In one week I will be embarking on my first (European) river cruise. I will be traveling on the Rhine river from Basel, Switzerland to Amsterdam, Netherlands. I’ve been to Amsterdam before, but not Switzerland. Before the cruise I will take a few scenic trains through Switzerland, including the Glacier Express. Hopefully the skies…
I’m on my first flight which is from Houston (IAH) – New York City Laguardia (LGA)… later I will then transfer to JFK for a flight to Zurich, Switzerland. Amazingly enough I was upgraded to first class on the flight to NYC. Delta’s International Contract of Carriage pays for the transfer between the LGA and…
My transfer between LGA and JFK in New York City yesterday was uneventful (uneventful is a good thing). My airplane landed a little early this morning (7:14 AM instead of 8:05 AM). I managed to get some sleep on the plane (probably more than I did the night before when I was packing for the…
I didn’t get as early a start as I wished, but daylight only started at 7:10 AM. I got the 8:11 train to Brig (off at Visp) from Montreux. In Visp I got on the 9:41 AM train to Zermatt. Interestingly enough although I was on the train for an hour no…
Today’s train is the Glacier Express which leaves at 7:52 AM. I got up early and took some more photos of the Matterhorn before the sun was fully up. This was the best time to take the photo because it was not harsh light. Only a few more minutes later and the sunlight was…
I woke up this morning to find a light dusting of snow. It was still lightly raining. I walked to the lake and took some photos of St. Moritz. I walked back to the hotel and had breakfast (was included) and they provided a shuttle to the train station. I actually got to…
This morning we explored Basel. We went to the city gate first via tram. We then walked around the area and found the Rathaus (City Hall). The building stood out from all the others because of it’s color and decoration. We then walked to the Basel Gothic church. We used our Swiss…
This morning we arrived at the dock in Breisach, Germany much earlier than expected. The ships did have to rearrange themselves in the morning before we disembarked. Our morning walking tour of Breisach, Germany started at 9:30 AM. We walked up a hill to a nice cathedral and the town hall. The cathedral…
Today we docked in Strasbourg, France. We got on the bus at 9 AM for the tour. They took us by bus for a panoramic tour and dropped us in the city for a walking tour. The walking tour took us to the most scenic areas of the city. We entered the Cathedral and watched…
This morning we arrived in Speyer, Germany. We took a bus to Heidelberg, Germany. The first stop we made after the journey was to the castle in the middle of the hill. It was an impressive building. There was a wine barrel that held 58,000 gallons of wine in the wine cellar. After…
The ship stayed docked in Rhudesheim, Germany until 9:00 AM. I walked briskly through the town to get a few photos in the daylight. It was quite foggy as we were departing, which worried us that we wouldn’t get to see the best scenery on the cruise. Luckily within minutes the fog lifted. It…
This morning we arrived in Koln (Cologne), Germany. We started the morning with a 90 minutes walking tour of the city. There was a special pilgrimage occuring at the Cathedral, so it was difficult to explore. We visit St. Martin;s church and the Roman ruins under the church during our free time. After lunch…
This morning we arrived in Amsterdam, Netherlands. We docked not too far from the central train station. There was an MSC ship docked at the port when we arrived. It left shortly after 9:00 AM. Our included tour started with a bus tour of the city. We had a short walk where the guide…
This morning we packed, had a small breakfast and left the ship around 8:00 AM. I stored my luggage at a friend’s hotel and then went to the Rijiksmuseum. The museum is large and we left around 1:00 PM. I rushed back to the hotel to get the tram (12) to the…
Today I took two ‘free’ walking tours. The first one started from Grand Place at 10:00 AM. I got to Grand Place early so I could take some photos in daylight. The tour was very informative about the history of Brussels and the buildings nearby. We also stopped at the Manneken Pis (pissing boy fountain),…
This morning I finished packing my bag and took the very short walk to the train station. The train costs 8.8€ from the Brussels North station to the airport (there is a charge to access the platform at the airport included and the ticket needs to be scanned to exit the station). The train only…