Cruising
We are taking a 15 day river boat cruise on the Rhine/Mossel rivers. The cruise officially starts in Amsterdam and ends in Basel, Switzerland. We will be visiting 14 towns located in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France and Switzerland.
The ship is the MS Opal and one of those in the MS Scenic line. There are 150 passengers and 60 or so crew members on board. It is very different than the kind of cruising with which we are most familiar, namely, the grand ocean-going vessels with 3,000+ passengers. This promises to be a very different and delightful experience.
Aloha and welcome to the MS Opal!
On this excursion, we will travel through 35 locks and cover more than 1,000 kilometers on the Rhine/Mosell rivers. We quickly learn that there are many advantages to this type of cruising (river cruise vs. ocean).
For one thing, there are only 150 guests on board. You see the same people every day for 15 days. There are only 4 places to go when on board; the lounge, dining room, sun deck or your state room. So really no place to “loose yourself”. You become one big family of travelers, for better or for worse. Thankfully, most everyone we met were pleasant, civilized humans there for the common purpose of experiencing a lovely river boat vacation. The obvious advantage to this is the new people you get to meet in more than a casual “hello, how are you” type of way.
We met some really lovely people while on this trip; namely, our new friends from Australia, Mark, Carole, Gen and Barney. We had occasion to have dinner next to them a number of times, drinks together in the lounge and a few shared tour excursions. They are just so much fun! We are looking forward to seeing them again – hopefully, in Australia! Aloha on the Move 2026???
Another great advantage to river cruising is that you are in constant sight of land. The river banks are always visible and you get to see some amazing sights that you otherwise would not see unless the boat is docked and you visit the area. For example, while cruising along one night, we saw windmills in The Netherlands.
We saw a crazy town clock – take a look at the picture and see if you can figure out what is so interesting about this clock.
We saw sheep and cows and horses, swan and ducks diving for fish, and all kinds of bird life.
We sat on the deck or in our state room and watched the ship travel in and out of the many, many locks we passed through. It was a constant source of wonder to observe this feat of magnificent engineering, of manipulating nature in a good and constructive manner. Check out these photos and I will try to explain what is going on here…
In picture #1, focus on the small white triangle straight ahead on the lock “door”. We are approaching the lock at this point. The triangle will be the marker for the raising of the lock door.
In picture #2, you see the white triangle now above the concrete lock wall, indicating that the door is opening and we are about to enter into the lock. As we approach, the ship appears to be too big both in width and length to fit into the lock. By some minor (or major) miracle, the skilled captain fits this baby in the lock, snug as a shoe! Once the ship is snugly in place, the door behind us will close and the water fills the lock.
In picture #3, we are in the lock and we are looking at the front door of the lock. The water is pouring through in order to fill the lock with water. Once the lock is full of water, the ship will pass through to the Rhine. Amazing stuff.
One of the most beautiful parts of the cruise was the sail through the Rhine Gorge, the spectacular World Heritage site in the upper Middle Rhine Valley. This area is known as the Romantic Rhine. The banks of the river are covered in beautiful homes and ancient castles, green hills and flowers. We viewed the area from the sundeck of our ship. I could not get enough pictures – it was simply spectacular! Take a look at these magnificent old castles.
And then there are the castles that aren’t really castles but disguises for the railway that runs through the mountains.
It is no wonder they refer to this section of the Rhine as “The Romantic Rhine).
And of course there are a story or 2 to share. Lorelei is one of my favorites!
On the east bank of the Rhine is a bronze statue of the legendary mermaid, Lorelei, perched on Lorelei Rock, jutting out into the middle of the Rhine, where the wind can be heard to create an eerie but beautiful echo (spoiler alert, this is relevant).
As the story goes, Lorelei was a beautiful maiden who jumped to her death from the Lorelei Rock into the Rhine River over some idiot, faithless lover. Obviously, her taste in men left something to be desired. As luck would have it, the forces of the river and the treacherous rocks provided the perfect spot for Lorelei to seek her eternal revenge because in death, as in life, she was beautiful. It is said that her beauty and her haunting voice (aka the eerie but beautiful echo caused by the wind whipping around Lorelei Rock) lured many a fishermen to try to reach her only to meet their horrible end on the punishing rocks and strong river currents. We sailed a wide berth around Lorelei, much to my relief! Unfortunately, this meant that my picture of Lorelei was less than flattering but if you look her up on Wiki, you will see a much more enchanting photo.
It is fairly easy to see that cruising on a beautiful river, like the Rhine, affords many up close and personal experiences right from the privacy of your stateroom. On an ocean cruise, you see miles and miles and miles of nothing but water for days and days. I really appreciate the scenery of the river cruise.
The food on the river cruise was delicious and it was served at specific times of the day. The endless buffet does NOT exist on the river cruise, at least not on this one that we took. That said, the bar is always open – 6am to midnight! And, the ratio of staff to guest is pretty impressive with 150 guests and 60 crew members, you are never wanting for attention and great service.
We are big fans of the river cruise, based on this one experience. So, we intend to give it another try next year; perhaps the Danube next?
On with the cruise!