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Viking Rhine Getaway - Our photo intensive review on the Viking Ingvi, Summer 2014

cruisinskier

By cruisinskier,
in River Cruising

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MinnesotaBound

MinnesotaBound

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Thank you so much, Jerry, for your wonderful photos. I know you can only do SO much after your trip, but you had us on the edge of our chairs as we looked at your photos wondering what the different stops had in store for us. Alas, we'll have to be surprised. We have enjoyed everything up through your Amsterdam photos. We fly into Amsterdam, and then fly to Basal, and do the reverse of your trip. I'll enjoy looking at all the rest of the "Memories" after we return. Thanks! This was an exciting way to anticipate what we're in for :)

 

 

 

Glad you are enjoying the review!!
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jimsohio

jimsohio

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Note: My wife and I were also on this cruise, although, sadly we never had a chance to meet Jerry during the week. We were in Cabin 334 with a French balcony. I was hoping to blog along the way, but in the end was too busy to do what I thought would be an adequate job. Now back to work, I will let Jerry work his magic and perhaps make comments at the end. Feel free to ask questions if you want.

 

I do have a photo gallery up at https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2RV4BNiDZNsTC1pYklwQ293clk&authuser=0.

 

Jerry --

 

Fantastic job on the review. It brings back so many memories and is so thorough that I am thinking of sending it to family and friends. If you want my help remembering anything or adding other excursions, just shoot me a message. We did the pub crawl in Cologne and the Audie Murphy WWII one in Strasbourg.

 

 

 

Jim

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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Thank you so much, Jerry, for your wonderful photos. I know you can only do SO much after your trip, but you had us on the edge of our chairs as we looked at your photos wondering what the different stops had in store for us. Alas, we'll have to be surprised. We have enjoyed everything up through your Amsterdam photos. We fly into Amsterdam, and then fly to Basal, and do the reverse of your trip. I'll enjoy looking at all the rest of the "Memories" after we return. Thanks! This was an exciting way to anticipate what we're in for :)

 

Have a great trip on the Ingvi! The staff were great and treated us well so you are in good hands. II will probably still be working on this review when you return as I have lots more to add (I hope to scan all the documents tonight).

 

I look forward to hearing all about your adventures upon your return. Safe travels and have fun!

Jerry

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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Note: My wife and I were also on this cruise, although, sadly we never had a chance to meet Jerry during the week. We were in Cabin 334 with a French balcony. I was hoping to blog along the way, but in the end was too busy to do what I thought would be an adequate job. Now back to work, I will let Jerry work his magic and perhaps make comments at the end. Feel free to ask questions if you want.

 

I do have a photo gallery up at https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2RV4BNiDZNsTC1pYklwQ293clk&authuser=0.

 

Jerry --

 

Fantastic job on the review. It brings back so many memories and is so thorough that I am thinking of sending it to family and friends. If you want my help remembering anything or adding other excursions, just shoot me a message. We did the pub crawl in Cologne and the Audie Murphy WWII one in Strasbourg.

 

 

 

Jim

 

Hi Jim. Again not sure how we missed each other on the Ingvi but I think the fact we were travelling as part of a group of 6, we were not as social as we otherwise would have been. Thanks for the link to your photos, lots of great memorizes there! And feel free to add your thoughts and perspective as we go along. We did 2 different optional tours to yours so as we get to those ports in my review, it would be good to hear how you enjoyed them. Between us we should be able to cover most of the optional tours :D

 

Late in the week, we also decided to stay on the boat instead of taking the bus ride to the Black Forest...we enjoyed a very empty boat and wandered the local town so again when we get to that point in my review, feel free to fill the gap! I recognize you from your photos so I know we passed each other numerous times. Thanks for following along and glad you are enjoying the review!

Jerry

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rothbury

rothbury

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Hi Jerry,

Still following along and learning a lot from your commentary and the pictures.

 

Just a question about walking in Amsterdam. I just had my knee "worked on" and it's doing great. I'm sure by December it will be completely healed. I've been looking at maps and Google satellite at Amsterdam and can't get a good perspective for distance. Is the distance from where the boat is tied up to Dam Square and Anne Frank's House within easy walking distance. We have some time to kill between our arrival and sailing and trying to figure out a way to work off the jet lag. A couple of miles each way or so I figure is good walking distance but not 5+ miles. Somewhere I read that Dam Square was about a 30 minute walk which is great. If Anne Frank's House is another 15 - 20 minutes, even better.

