Live from the Viking Heimdal; 10 May 2014 - South of France

[CelticMutt]

Hi!

This will be my second "Live from" (First was: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1834574 aboard the Viking Embla/Idun - Grand European; May 2013 - if anyone cares to compare.)

Once again, I'll try to add content on a daily basis while the impressions are fresh. (And once again, connectivity and geriatric energy levels being up to the task.)

Last year's offering seemed to be well-received and it served, at least for me, as a nice trip diary.

We leave (along with two other couples this time) from Newark, NJ tomorrow PM on a United/Lufthansa flight connecting through Munich and then on to Lyon, France. Long day!

We'll see you on the other side - airframe integrity and a recently re-injured back willing the same!

Cheers,

Bill

[ninaks]

We are taking the same cruise later this year so I can't wait to read your trip reports. Hope all is going well. If you could comment on any optional tours you take or hear about through others that would be very helpful. Thanks again!

[Bet & Peg]

CelticMutt ~ have a fabulous trip!!!! We did this as our 1st RC in 2012. We were on an older ship - the Neptune - and I feel in love with RCing - came home and booked 2 more cruises almost immediately!!

 

Lyon is a great city!! If you can have lunch there - wonderful restaurants!! And its the city for silk! I had NO intention of buyong any silk and then came home with 3 scarfs!!!

 

Hope your ship does a Provence Lunch one day - it was a delicious, fun event!!

 

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[PS - where does the Celtic come from?? We're going to Ireland (non-cruise) in June to visit my Great-great-grandparents' grave! And our son lives in Eatontown - OK, not really the Jersey Shore but closer then we are!!]

[CelticMutt]

Well I was right; today was a long day. None of the company we are traveling with sleeps on planes, so it was a 36 hour+ day. We connected through Munich with a long, 3.5 hour layover before arriving in Lyon.

We arrived on time in Lyon and were met post luggage by a Viking representative. It was a long walk to the waiting bus. Our guide told us that it was because of heightened security alerts currently in place in France. (Bus couldn't pull into the normal pickup zone.) Nothing to be done for it though. Safe is safe!

The ride to the ship was about 1hour and 45 minutes. Countryside was pleasant but nothing to ... well, write home about. We arrived at the ship and offloaded at the prett little town of Chalon sur Saone. Unfortunately, we arrived at 3:30 PM and lunch was over at 3. We begged a sandwich from the lounge bartender, Pavlin (our new best friend!). A note to Viking here would be that it was obvious some passengers would arrive later than the 3 PM cutoff and some food accommodation should be made for these late-arriving guests. Since we went directly from the plane to the transfer and dinner wasn't until 7, there were a bunch of hungry people looking for something to eat. The cookies are good but just weren't going to cut it as a meal.

A note about the Heimdal and her sister ships just launched in 2013. While they may look the same as the 2012 (also new) fleet, Viking has made noticeable improvements. Seems like there is more in-room storage and there are definitely more 110 volt outlets - 4; one in each corner.

We all opted for the Silver drink package. At 150 Euro a person (both people in the stateroom have to get it), we figured it was a good deal - at least for us. All your drinks are included even top shelf and you get to pick from their mid-tier wines, not just the generic red and white pours at lunch and dinner. If you drink anything more than 3 drinks a day it'll be an advantage. The 6 of us certainly got our money's worth between yesterday PM and evening!

Susan from Germany is our Program Director on board. Her 6:30 PM briefing was informative and funny. Susan's English, like just about all the crew, is excellent. Dinner was every bit as good as I remembered from last year. I had the sea bass which was wonderful. As last year, we found the servings to be of average size, but once you have an appetizer, soup and save room for dessert, you'd have a tough time staying hungry.

We retired to the lounge after dinner for additional adult beverages after making Viktor, our poor waiter, chase after a number of different (and excellent) bottles of wine.

The piano player on board this ship is very good. (I don't know his name yet, but will fill you in on a later post.) He plays a baby grand with all the digital fixings.

