Avalon Cruise 2026 Amsterdam to Basel Sept. 27 – Oct. 9
Saturday: Geoff and I arrived at Chuck and Cathy’s, after spending Friday night at the Michigan Historical Society awards dinner and sleeping at Dave and Lisa Scholten’s. The drive from Holland to Durand was uneventful—lots of farm country and rustic charm. We spent some time going over last minute details, had dinner, and went to bed, planning to leave for the airport by noon for our Sunday 4pm flight out of Detroit.
Sunday: By 11 or so Sunday morning we were all anxious enough to just leave for the airport. I’m always happy to arrive WAY early. We boarded our flight and made it to Frankfurt without incident, except for a near brawl between a giant Russian guy and the man in front of him who wanted to recline his seat to sleep. The Russian dude was definitely someone who should have spent the extra for the emergency row seats. He looked like a jack-in-the-box in his seat, and was VERY unhappy about his space being encroached upon. Three staff members tried explaining that since this was an overnight flight, EVERYONE would be reclining their seats. I couldn’t understand enough of the conversation to know exactly what was said, but it was heated enough that I kept an eye out in case I needed to get out of the way. Eventually, some seats were traded and things calmed down.
We were expecting some delays at customs because of the new biometric scanning that is supposed to happen in Germany (photos, fingerprints, etc) but they only had the photograph part running. Cathy asked a staff member about our tight layover on our return trip, and she advised arriving at the airport 5-6 hours before our flight… I think there was a bit of a language barrier there, and so I don’t know if that’s correct advice, but we can’t anyway because it’s a layover. Our flight from Zurich to Frankfurt is early in the morning, so perhaps if we arrive early there we can get it out of the way, but getting everyone moving at O’Dark Thirty could be tricky.
Monday: Our flight from Frankfurt to Amsterdam was short and sweet (literally—they hand out a fair amount of Lindt chocolate on these Lufthansa flights!) and we easily got a mini-van taxi to our hotel, the Movenpick Amsterdam, which is right on a canal and near where our ship will dock. The taxi cost about 100 Euro. Some kid Chuck and Cathy sat near on the plane told them an Uber would be a lot cheaper, but since the Uber parking was nowhere to be seen when we departed the airport, we went the easy route. It’s funny how back when I was exploring Germany on my own 2010, I was taking public transportation on day one, and now that I’m with a bigger group and have a little more disposable income, I’m playing it safer.
Our hotel had a beautiful view of the canal, and we marveled at the boats going by, from small water taxis and pleasure craft to barges of all sizes, car ferries crossing back and forth, and a variety of long, narrow river cruise ships like we’ll eventually be boarding.
After a quick freshening up, we set out to wander and find lunch. After discovering that many things are closed on Monday, we finally arrived at a bar/restaurant on the water, and our very sweet waitress was extremely helpful. (I explained, “We’re tourists and we’re hungry; please help us!”) We each drank a beer, Chuck had a cheeseburger, Cathy had a chicken sandwich, and Geoff and I shared a Dutch appetizer plate with fried cheese, batterballen, and some sort of croquettes. The radar showed rain on the way, so we cut our exploring short after lunch and headed back to the hotel for naps. I know that to avoid jetlag you’re supposed to immediately jump into the new schedule, so I set my alarm for an hour and a half, assuming that I’d otherwise awaken at 2:00 a.m. and be all messed up for the coming day. After our naps, it was still raining, so we enjoyed the view from our window and eventually went to dinner in the hotel bar, which was full of other tourists embarking on the cruise tomorrow.
Tuesday:
We had to have our bags ready to be transported to the ship by 8:30 this morning, so we got up at 7 to get organized, and set out the bags before heading to breakfast. The breakfast was a typical European smorgasbord of yogurt and muesli, fruit, bread, lots of meat, and some American things to keep everyone happy. After we were fed and caffeinated, our group set out to do some exploring.
We wandered down a canal toward the HaupBahnhof or train station, which is a major architectural landmark. From there, we wandered the canals, enjoying views of the houseboats and architecture. We stopped by TJ Maxx to get Geoff some more shorts, as the ones he thought were in his suitcase were not (bummer!) and I found a soccer jersey for Louie. After an hour or two, we were ready to head back to the boat. We turned down a few different alleys, just for a different view on the way back, and before I knew it, I was looking into a storefront offering an array of dildos (or is it dildoes? Not sure on the grammar on this one… LOL.) at a discount 75% off, no less. The next store was full of plush penises and labia in the window—definitely would make for quite a souvenir! 😉
We arrived back at the boat a bit tired—turned out we had walked about 4 miles, so we grabbed some lunch and retired to the rear deck to enjoy the shade, watch the boat traffic, and relax. Geoff suggested naps after lunch, so we grabbed books from our room and headed up to the top dock, where there were plenty of deck chairs. From here, we could read, nap, and continue to watch the boat traffic. Later tonight, we have a welcome meeting, dinner, and I’m guessing there will be some cards amongst our group.
