Sunday, July 9, 2017

I just returned from Amsterdam.

I just returned from Amsterdam.

We spent 8 days onboard the Viking River Cruise's Longship Lofn, followed by 3 nights in Amsterdam.

Ask me anything. I don't promise to answer.

13 comments:

  1. Okay, I'll be the one to ask if you got baked.

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  2. Great thing is cash is totally anonymous and accepted at coffee shops. And they have space cakes.

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  3. How big was the ship comparative to normal ships? Is there a terrifying food culture on them like their are on big ocean bearing cruise ships? Where were your ports of call?

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  4. Mo Jave Good questions!

    The build the ships on barges, so they are about the same length as other ships in the river. I toured a competitor ship, which was the same length and slightly fewer cabins.

    The Viking food culture wasn't bad. Portion sizes, while large, are not terribly large. I only ever saw one person ask for a second main course. Breakfast was buffet and/or order. We usually ordered, and the french toast was two slices, a single broiled tomato and a single hash brown. Less than a normal order at a local restaurant.

    The food was rich, and often fresh. They made yogurt and a few other things on the ship, which was delightful.

    They scheduled things such that if you really wanted to, you could eat most meals off the ship. They also made it easy to eat all meals on the ship.

    And, eating while the ship was underway meant less downtime than you'd have in a normal land-based tour.

    As for ports of call: This was a Rhine cruise, from Basel to Amsterdam. We hit Breisach, Strasbourg, Hedelberg, Koblenz, Koln, Kinderdick, and Amsterdam. Koblenz wasn't so much a port of call as a region we sailed through, getting a visual tour from the water of 22 castles. Then we climbed through the best preserved one.

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  5. Oh, Breisach is the black forest, home to cakes and cucko clocks.

    Personally, I had more fun being set loose in a city like Koln than going through touristy stuff like watching a demonstration of cake making.

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  6. Oooh, this sounds much more my style. I've been curious about them for a while. There's a smaller company that does a Seine tour (G Adventures) that does small stops equipped with bikes through France that I have been eyeing for one year soon.

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  7. Oh, G adventures you say? They are a great company.

    Also, Mo, look into a travel agent. For reals, you'll probably spend less.

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  8. I LOVE them... we did part of our India explorations with them. Ugh. Really? I always think of Travel agents as expensive and a hassle.

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  9. Really. But, I am biased: I work for a consortium for 5,000 travel agencies in the US and Canada.

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  10. G Adventures is pretty great, too. Our honeymoon was with them.

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  11. It keeps the water out, man. Really ancient pre-electricity pumps powered by the wind.

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