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Published: January 28th 2016
Lucerne
Panorama of Lake Lucerne from our room in the National Hotel! We're over a year tardy on blogging about the individual cities visited on our November 2014 foray to Europe. Here are the highlights while the FAB memories are still somewhat fresh. The flight from JFK to Heathrow (London) was uneventful and London's gracious and well-located St. Ermin's Hotel surprised us by allowing early check in. We broke the "no nap" rule and by shortly after 12 noon hopped aboard a "hop on ... hop off" bus with live commentary to introduce ourselves to London. Wes had been here before on business but it was all new to me. Love the city. An amazing highlight was the art installation of thousands and thousands of ceramic poppies "planted" in the moat at the Tower of London in memory of those who lost their lives in WW I, WWII and more recent conflicts. The sight was amazing.
Three days later we were back at Heathrow for a short hop to Amsterdam. First time for both of us in this amazing city where the Park Hotel Amsterdam served as our base of operations for the next three days. Amsterdam was FAB - lively, colorful, interesting and YOUNG! We loved our boat ride through the
Joanne With VanGogh Sunflowers
Amsterdam's VanGogh Museum is FAB! This is the only photo that can be taken here. Love it! canals and the museums including the Ann Frank House. We met up with our friends Paula & Doc and embarked on the Viking Helvetia for an eight day tour on the Rhine. This was our first Viking booking and it held itself in good stead against the somewhat pricier Uniworld trips we had taken previously.
Ports of call along the Rhine included Kinderdijk, with its fascinating working windmills; Cologne, which was in celebration mode (November 11 marked the end of WW II) where costumed young (mostly) people packed the streets from early morn toasting, parading and acting way more frivolous than the stereotypical German countryman; Koblenz where fellow travelers toured Marksburg, a 700 year old hilltop castle above the Rhine; Rudesheimer where we walked to an amazing "music box" museum after dinner; Manheim where we were motorcoached to Heidelberg to visit the castle; Spyre, which our party of four skipped in favor of a private wine party on the sundeck; Strasbourg, a French town so delightful that we decided to stay in town for lunch, a canal boat ride, and a museum tour; a Black Forest excursion out of Breisach; and Basel, Switzerland where we said "ta ta" to
Wes Windmill
We couldn't visit Holland without this iconic scene. Viking and took a walk to old town with the Taylors before we parted to catch trains - them for Zurich and Logan and us for Lucerne. A stay at the ultra lux National Hotel in Lucerne was a perfect way to unwind on our own before heading by train to Zurich, JFK and HOME! Great trip; but isn't it always FAB to come HOME!
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Geri Wirth
non-member comment
Viking Rhine Boat Ride
Hi Joanne, So many memories reading about your cruise! I took my dad on this cruise in 1993 for his 90th birthday, a few years after my mother died of lung cancer. He was born in Germany and had never returned after he came to NYC when he was 14. I had to get out my pictures when I read your comment about the music box museum. Fascinating! Geri