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Rhein cruises



 
 
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  #61  
Old September 21st, 2016, 05:18 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Erilar
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 599
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
  #62  
Old September 21st, 2016, 05:18 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Erilar
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 599
Default Rhein cruises

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.



Also depends on cruise line and proximity to large cities for wi-fi. Voice
of experience 8-)

--
biblioholic medievalist via iPad
  #63  
Old September 21st, 2016, 06:59 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
tim...[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 46
Default Rhein cruises


"-hh" wrote in message
...
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


Not exactly a trip down the Rhine though (even as in, a drive along the
banks) is it?

tim



  #64  
Old September 21st, 2016, 10:20 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
-hh
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 420
Default Rhein cruises

tim... wrote:
"-hh" wrote:
[...]
I think our overall route was something like this:
[google map link]


Not exactly a trip down the Rhine though (even as in,
a drive along the banks) is it?


There was some of that too, basically one or two days
of the overall trip ... the Rhine just didn't happen
to be this particular trip's primary focus, which had
been Christmas Markets (late Nov/early Dec timeframe).

In any case, I do recall that one of our daytrips out
of Bacharach was to drive over to St Goar and tour
through Burg Rheinfels. Might have done this on the
afternoon of our flight from the USA?

A second daytrip from Bacharach took the Kaub car ferry
across the river (free view of the Pfalzgrafenstein
castle in the middle of the river), then stopped briefly
to see the Blucher monument in Kaub (my wife is a
descendent). Then drove up to the top of the Loreley
for a view, then along the river to Ehrenbreitstein
Fortress (across the river from Koblenz) for a tour.
Crossed back at Koblenz & returned to Bacharach.

FWIW, this loop didn't include anything in Koblenz, such
as Deutsches Eck (park where the Rhine & Mosel meet), as
my parents had been taking their time & were getting tired.
Noted because there was more that a younger/faster visitor
could have included...the old city center of Koblenz also
has an older church which is worth a few minutes, as well
as the Electoral Palace (sorry, haven't been there to know
anything about it).

FWIW, along the Mosel, I've also visited Burg Eltz and
Ehrenburg castle. IIRC, the former was mostly just a
guided tour, where the latter was self-guided. Looks like
their websites today a eltz.de & ehrenburg.de

The Mosel is a pretty riverside drive too, although it is
quite twisty-windy. We rented an apartment-style room in
Zell at the Weingut F.J. Weis (weingut-weis.de), which is
a winery a few yards from where Rt. 421 meets with Rt. 53.
They still offer rooms, so if I was traveling by car through
the area, I'd stay there again ... can buy wine downstairs
& then sit out on the balcony before going out to dinner g.


-hh
  #65  
Old September 23rd, 2016, 10:46 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Erilar
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 599
Default Rhein cruises

-hh wrote:
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.

Or there's a long stretch with no cities of any size, as could happen on
the Danube 8-)

--
biblioholic medievalist via iPad
  #66  
Old September 25th, 2016, 07:37 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Erilar
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 599
Default Rhein cruises

Martin wrote:
On Fri, 23 Sep 2016 16:46:23 -0500, Erilar wrote:

-hh wrote:
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.

Or there's a long stretch with no cities of any size, as could happen on
the Danube 8-)


When are you planning to have your cruise? It's perfect wine festival weather
ATM. If do it by car, I can recommend staying in Spay about 10 miles upstream
from Koblenz. It's in a bend in the river ore or less opposite Marksburg, as a
result it is one of the few places on the river in the gorge that doesn't have
trains passing close to hotel bedroom windows. At night the only noise is from
barges going upstream against the current.


Fall is wine time, but it's also my favorite time here in Wisconsin. Summer
is MUCH too touristy 8-(. Spring in Germany, on the other hand, is
Spargelzeit. Yum! My friend has never tasted the real thing!

Most of the cruises seem to race up or down the Rhein. I'm not interested
in zipping through stretches of river that don't include the parts I
particularly want to share with my friend, who is particularly interested
in my favorite stretches as well. We HAVE to spend a couple nights in
Mainz no matter what, hopefully pause briefly in Bingen, maybe visit my
first and enduring love, the Marksburg, and Köln would be nice. So far, the
only line that approaches this, has cabins with TWO comfortable chairs and
a window that opens(aka "French balcony”) is a German one. But I'm looking
at 2018, so I have lots of time to plan.
--
biblioholic medievalist via iPad
  #67  
Old February 28th, 2017, 02:30 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
[email protected]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 20
Default Rhein cruises

Hello,

Am Sonntag, 25. September 2016 20:37:54 UTC+2 schrieb Erilar:

Most of the cruises seem to race up or down the Rhein. I'm not interested
in zipping through stretches of river that don't include the parts I
particularly want to share with my friend, who is particularly interested
in my favorite stretches as well. We HAVE to spend a couple nights in
Mainz no matter what, hopefully pause briefly in Bingen, maybe visit my
first and enduring love, the Marksburg, and Köln would be nice. So far, the
only line that approaches this, has cabins with TWO comfortable chairs and
a window that opens(aka "French balcony”) is a German one. But I'm looking
at 2018, so I have lots of time to plan.


You might want to consider non-overnight Tourist Rhine ships as to be found on http://www.bingen-ruedesheimer.de/?lang=en or
https://www.k-d.com/en/cruises/
No cabins.

Best regards, ULF

  #68  
Old February 28th, 2017, 10:33 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Erilar
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 599
Default Rhein cruises

wrote:
Hello,

Am Sonntag, 25. September 2016 20:37:54 UTC+2 schrieb Erilar:

Most of the cruises seem to race up or down the Rhein. I'm not interested
in zipping through stretches of river that don't include the parts I
particularly want to share with my friend, who is particularly interested
in my favorite stretches as well. We HAVE to spend a couple nights in
Mainz no matter what, hopefully pause briefly in Bingen, maybe visit my
first and enduring love, the Marksburg, and Köln would be nice. So far, the
only line that approaches this, has cabins with TWO comfortable chairs and
a window that opens(aka "French balcony”) is a German one. But I'm looking
at 2018, so I have lots of time to plan.


You might want to consider non-overnight Tourist Rhine ships as to be
found on http://www.bingen-ruedesheimer.de/?lang=en or
https://www.k-d.com/en/cruises/
No cabins.

Best regards, ULF



I'm the problem, or that's exactly what I'd do and used to do before I
messed up my back. I can only walk a short distance before pausing, even
with a cane 8-(

--
biblioholic medievalist via iPad
 




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