie (great hostess too!). Kranenturm is on top of the train
tracks. Makes for an interesting dinner on the patio, but even
if you ask to be put on the "quiet side" of their building,
their proximity is now only 20ft away & can still wake you up.

Trier:
Altstadt-Hotel (today: $145/night)
Porta-Nigra-Platz 6, 54292 Trier, Germany

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Al...19!4d6.6447303

My recollection of parking here was that it was (included?)
around a block around the back of the hotel .. on Rindertanzstrasse?

Rothenburg:
Guesthouse Griffin (today: $56/night)
(parking was on site, although a tight squeeze)
Obere Schmiedgasse 5, 91541 Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany

gasthof-greifen-rothenburg.de

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ho...1!4d10.1796222

Wurzburg

Sorry, can't recall the name of the place. I did find
a dinner receipt from "Bürgerspital Weinstuben", so
that was within walking distance.

I do recall that we parked in front to unload, and then
the car "disappeared" into a parking garage ... I don't
remember the garage, so I want to say that they hotel
staff did a "valet parking" for this?

In general, I'd simply find a likely hotel/pension in
the place I'm looking at staying, then specifically asking
them about where a car can be parked.

Finally, all of this was done in the days of paper maps
(Michelin & MapQuest) for the human navigator, before the
electronic devices which know (in real time) just where you
are and can give tailored turn-by-turn instructions, so it
all would be a lot easier to do today.

Hope this helps...and if you want to make it an expensive
trip, do a European Delivery for a new BMW, Mercedes, Audi
or Porsche ;-)


-hh

Rhein cruises
 

On 8/29/2016 11:54 AM, poldy wrote:

Not to mention, in this day and age, being cut off from Internet,
phones, etc. for swaths of time?

On a river cruise through Europe? Not hardly. I know there's widespread
4G LTE throughout Germany and elsewhere.

Rhein cruises
 

On 9/19/2016 12:44 PM, -hh wrote:

Arrived - Frankfort. Rental company was probably AutoEurope.
[...] Only complaint was that with five adults & bags,
it was tail-heavy, so the nose got a bit uncomfortably light when
cruising above 120mph, especially in the rain.

Maybe there should be a little less of the lead foot if it was
like that at 120 mph - or was that 120 km/h?

Rhein cruises
 

On 9/20/16 5:11 AM, Talis Mann wrote:
On 8/29/2016 11:54 AM, poldy wrote:

Not to mention, in this day and age, being cut off from Internet,
phones, etc. for swaths of time?

On a river cruise through Europe? Not hardly. I know there's widespread
4G LTE throughout Germany and elsewhere.


I don't know the itinerary of these river cruises but between big towns,
there's no coverage or it reverts to 2G.

Rhein cruises
 

poldy wrote:
Talis Mann wrote:
poldy wrote:
Not to mention, in this day and age, being cut off from Internet,
phones, etc. for swaths of time?

On a river cruise through Europe? Not hardly. I know there's widespread
4G LTE throughout Germany and elsewhere.

I don't know the itinerary of these river cruises but between big towns,
there's no coverage or it reverts to 2G.

The ships typically have free wifi, although it often will
get slammed when the passengers get back onboard.


-hh

Rhein cruises
 

Talis Mann wrote:
-hh wrote:

Arrived - Frankfort. Rental company was probably AutoEurope.
[...] Only complaint was that with five adults & bags, it
was tail-heavy, so the nose got a bit uncomfortably light when
cruising above 120mph, especially in the rain.

Maybe there should be a little less of the lead foot if it was
like that at 120 mph - or was that 120 km/h?

Granted, the limited sections are now typically 120kph (75mph)
limits, but the "120" here was listed in units of mph, not kph.

If memory serves, the first good free run was to 225kph, but as
this lightness manifested, discretion concluded that the free
sections which occurred later were kept down to just 180-200kph max.

Initially, it was a bit of a disappointment as this A6 had a nicer
motor than our Audi at home, but after unpacking the boot at the
first hotel stop, I then realized just how much baggage everyone
had packed saw that it was weight imbalance problem, not design.

-hh