Up and out early tomorrow at 8 AM - so we'll sign off for now. The bed's looking good after a whole night without sleep!

Note to Fotopeg, I'm 2/3 Irish and 1/3 Scot - hence the Celtic Mutt screen-name. Many would tell you that I inherited the worst of both breeds!

A votre sante!

Bill

[jdbirch]

We're booked for this cruise in November with 4 friends, maybe more - Be real specific with what you liked. Viking does a great job (just finished cruise#3 in the tulips last month), but what you do in your free afternoons is what really counts.

[TravelBugM]

Interested to hear your further thoughts on the Silver Spirits drink package. Had never thought of purchasing it, but your math has made me re-think. If you consider a couple of cocktails, nicer wines at dinner and an after dinner drink, it might be something to think about.

 

Enjoy your cruise (not just the booze!).

[CelticMutt]

I've just realized that a fellow contributor has done a very nice "live from" for the Viking Hermod (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2017837&page=3) on the reverse of our cruise. This is super news for us because I found it early enough to be of day to day use. Additionally, I'll try to avoid content that she (Becki - rjscott) has already entered unless reiteration would serve a purpose.

After breakfast we boarded the busses parked just outside on the dock and met Emmeline, our tour guide. She was an excellent guide and wine expert that filled us in on wine-growing and the local vineyards that we were traveling through. We then proceeded to take a scenic drive northward through France’s Burgundy wine country stopping along the way in a small wine producing village called Puligny Montrachet. It's a lovely little place with a tiny quaint church and graveyard. The vines here are low to the ground - all the better we were told for maintaining the grapes' warmth from the underlying stone. This makes for a higher sugar content and thus a better wine. The extent of the vineyards are unbelievable. Virtually every square foot of southeastern exposure is cultivated and the resulting landscapes are beautiful. After a warmer than normal winter and an early spring, the vines are about 3 weeks ahead of schedule in development.

We arrived 20 minutes later in Beaune, pronounced ”bone") which is the wine capital of Burgundy. Emmeline then gave us an informative guided tour of the beautiful Hôtel Dieu, which was founded as a hospital in 1443. The place was actually used for most of it's history - up until the early 1970's - as a hospital before undergoing an almost complete renovation transforming it into the current museum.

After continuing our tour through the city of Beaune, we arrived for the wine tasting at Cellier de la Cabiote. At the stop we sampled 4 different wines as well as casis and had the opportunity later on to purchase what we tasted in the shop above the wine cellar. Emmeline's wine lecture was very informative and I'd challenge just about anyone from coming away from the stop without learning something brand new about wine - especially those from Burgundy.

During the 45 minutes or so "your own free time" we had in Beaune we stopped at a local bakery and grabbed a baguette and a couple of croissant. Simply phenomenal! I don't know what makes the baked goods so crusty and good here, but they certainly are a treat.

Return to your ship for lunch. Enjoy the rest of your day at leisure—as always, your Program Director can help you plan your free time. We did not take take the optional excursion to the Burgundy town of Cluny instead preferring to just stay on the ship as it cruised down the river Saone (pronounced "sone"). The weather turned a bit with intermittent showers so we were content to sit, read and nap a bit.

The captain and senior crew were introduced to us at our 6:30 PM briefing and we all toasted with a complimentary champagne, mimosa or kir royal. Since the lounge was so crowded we had to sit in the very back - a bit of a mistake because as everybody trouped out to dinner there were no longer any full tables left so we were all forced to split up. Wasn't a big deal because it allowed us to meet different people. (Did I mention that the ship is fully booked? It hasn't been a problem at all for us, but every seat in the restaurant is full for dinner!)

Dinner for me was a wonderful beef carpaccio; chateau briand and a banana split. No diet on this trip! Food continues to be excellent.

We hit the lounge afterward for adult beverages, tunes by Daniel ably supported by one of the passengers and good conversation! Late night, but we're not leaving the ship until 8:45 tomorrow in Lyon.

