River Veterans: Tell me where to start

[mapsd]

Asking the veterans here what there advice would be for our situation:

 

Wanting to do a shorter river cruise followed by backtracking to our origination point on our own to visit sites not on the tour. Thinking Amsterdam to Basel via Tauck or Viking and returning to Amsterdam over land.

 

Things we want to see: castles, WW2 sites, a concentration camp. We love history and great scenery. Maybe end the trip with a few days in Bruges?

 

Suggestions?

 

Planning to travel Fall, 2016

Edited June 15, 2015 by mapsd

[Hydrokitty]

Asking the veterans here what there advice would be for our situation:

 

Wanting to do a shorter river cruise followed by backtracking to our origination point on our own to visit sites not on the tour. Thinking Amsterdam to Basel via Tauck or Viking and returning to Amsterdam over land.

 

Things we want to see: castles, WW2 sites, a concentration camp. We love history and great scenery. Maybe end the trip with a few days in Bruges?

 

Suggestions?

 

Planning to travel Fall, 2016

 

Hmmmm....Castles would be the Rhine/Danube with a pre or post trip to Prague thrown in for the Jewish Quarter (absolutely riveting). Your Rhine/Danube would probably include a stop at/near Nuremberg (mine did) where we visited the parade grounds where the Youth Rallys were held as well as the Documentation Center and if you're lucky the Nuremberg Courtroom. We passed by but were unable to go inside because it is still an active courtroom and was in use the day we were there. If you started in Budapest and sailed North you would end depending on the company you use anywhere from Bonn to Amsterdam and from there you could do a post trip to Bruges, which is a beautiful city. Concentration camp could be hard on this trip because most of them were located in interior out of the way locations.

Edited June 15, 2015 by Hydrokitty

[notamermaid]

Amsterdam - Basel is just right for castles and very good for scenery, but as mentioned by Hydrokitty Nuremberg as a stop is hard to beat as regards WW2 history. Another itinerary might be Paris, bus to Luxemburg, Moselle, Rhine gorge, then into the Main river. Viking does this, another company in a similar way I believe. When you are in Basel at the end of your cruise you could retrace your steps and travel along the Rhine by train. Easy to do, as this is a main line to the North of Germany. Basel - Cologne is good with a stop or two along the way, I suggest a regional train that stops in Remagen to see the Peace museum and documentation on the POW camp there.

 

From Cologne take the Thalys or another high speed train to Brussels and from there to Bruges. Or, of course, you could hire a car. That way you might be able to have a land trip that incorporates a concentration camp site.

 

Speyer and Worms are interesting for Jewish history. Those places might appeal to you.

 

By the way, a "short trip" in North American travellers terms is usually seven nights. Many European river cruise companies offer 3 to 5 nights trips as well.

 

Have fun planning.

 

notamermaid

Edited June 15, 2015 by notamermaid

[4774Papa]

Hydrokitty gave excellent advice.

 

I have been to Auschwitz and Dachau. Auschwitz was the major death camp and a trip there will curl the hairs on the back of your neck. What I mean is that some people have nightmares for weeks after what they see there. Still, people should know what happened there and prevent such in the future.

 

Auschwitz is in south central Poland, some distance from most river cruises. Most death camps were in Poland. Dachau is just outside Munich and not hard to get to from Munich, but it was not a mass extermination camp. Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was a death camp and it located in northern Germany, close to Hanover.

 

By the way, we have had great success with Vantage river cruises. Make sure you compare Vantage's pricing with others like Viking, Uniworld, etc.

[mapsd]

Thanks for the info so far!

With more than a year to plan, I should be able to check out all the various cruise providers.

 

Just looking at the websites, is Tauck really twice what Viking charges (after the 2 for 1 deal)?

What do I need to include to compare apples to apples?

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Remember that Tauck includes everything. Tips, alcohol, all excursions (no optional add-ons.)

 

As for Dachau, I was there in 1971. It was plenty hair-curling, believe me. It may not have been a "major" death-camp, but...enough said.

 

I looked for concentration camps in our upcoming 2016 Amsterdam - Budapest trip, but didn't see any that were particularly close to that route. And I doubt my husband really would be up for such a visit, it does haunt you.

[caviargal]

 

As for Dachau, I was there in 1971. It was plenty hair-curling, believe me. It may not have been a "major" death-camp, but...enough said.

 

I looked for concentration camps in our upcoming 2016 Amsterdam - Budapest trip, but didn't see any that were particularly close to that route. And I doubt my husband really would be up for such a visit, it does haunt you.

 

I have been to Dachau twice; once when I was an exchange student in Austria and again with my mother about ten years ago. I found it very moving and have never forgotten the experience.