Viking Idi Rhine River Cruise - it was a beautiful, wonderful seven days up the Rhine River.
Viking Idi Cruise Review to River Cruises - Europe
Contributor Level:
Second Mate
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 7
Helpful Votes: 163
7 Night Rhine Getaway Northbound (Basel To Amsterdam)
Sail date: July 18, 2018
Ship: Viking Idi
Cabin type: Suite
Cabin number: 312
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 6 years ago
Review summary
All in all, this was a wonderful week of beautiful scenery and history. Our country is so new compared to that of Europe - we just don't have the history that they do and that is reflected in the architecture, etc. One thing not mentioned above to comment on is the Middle Rhine Scenic cruising portion of the cruise. This was between Rudesheim and Cologne. There were castles everywhere as we cruised down the Rhine. It was interesting how the French and Germans were constantly warring (over periods of hundreds of years) and how whenever one or the other conquered an area, the locals had to become either German or French depending on who won the war. We were told in some cases, this happened for a couple of generations and then they would become whatever they were before. Also, after the Reformation, the protestants took over some of the cathedrals and the Catholics were out. Being an American, this seems so foreign. In summation, I would recommend this cruise. It was awash in history of the three countries we visited. Viking took great care of us - I was worried about the food, but, I could always find something to eat. We had a suite on this cruise, and that made it that much better. Having a balcony was great as we could just relax and enjoy the scenery down the Rhine. I don't think I would like to be in one of the rooms with just a little window (those were at the bottom of the boat). Can't say enough about Viking and our cruise down the Rhine.Embarkation
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Relax and enjoy the spectacular scenery.
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The start to our adventure on the Viking Idi. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and the city was beautiful.
We visited the Black Forest which was beautiful. While there, we visited a cuckoo clock store, and demonstrations of glass blowing and the construction of the famous Black Forest Cake. No free samples of cake, though, but lots to buy. During this stop, we had several optional excursions in the afternoon. My husband took the Colmar in World War II Museum and Memorial tour. If you didn't already know the history of Audie Murphy, this tour certainly reinforced what an American hero he was. I took a tour of the Medieval Village of Colmar which is actually in France. It was okay; I could have stayed on the Viking Idi and been satisfied.
We did the optional Taste of Alsace excursion in Strasbourg. That was fabulous. During the seven-hour tour, our tour guide, Luci, took us to various places to pick up food for our lunch later in the day. We first visited a French outdoor marketplace where the locals do their shopping. We visisted candy shops (chocolates were delicious), bakeries (bread was delicious), cheese shops (I'm not much on cheese), sausage shop, wine shop (where we tasted local wines). The wine shop was where we ate our lunch. Food was fabulous. We were lucky as in there was only one other couple on the tour with us. Another tour guide had 18 people, so, we had lots of individual attention. Along the food trail, we also enjoyed the sights of Strasbourg, such as the Strasbourg Cathedral which is magnificient.
In Heidelberg we visited the Heidelberg Castle and went to a touristy place in which to spend money on touristy stuff. Scenery in Heidelberg is beautiful.
My husband took the included tour of the Marksburg Castle. He said it was very interesting; however, since it involved walking up a great distance to reach the castle, I begged off.
No included tour at this stop, but, we did the optional Dine in Rudesheim am Rhein tour which was a lot of fun. We ate at a local restaurant with local food and wine. A good time was had by all.
The included tour of the city of Cologne was very interesting culminating in a tour of the magnificient cathedral in Cologne. In an optional tour, we did the Cologne's beer culture dinner excursion. This included dinner at a local Kolsch Brauhaus and Kolsch beer as much as you want. We visited several Brauhauses (brew houses) that night with Kolsch beer served in 7-oz glasses. It was a lot of fun.
Oh, no, this was our last stop on our Viking cruise. Included tour of the windmills was very interesting. These are now non-working windmills and they have no millers working them. They look huge, but, they are very small inside. We were told one of the windmills had a family of 13 children living in it. I can't imagine it..
We had a two-day extension in Amsterdam. All of Europe is experiencing a heat wave with temperatures in the 90's. No more was this apparent than in Amsterdam. It was HOT and air conditioning is not something they have in abundance. We did an included Vking walking tour in the morning and then we were on our own for the next 1-1/ days. The city is awash in bicycle riders. They are everywhere and don't get in their way as they have the right of way. We toured the Van Gogh museum and took the obligatory canal boat tour. The museum was worth the trip, didn't realize how traumatized Van Gogh was. Boat ride was a lot of fun. Sights of the old buildings in Amsterdam were very interesting.