We went on a Viking river cruise from Prague to Paris. Actually the river part was Nuremberg to Trier, both in Germany, and we were bussed from Prague to Nurenburg and Trier to Paris, so in terms of distance I think we were on busses more than the rivers. But the river parts were more fun. We were on the ship Alsvin, shown below first in a Viking photo, then one from our trip. In the latter the very bow is not visible, but the stern is and the starbord version of our cabin 340, which was on the port side, occupies the back veranda. The next window forward is into the bedroom. This was one of the two fanciest cabins on the ship, called Explorer Suites. We ended up in this because we were originally scheduled to take a cruise in 2020, but it got canceled due to the pandemic. Viking offered our money back or a voucher for 125% of the cost of the canceled cruise. We took the voucher, and since they were giving us a bunch of credit we upgraded to their best cabin. Of course we loved it, and we have booked another Explorer Suite for a cruise next year.
Following are some pictures from within our cabin. Pretty sweet, huh? In the last picture that's the Viking ship Vili following us. They are the same kind of ship as ours. Both are 443 ft long, carry a crew of 50, and accomodate a maximum of 190 passengers -- although we had more like 150. With that passenger to crew ratio the service is absolutely first rate, as was everything about the cruise. Viking is very, very efficient and takes superb care of the passengers. Another thing we didn't entirely expect. We took an Alaska cruise some years ago on a big ship holding thousands of passengers. Although we enjoyed the cruise a lot, we never really got to know anyone except the two nice ladies we were assigned to eat with at the dining hall. In the Viking ship, however, we ate with different people many meals and although we didn't get to know all 150 passengers we did a fair number of them. All the social encounters were friendly, and some people we really got along with very well and formed some sort of bond. Including a woman whose real name is Kathy, but I insisted on calling her Beth because she looks and acts a lot like a relative named Beth whom we both like a lot.
We had a three day extension in Prague before the cruise.
We took an excursion to the Czech town of Kutna Hora and saw the Gothic St. Barbara church. It has really nice Art Deco stained glass windows and there is a big vineyard below it on the hill. And an interesting sculpture that is part bird, part auto. There is also a chapel called Sedlec Ossuary which is adorned with thousands of human bones, but they didn't allow photos. It was quite strange. And a Kutna Hora crest, here adorning a building, showing on the lower right a crow pecking out the eyes of a dead Turkish soldier. These Czechs, a laugh a minute.
Back to Prague, we took a taxi to a Mucha exhibit that was supposedly up by the castle. Unfortunately it had moved out the day before and was now in a different buiding down by the river. You can see the river in the second shot taken from the castle. So we walked through the castle and down the seemingly endless steps to the river level. The exhibit contained not only the familiar type of Mucha posters and paintings but also things we didn't know he did -- like sculpture. The painting after the sculpture is of his wife and the next one is part of a huge mult-panel painting called "Slav Epic". After the exhibit we walked down the river to the hotel -- so it was a day with a lot of walking. The second to last picture shows Debby crossing the bridge over the river with the castle above, the last a Dali sculpture we came across on the way.
We were on three rivers: the Maine (pronounced "mine"), the Rhine, and the Moselle -- the first two going downstream, the last upstream. There were lots of locks on all these rivers -- we were told that we went through 43 locks and I can believe it. Sometimes the ship would lurch in the middle of the night when water rushing in or out of the lock pushed the ship against the side of the lock.
At this point I get a little confused. We went to Miltenberg, which is both the name of a town and also a district that the town is in. The town of Miltenberg contains a castle called Mildenburg. The district of Miltenberg contains a town named Amorbach, containing Amorbach Abbey which has a fairly famous organ. I'm not positive which church is shown below, but I think it is Amorbach Abbey. I'm sure that the harvest display was in that church, in which we heard an excellent organ recital. The Bélier Toccata is a real barn-burner. The harvest display makes it clear that this is a functioning church, not just a display for tourists like some of the famous churches in Paris.
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And now down the Rhine. This is the most picturesque part of the water journey, with castles every couple miles. I guess that all these little kingdoms were fighting with each other and needed defensible positions. We were also told in multiple towns that they put a chain across the river and forced all the merchant ships to unload their cargos for inspection, sale, and taxation. It must have been tough having to unload the ship every few miles. The second to last picture is interesting. It seems that during the war the allies agreed not to bomb ancient structures. So the Nazis built fake ancient structures at the entrances to their military tunnels.
On to Cochem (the 'ch" pronounced as in "Bach" or "Chonukah"). A pretty town on a hill with a very nice castle. These places are old. It was first settled in 866 and I believe the castle was built in the 14th century, as were probably many of the castles on the Rhine.
On to Paris by bus, first stopping at the American Cemetery in Luxembourg. The first map is of the Normandy invasion, the second of the Battle of the Bulge.
In Paris. The second picture is a little park behind Notre Dame which is in the background.
And finally a visit to Monet's house and stunning gardens in Giverny.
