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Published: March 15th 2012
We are taking our first river cruise in Europe, a Uniworld river cruise that starts in Amsterdam and ends in Basel, Switzerland. Our trip starts in London for one night and then goes to Amsterdam for a couple of days before starting the cruise.
Once we end the cruise in Basel, we will spend another night there before taking the train to Frankfurt for a couple of day tours. At the end of the day tours, we will travel by train back to Amsterdam for a night and then back to London for two more nights. While in London, we hope to take a day trip to the Cotswold area.
Our hotel in London:
Our hotel in Amsterdam:
http://www.flickr.com//photos/hotelestherea/sets/72157625827076611/show/ Our hotel in Frankfurt:
I have researched this trip in detail, just like all of our other trips. Planning and research is half the fun of travel. Contact me if you need any advice or help planning a trip.
I booked the last
hotel, Grand Hotel Les Trois Rois in
Basel, Switzerland. Now, just the tours are
left to book.
Edited today, 3/28/2012 I just found out that Wicked is playing in London! I am going to check into getting tickets while we are there! So fun!
4/7/2012 I just booked a tour to Warwick Castle and the Cotwolds for our last day in London!
5/17/2012 I found out that our ship will have free wifi!!! Hopefully, I can update my travelblog while on the cruise.
7/8/2012 I ordered the train tickets from Basel to Frankfurt and Frankfurt to Amsterdam, so we are all set! I have to say that the cost of train tickets has sure gone up since we first took the train in Europe!
I will post more once our trip begins later this year.
9/7/2012 Everything is good so far. We are in Amsterdam and the people are very friendly. So far , we have hit warmer than normal temps with high humidity. Just my luck.
We go on a long tour tomorrow and then join the cruise on sunday.
9/10/2012 This ship is beautiful! it is much nicer than I thought. We even have our own butler!
We
tour cologne this afternoon.
9/
12/
2012 Yesterday we saw Koblenz and also visited a very old castle, Marksburg. It was a great workout just getting up to the castle. We had more of a workout walking through the interior and climbing up lots of stairs. It was all so interesting!
Today we traveled along the Rhein and saw lots of pretty castles. A cute little town we toured today was Rudesheim. It is so lovely!
9/13/2012 We tour Speyer today; it is a very cute village.
We also received a gift; a bottle of wine engraved with the name of the ship plus our name!
They make you feel so special! Well, more info tomorrow!
9/14/2012 Our tour this morning was a charming little town in France, Strasbourg. I wish we would have had more time because there was a lot to see. I did take what pictures I could and got a couple of postcards. There was a beautiful carrousel; I hope the photo comes out.
This afternoon, we drove out to the Black Forest, Germany. The countryside is very green and beautiful! We went to a museum that shows
how the people lived "back in the day."
We also stopped at a clock shop, where they hand carve everything.
9/16/2012 We are in Basel! I can tell I need to come back and explore Switzerland more. The buildings are fabulous, the streets are very clean, and the people are so, so friendly. I think Switzerland will become one of my favorite places next to the UK.
This hotel is one the prettiest I have ever seen. We have a view of the Rhine river from two large windows in our room.
I was able to do a brisk walk while Louie napped. It is so amazingly beautiful. I did get a little lost, but asked someone to point me in the direction of my hotel, and they were glad to help. I know to always have the name of the hotel written down before going out!
We ran into some people we met on the cruise;they are staying here too. We will have dinner with them later.
9/17/2012 I got a walk in this morning all along the Rhine. It was brisk and lovely. I enjoyed the cruise, but this way
of traveling is much more to my liking.
One thing to note, not all people like their dogs petted! Go figure.
I will do a walking tour this afternoon and let Louie rest and hang out.
9/19/2012 We are in Frankfurt. We arrived by train yesterday. Note to self, I really, really need not to bring so much luggage. You think I would learn after all these years!
We are touring Rothenburg today. I will let you know how that goes.
We had some great pizza last night!
Summary: I love Rothenburg, love Germany, love the food, but hate the Autobahn. Those people drive crazy fast. Yikes!
I love how you can take your dog into restaurants, as in France. The dogs are so well behaved. I am not sure my dogs could act so civil!
Tomorrow we visit Heidelberg.
9/20/2012 I am enjoying Germany more than I thought I would! I love this place. We had great tours today that I will have to tell you about.
I went to a store to get some Clinque products. A woman had her dog with her in the elevator!
People have them with in them the restaurants! I love it!
Tonight, I got to have mashed potatoes! Pure heaven!
Tomorrow we are going back to Amsterdam.
9/22/2012 When we get back, I will give a general summary of everything.
The trains are so roomy and have lots of leg room and leather seats. It is a great way to travel. Since they no longer have porters, I have had to arrange with the hotels to have the taxi drivers help get us and our luggage to the correct platforms. This cost a little extra, but was well worth it!
We are having a great time back in Amsterdam! The people are so warm and friendly! Actually, the people most everywhere we have gone this trip have been great!
We had another lovely meal last night.
Amsterdam is great as long you stay away from those "coffee houses!"
Tonight, we go see a musical in London.
This has been an amazing trip! But, we are missing our babies big time! Louie was ready to come home a week ago!
Tomorrow, our guide takes us to Warwick Castle and the
Cotswold area!
9/24/2012 We are sitting in the nice lounge at London Heathrow. London was fun. The hotel upgraded us to a full suite! I have never stayed in such a large space before. We had two halls, a half bath, one full bath, a walk in closet, living room, and bedroom! It was beautiful!
We had a nice tour with our guide yesterday, but we were very tired from the show the night before. We really have to stick with day time shows!
Warwick Castle was fun! The Cotswold area was beautiful and charming. It would be fun to spend a night or two in one of the small villages. We did get rain and London is going to have storms all week. I sure hope the weather is cooling when we get home!
We shall be home in about 12 hours! We can't wait to see our babies!
P.S. Sorry, but I did not have time to send out any postcards!
9/25/2012 Our flight was delayed a little over 2 hours, but we finally took off! Luckily, our driver checked and knew the flight had been delayed. We also hit
traffic coming home, so it was a long drive to El Dorado Hills! It was a very long day to be sure! We are extremely tired and will probably need the rest of the week to recover.
It was a fabulous trip! Each trip is special, but I think this was one of our best yet! I hope you enjoyed the little trip updates.
10/4/2012 To summarize, this trip was fantastic! I really, really loved the little German villages and Basel, Switzerland. I plan to make a return trip to Switzerland one day for sure! Fabulous scenery, architecture, and people everywhere we went!
Note to self: When planning more things in and out of London, add more days. It was way to tight trying to attend a musical on the same day we flew into London. And, then it was hard touring the next day and it was also our last day before coming home. Also, we need to stick with afternoon performances!
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Jeri
non-member comment
Great Plans
It sounds wonderful. What is the hotel in London? We stayed at the Charles Dickens and it looked a bit like that!