Slainte!

Bill

[FuelScience]

Bill,

 

Thanks for taking the time to post. Hope the cruise continues to go well.

 

FuelScience

[ninaks]

Thank you so much for doing this! Did you talk to anyone who did the Cluny optional tour? We are still unsure if we should sign up for it or not. Thanks again

[SDBeachLovers]

Thanks so much for your postings! We will be following in your footsteps (wake?) on the Hermod departing August 10. I'll be following this thread for good tips on tours, etc. Wine tasting in Burgundy sounds great!

 

 

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[CelticMutt]

We arrived this morning in Lyon just as we were waking up due to a relatively late late last night. After a rather hasty breakfast we boarded the buses for a morning excursion through the city of Lyon. it really is a charming but large city that is so historic that the entire city has been determined to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Our first stop was a drive to the top of Fourvière Hill to the Basilica of Notre Dame. This is a magnificent Cathedral which also offers a beautiful view of the entire city of Lyon. Our tour guide Anne was a bit chatty and thus a little light on history. But she did manage to give us an overview of the sites that we were seeing. From there the bus proceeded down the hill to park next to the river and we commenced a walking tour through Vieux Lyon (Old Town). There was an interesting but somewhat unnecessary stop at some fresco-painted buildings that represented the historic Lyon personalities looking out of the windows. (Trompe-l'œil) Note to Viking, we all would have much appreciated a stop at the Roman ruins that we spied only briefly from the bus as it sped by the site rather then this stop! (We'll take a cab tomorrow morning during free time and visit them ourselves.) Another stop was a visit to the 300 and 400 year old apartments still being lived in and approached via tunnel-like entrances from the street. Our tour guide then let us free for some personal exploration of old town. We stopped for a visit at the beautiful St. Jean Cathedral. After some window shopping and a quick side trip to the flea market across the river we returned to the buses for the short trip back to the ship. We all played with the idea of an optional afternoon tour but after dallying over lunch in the sun at the Aquavit lounge we kind of missed our opportunity! No harm done as a couple of our members are experiencing some knee, leg and back problems, but I do feel a little bit bad I'm not being able to - at least so far - report on any of the optional excursions. With a little luck we'll get better at exploring later in the cruise! (Actually, we talked about getting off of the ship tonight for an in town dinner but somewhat inclement weather is making that a less likely situation.)

Someone posting to the other live review of the south of France had requested a location for the ship's docking. I'll include a map picture as to where we're currently parked.

There was a silk exhibition and silk scarf sale in the Aquavit lounge prior to the regular evening briefing. The factory does silk screening and hand painting of the scarves (oh, and ties too) and their explanation of the process was really pretty interesting. They sold a lot of scarves too; my wife decided on one at the last moment. Hand painted so these items really are one of a kind because there are slight variations in color and placement from scarf to scarf.

Dinner was very good. I had pork medallions in a flake pastry. (We've now officially run them out of Mouton Cadet burgundy!)

After dinner they had guest entertainment in the lounge. A young troop of singers and musicians that did classical and semi-classical pieces. Very good and a nice break from just the piano player.

All in all another great day!

Salud!

Bill

[CelticMutt]

In answer to someone's request for more info on the drink package. We have found the plan to be well worthwhile. While Viking does include beer and wines with lunch and dinner, the wine choices are limited to one red and one white. (Decent enough though.) the drink package allows you to choose from any of the wines on the pretty extensive wine list with the exception of the most expensive 3 or 4. We all enjoy wines and have found this to be a nice advantage. Additionally, of course is the ability to have unlimited access to any mixed drinks throughout the ship much like you'd get at an all inclusive resort. The cost on the program is 150 Eu per person, so it comes out to 21.40 or so per day. Top shelf drinks are 6.50 Euro (ell drinks are less; I'll try to post exact prices later, but they're available on line as well.) So at 3.3 drinks per day you'd break even; 4 and you're ahead of the game. On vacation we like our adult beverages, so it's a nice advantage for us. We closed the lounge down last night at about 1 AM, so believe me, they lost money on our crew! But perhaps more than just the monetary aspect is the freedom to have whatever you want without even thinking about the cost. That's of course an individual thing as is the overall decision. Not everyone would benefit equally.

