Thread: Rhein cruises
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Old September 21st, 2016, 05:18 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Erilar
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Default Rhein cruises

-hh wrote:
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


Saved this for future reference, thanks 8-)

--
biblioholic medievalist via iPad