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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Hi Jerry,

Still following along and learning a lot from your commentary and the pictures.

 

Just a question about walking in Amsterdam. I just had my knee "worked on" and it's doing great. I'm sure by December it will be completely healed. I've been looking at maps and Google satellite at Amsterdam and can't get a good perspective for distance. Is the distance from where the boat is tied up to Dam Square and Anne Frank's House within easy walking distance. We have some time to kill between our arrival and sailing and trying to figure out a way to work off the jet lag. A couple of miles each way or so I figure is good walking distance but not 5+ miles. Somewhere I read that Dam Square was about a 30 minute walk which is great. If Anne Frank's House is another 15 - 20 minutes, even better.

 

Hi rothbury and thanks for sticking with us! From where the Ingvi was docked, it was roughly a 10 minute walk to the Amsterdam Central train station. From there, it is a 10-15 minute walk to Dam Square (not that far but always a heavy pedestrian area...and some road / tram construction has this area very congested right now). Turn right and a 10 minute walk will have you at the Anne Frank House. A quick search on Google maps showed it as 1.6 km from the train station to Anne Frank House via Dam Square.

 

Overall we found Amsterdam to be a very walkable city with most major attractions close if you are centrally located. And the tram system is great (and there is a subway depending upon where you are trying to get to). But watch out for those bikes....the cyclists rule in this town!! Take care of that knee and I am sure you will be fine.

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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We had a full day planned in Amsterdam today, including a couple of museums. After a quick breakfast in the apartment, we walked to our first stop, the Singel Flower Market. This is a bunch of flower shops, all on floating barges. There is no shortage of live and fake flowers, bulbs, wooden shows, and other tourist shiny trinkets.

 

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Cannabis Starter Kit....

 

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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There is a very large collection of impressionist art work in the Rijks.

 

Van Gogh's Farm Cottage

 

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And Van Gogh's self portrait (enjoy these as when we visit the Van Gogh museum next, no photos were allowed inside)

 

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Rembrandt's Night Watch

 

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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Next we walked next door and visited the Van Gogh Museum. We enjoyed it however no photos were allowed inside so nothing to share....

 

After the museum, we wander some and enjoyed the canals.

 

 

Van Gogh museum....the line was much longer when we left.

 

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Selfie with the canal as a backdrop

 

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How many pictures of a bike and a canal did I take???

 

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Sparky333

Sparky333

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Just wanted to chime in that I've been following along and loving your thorough review of your trip. Great pictures! I've been thinking the Viking Rhine Getaway might be a good choice for us and it's fantastic to see a preview.

 

The pictures of the war memorial sites you guys visited before the cruise were very moving - got me choked up - I'm sure being there in person is quite an experience.

 

Thanks for your efforts in putting this review together!

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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Just wanted to chime in that I've been following along and loving your thorough review of your trip. Great pictures! I've been thinking the Viking Rhine Getaway might be a good choice for us and it's fantastic to see a preview.

 

The pictures of the war memorial sites you guys visited before the cruise were very moving - got me choked up - I'm sure being there in person is quite an experience.

 

Thanks for your efforts in putting this review together!

 

Hi Sparky, thanks for following along. Visiting the WW1 sites was something we had wanted to do for years so tying it in to this trip was the perfect opportunity. It was very somber and definitely moving to see where the troops had fought the battles that we had read about for years. And to experience it with my Father-in-Law who was a Korean war vet just brought an added reality to it all.

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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Cruisinskier, thanks for posting your great photos. I'm sure it is a lot of work and I just want you to know how much I am enjoying looking at them. There are so many nice ones, but my favorite is the one of the barge filled with bikes pulled from the canal. Thank you so much!

 

Glad you are enjoying! We just happened to be sitting in a cafe beside the canals when that barge went by. Sometimes timing is everything. But bicycle theft truly is the largest crime in Amsterdam.

 

Enjoy your cruise on the Summit! We have a B2B booked on it next March. So I look forward to reading your review ;)

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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So there was one tourist thing we had yet to do in Amsterdam. Originally we were not going to do a canal cruise given we had done one in Leiden. But as we were walking back from the Van Gogh Museum to our apartment, we saw a boat cruise about to head out so we jumped aboard. One hour for 10E, seemed reasonable....

 

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There is a different perspective from the water...

 

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Just sitting along the canals...

 

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