Hope the info will allow future passengers to come to a more informed decision!

L'Chaim!

Bill

[pflorio994]

Thanks so much for your postings. Taking the same cruise on the Hermod in November. Sounds like you are having a blast. Looking forward to your daily posts.

 

Question, is the complimentary water supplied in the rooms "mineral water", which is high in sodium?

[CelticMutt]

For Frank & Pat,

The water in the room is in unmarked glass bottles - something that would never happen in the States - so it's hard to tell if it's mineral or plain. It tastes plain though. There's tons of labelled bottled water given out in the lobby for tours. These bottles are definitely mineral water because they're marked as such.

Bill

[CelticMutt]

We left Lyon just before lunchtime and proceeded down the Rhone going backwards for the first three quarters of a mile or so. Had to reach an appropriately wide spot in the river in order to turn the longship around. The ride down the river was lovely but not as scenic as the Rhine, Mein or Danube rivers. Our group split up - some eating in the Aquavit lounge and some going to the main dining room. A point to make about the main dining room. There is always a pasta station open in the dining hall along with a à la cart sitdown menu. It's actually extremely good and is situated next to the serve yourself salad bar. I had originally ordered a Reuben that I quickly swapped out for the spinach penne. (I guess the sandwich was okay, but I'm a Ruben snob having access to some spectacular sandwiches at the Jersey shore.)

We arrived in VIenne just at 3 PM and we're quickly offloaded to be combined walking and choo-choo tour of the old town. The lovely little train took us all the way up to the top of the hill which offered a unbelievable view of the entire town and surrounding valley. We were right on top of the Roman amphitheater that seats 13,000 people and is currently still in use. There is a tower at the top of the hill dedicated to Mary as well as a beautiful little chapel that commemorates the appearance of the Blessed Virgin to two young local children. Having never heard of the apparition we were told that the same situation at Lourdes had overshadowed the prominence of the local miracle. After a picture taking opportunity we boarded the train and headed back down to the old town where we disembarked at the local town hall. The tour then split up from the main body into two groups one of which was the least ambulatory passengers. A nice hint here is to sign up for the first train if you get a chance, as it takes you directly from in front of the ship to the top of the hill. The second and possibly even third trains departed and came back to the town hall. Personally, I thought this was a better use of time.

Most of the rest of the walking tour centered around ancient Roman ruins that are all over this small town. One of the surviving structures is completely intact temple mindful of a smaller version of the Acropolis. We finished the tour with a stop at the Cathedral of St. Maurice in the middle of the town. Construction on this church dated back to the 12th through 14th centuries. Not the loveliest of cathedrals but certainly impressive in the age and construction of the building. The weather was strange today alternating between periods of bright warm sunshine and intermittent downpours. Luckily the last downpour occurred while we were in the cathedral and we were able to emerge to the once again bright sunlight. The tour ended at the Cathedral with a 5 minute walk back to the ship. Since it was already 5:15 and we had to be back on the boat at

6, we decided to not press our luck with the rain and head on back to the ship directly.

At dinner the sous chef as well as the pastry chef came around and introduce themselves at each table. Delightful people!

Just a couple of words about Viking's personnel. We had found the personnel and crew last year on the Embla to be excellent . The folks on the Heimdal are every bit as good! Susann, our German Program Director is nothing short of outstanding! (Three cheers for Susie!) She is energetic, completely cruise-knowledgeable and a very likable person indeed! We see her every evening chatting with the passengers (and sometimes even dancing with them!) up until the wee hours of the morning. And yet every morning there she is, bright and chipper helping passengers get to their varied excursions. She's a real gem!

Susie is ably assisted by concierge, Thelma, from Portugal. The guys who manage the bar, Pavlin, Robert and Hugo are personable, funny and efficient. In the dining hall some of the people who come to mind immediately are Radka, Viktor and Annet who also does double duty in the bar. I'm sure there's a host of other personnel to be singled out board, but these folks just seem to go above and beyond! One of the most important reasons (if not the most important) that we will continue to cruise Viking is simply this level of personnel. Great job!

Na Zdravi!

Bill

[CelticMutt]

This morning we woke up to find that we had already arrived in Tournon. The little town boasts of a edifice that was erected by the Tournon family in the 1400s. After the last family member died, the castle-like building served as a jail for a couple of hundred years and is now a museum. Both sides of the river have steeply sloped sides covered in the ever-present grapevines. In this region, by law they are limited to the Shiraz grape. We hopped aboard the buses after breakfast and set off across the river for a multi-stop tour. A couple of posters have suggested passing on this tour completely. I wouldn't go that far, but I would definitely eliminate the first stop at the Valrhone chocolate factory. While you have the opportunity to sample a great many different types of chocolate, a 9 o'clock chocolate binge is not exactly my cup of tea. I would have much sooner had a tour of the above museum. After the chocolate stop we then then visited the Musée de Tain l’Hermitage which is located in the oldest house in the area – built somewhere in 1400's. It's actually a museum operated by a locally famous painter's daughter. While the tour was modestly interesting I found the house itself and walk around the surrounding area to be much more pleasant. We then proceeded on to a local, modestly sized winery for a tour and a tasting. It wasn't spectacular, but overall very pleasant. We got back to the boat just about 12:45 – in time for lunch and the almost immediate departure of the ship. All in all I'd recommend doing the tour, I just wish there had been more time to explore the Tournon museum. As I am dictating this we are cruising down the Rhone to Viviers. Just now we're passing by an enormous lock and power station located about two hours cruising distance south of Tournon. Thankfully the weather has turned nice but the sundeck is still closed due to the close proximity of the bridges that we're going under.

Note that we passed the Viking Hermod heading north just about an hour and a half ago. That was pretty cool!

We are scheduled for a walking tour of Viviers with the Program Director, Susie, right after dinner. More on that later.

Dinner tonight was a Taste of Provençal - a sampling of foods and delicacies from the local area. Food stations were set up around the ship both in the dining room and the Aquavit lounge. Additionally, one of the food stations was set up directly in the galley – allowing us to actually see the ship's galley in action. It's amazing to see how small the place actually is. And that it provides food for over 200 people three meals a day. The foods and desserts were wonderful. I particularly liked a ham that was baked in a hard crusty bread.

After dinner at about 9 PM we boarded the buses for the half an hour ride to Viviers. Viviers is a small community of about 4000 but it's claim to fame is that it is basically a medieval town - a lot of which has been well preserved. The town was very interesting and seeing it at night gave it entirely different feel. Be warned however that this is a hilly place with mostly cobblestone streets. Couple that with a dark evening and it becomes obvious that this is not a excursion for anyone with a disability or difficulty walking. We returned to the ship a little bit before midnight. They had sent out an evening snack for us and we grabbed a quick bite with an adult beverage before retiring for the evening.

Just a quick note and apology here. I had a pretty serious back injury six or seven weeks ago that almost precluded us from taking this trip. While I've been managing much better than I expected, I'm finding that one excursion a day is about as much as my back can take. So that apology is basically directed toward those folks who are looking for reviews on the optional excursions. Just can't handle them! Sad, because on the Grand European Tour last year we took just about every optional excursion. You do what you can do!

Prosit!

Bill

[CelticMutt]

We woke up this morning to be treated to southern France's Let Mistral. This is an intense wind that blows from the north. The good news is that it generally brings very nice weather; the bad news is that it represents 25 to 30 mile an hour steady winds – sometimes much more in gusts. It didn't interfere with our trip into Arles but it certainly made for a much more interesting day!

We are currently docked in a small town of T , so the bus ride into Arles was about 25 minutes. Basically, Arles seems to be famous for two specific entities. It is the location of some impressive Roman ruins, and is a location in which van Gogh lived, painted and was very influenced by for a period of about a year and a half. Our first stop was Les Arènes, a Roman era arena that seats 20,000 and is still in use for sporting events and bullfights!

There are ruins of an Roman forum as well as baths and an impressive obelisk. It's impressive to see different architectural styled buildings juxtaposed to one another all in a row. The light and colors in this area of France is obviously something that attracted van Gogh to the area. They have a lot of his work on display in the exact area or scene in which it was painted. It's pretty cool to see the hospital in which he was committed and painted in the same setting that influenced him. We returned to the ship – windblown and somewhat disheveled – after about two and half hours of this walking tour. No hills and very level ground but a great deal of walking!

At dinner the other night, Sandra, the ships lovely, young sous chef had promised our group of six a special wiener schnitzel lunch. So we returned to the ship for this very special treat made just for us! This is the type of special, individual treatment that we have seen on Viking ships on both cruises now. A special thank you to Sandra for making our cruise extra special!

Cin cin!

Bill

[Gexguy]

Hello from Canada; We are taking the same cruise next month your information has been very helpful. Thank you

Gary

[pinotlover]

Although we typically take the premium drinks packages on both ocean and river cruises, we are not doing so when we take this cruise in Sept. This trip takes one through three of the greatest wine areas in the world: Burgundy, Northern Rhone, and Southern Rhone (Chat. de Papes). It also passes through the fields of Beaujolais, the fruity fun to drink everyday wine. All of these wines will be available, for local purchase, at prices far below what are seen in American retail stores. Viking does not charge corkage for wine brought aboard, so we are planning on using that benefit.

 

Our plan is simple. Buy great local wine, bring it on board, and enjoy. We will also add a cognac and sauterne (other french products) for enjoyment after dinner. If we occasionally yearn for a cold beer or gin and tonic to soothe the thirst, we'll just buy it singlarily at the bar, while mostly drinking incredible fine wines.:D

[Theresab1103]

Thank you for taking the time to post this. I'm planning on a river cruise fall 2015 and can't decide between the Rhine or one of the French cruises. Wish I could do them all!

[Mimosa09]

Although we typically take the premium drinks packages on both ocean and river cruises, we are not doing so when we take this cruise in Sept. This trip takes one through three of the greatest wine areas in the world: Burgundy, Northern Rhone, and Southern Rhone (Chat. de Papes). It also passes through the fields of Beaujolais, the fruity fun to drink everyday wine. All of these wines will be available, for local purchase, at prices far below what are seen in American retail stores. Viking does not charge corkage for wine brought aboard, so we are planning on using that benefit.

 

Our plan is simple. Buy great local wine, bring it on board, and enjoy. We will also add a cognac and sauterne (other french products) for enjoyment after dinner. If we occasionally yearn for a cold beer or gin and tonic to soothe the thirst, we'll just buy it singlarily at the bar, while mostly drinking incredible fine wines.:D

 

Yes! The wines in the area are a good buy (although some of the Chateauneuf-du-Pape are spendy at 60€\bottle!). I saw Chardonay @ 8€ I would be willing to spend. Other white wines were less than that & were good.

 

Hi to CelticMutt! We are on Vantage's Discovery II here in Avignon. We are just finishing our French Waterways today. We leave for a Barcelona add-on tomorrow out of Marseille. Found your live thread yesterday & enjoyed comparing our Vantage experience to your Viking experience on the same river. Thanks for sharing!

 

-Rose

 

 

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[CelticMutt]

We woke up this morning to be treated to southern France's Let Mistral. This is an intense wind that blows from the north. The good news is that it generally brings very nice weather; the bad news is that it represents 25 to 30 mile an hour steady winds – sometimes much more in gusts. It didn't interfere with our trip into Arles but it certainly made for a much more interesting day!

We are currently docked in a small town of Tarascon, so the bus ride into Arles was about 25 minutes. Basically, Arles seems to be famous for two specific entities. It is the location of some impressive Roman ruins, and is a location in which van Gogh lived, painted and was very influenced by for a period of about a year and a half. Our first stop was Les Arènes, a Roman era arena that seats 20,000 and is still in use for sporting events and bullfights!

There are ruins of an Roman forum as well as baths and an impressive obelisk. It's informative to see different architectural styled buildings juxtaposed to one another all in a row. The light and colors in this region of France is obviously something that attracted van Gogh to the area. They have a lot of his work on display in the exact area or scene in which it was painted. It's pretty cool to see the hospital in which he was committed and painted in the same setting that influenced him. We returned to the ship – windblown and somewhat disheveled – after about two and half hours of this walking tour. No hills and very level ground but a great deal of walking!

At dinner the other night, Sandra, the ships lovely, young sous chef had promised our group of six a special wiener schnitzel lunch. So we return to the ship for this very special treat made just for us! This is the type of special individual treatment that we have seen on Viking ships on both cruises now. A special thank you to Sandra for making our cruise extra special!

While I didn't do it myself, one of the members of our group visited a very nice castle only a mile's walk from the ship this afternoon. The castle - Tarascon - was built between 1400 and 1435 by the Princes of Anjou. In 1481 it became a military prison. With 4 floors of exploring to do as well as great views of the town and surroundings. Entrance fee was 7.5 €. He said it was a great experience and certainly an inexpensive alternative to an optional formal tour.

Na Zdravi!

Bill

[id4elizabeth]

I was just reading one of your earlier posts about Viviers, and you mentioned having to take a bus to get there. We were on the same North to South itinerary, but our ship docked in Viviers and we walked right into town. We were back on board by 10:30. Sorry to hear you had to be bussed!

[CelticMutt]

Thank you for taking the time to post this. I'm planning on a river cruise fall 2015 and can't decide between the Rhine or one of the French cruises. Wish I could do them all!

 

I'd do the Rhine for the first. More castles and riverfront scenery in Germany - at least IMHO.

Bill

[CelticMutt]

First of all, apologies for the delay. I normally dictate my reports the following morning, getting off the Ship and the travels to the Nice extension made that impossible. More on that tomorrow.

The ship arrived Thursday evening in Avignon - this time right in the heart of town. The city wall was directly across from the ship and serves double duty as a flood protector. Avignon is called the “City of Popes”. Seven popes reigned here from 1309 to 1377. We had a about a 10 minute walk to the gates of the city during which we passed the Pont d’Avignon, the ruins of an ancient bridge still standing and basically going to (now) nowhere. Our tour guide then proceeded to the Palace of the Popes. for a guided tour through this example of Gothic architecture. The structure had multiple stages of construction giving it a rambling layout particularly from the inside. Beautiful though and dominating much of the inner city. This edifice served multiple purposes; papal residence, fortress as well as obviously the ever-present church. The walking tour then wound through the old town ending up in a huge covered food market where Suzie, our PD, had secured a sampling of specialty olives and garlic for our tasting pleasure, Additional look-sees at the theatre and Main Street/square in town on our way back to the ship for a quick lunch.

We had (finally) decided on an optional excursion this afternoon and if we were only to do one - this was certainly it. We went to the Pont du Gard, a two thousand year old ruin of a bridge/aqueduct. It's the tallest existing structure of this kind and one of the best preserved. DO NOT MISS THIS EXCURSION! The structure is amazing in an of itself, but the surrounding grounds and the river below add dramatically to the whole experience. There's an eleven hundred year olive tree on the way to the bridge that's not to be missed. The included bridge museum tour is also very interesting if a bit rushed. We were able to take some of the most breathtaking photos of our entire tour here! I'll attach one of same.

Back to the ship for sadly our last night of dining and dancing!

Kampai!

Bill