The welcome meeting seemed to last forever, by the time we went through the crew introductions, safety briefing, and corny jokes that are a little old my third time around on one of these cruises, but part of the show. An hour or so later we were dismissed to head to dinner, where a five course meal with wine awaited. Even though the portions are small, that’s still a lot of food. I reminded myself that last time, we would skip a course or two, foregoing the bread, appetizer or soup course. The waiters are constantly refilling your wineglasses, so there, too, you have to be careful to pace yourself. I usually don’t drink on the daily, and when I do, only one, so this ubiquitous alcohol is a bit different for me. After dinner, we decided to head to bed instead of playing cards.
Wednesday:
I had planned to get up for the 7 a.m. exercise class, but after a fitful night’s sleep I was not feeling it when the 6:45 alarm went off. Geoff and I slept until 7:30 and then got ready for our 9:00 canal tour.
Our canal cruise began a short walk from the cruise boat dock and lasted about 90 minutes. We cruised much the same area that we walked yesterday, and it was interesting to see everything from the water level. Our captain’s skills were impressive, too, as she navigated tight corners within the canal system.
Our guide explained that the traditional buildings are narrow due to the Dutch tax system, which taxed houses based on their width, not height, and she described the “dancing sisters” or buildings that were tilting because of the swampy base upon which they were built, pointing out examples as we passed. Houseboats filled much of the canal wall space, and it was interesting to see both the modern and dilapidated. Our guide explained that the government regulated but did not charge for the wall space, limiting the height of the houseboats, and allotting the parking spots. There were also a lot of small boats, and I imagine that much like the bicycles, they are much more efficient than trying to drive a car. Our guide pointed out the Booking.com headquarters, which has a bike ramp for 2,500 bikes underneath it, but no car parking.
After the boat tour ended at a diamond museum (which we skipped touring in favor of a walking tour) we followed a new guide, Werbe, through the Jewish district and past Rembrandt’s house. He pointed out the small memorials in front of various residences where Jewish people were taken from their homes by the Nazis during WWII, and told us about his mum’s experience eating tulip bulbs to stay alive during the last winter of the war.
Upon returning to the ship, we ate lunch and went up top to play cards while we waited for the ship to leave port, scheduled for 1:15. As we’ve traveled down the canal, we’ve been treated to views of various boats, more residential areas, and a line of trees bordering the walking path that follows the canal. It looks a bit like “Unter den Linden” in Germany. Perhaps they are linden trees, too.
After several hours on the river we stopped in the city of Utrecht to pick up people who had been on an excursion to a nearby castle. We had spent the afternoon watching the scenery go by, playing cards, and reading. We were tied up to a wall for an hour or so, then set off again, before reaching some locks in the evening. It took a while to make our way through, and the ship was still underway when we went to bed around 10. I slept badly again—I’m worried that’s going to catch up with me. The alarm at 7:30 has seemed very early each morning, when it would be quite late for me to wake up then at home.
Thursday:
We awoke outside of Antwerp, and our excursion departure time of 9:00 was delayed because we still had locks to go through. The area around Antwerp is very industrial: refineries, windmills, nuclear power plants and other structures that I wasn’t sure about, but we could see the historic clock tower, a UNESCO world heritage site, in the distance. Around 10 we were finally ushered off the boat for a quick tour of Antwerp’s historic district. Like the Netherlands, Antwerp was built on a canal system, but they have mostly filled theirs in. The old city is quite interesting, with a castle and defensive wall, and many halls built by the various guilds, which even had their own altars at the Cathedral of Our Lady, a large Catholic church.
While we walked, I noticed a man and his son touring the city on their own. They were so sweet that I took a few photos of them.
Our guide told us that most of the statues and paintings in the church had been destroyed during the Dutch Reformation, in an attempt to get rid of the “idolatry” practiced by Catholics praying to the Virgin Mary and various saints. But the artwork and statues had been reproduced and it looked like a traditional Catholic cathedral. There were several paintings by Reubens depicting the crucifixion and ascension of Jesus, and many paintings and statues of the saints and the Holy Family. Our tour was quite short because we had an appointment to get through a lock this afternoon, so our boat had to leave the dock by 12:30, but the old town was quite compact, so we got to see the castle, cathedral, butcher’s guild, parliament, and quite a few other things while on our walk.
As we had lunch back on the boat, we set sail, headed back out on the Scheldt River, headed toward the German city of Mainz, where we will get onto a bus in the morning to do some site seeing and transfer to a hotel to deal with the low water levels on the Rhine, which is where we are supposed to be cruising. Belgium was not on our original itinerary, but I am glad we got to see a bit of Antwerp!
After heading out back into the canal, it became clear that we were going back the way we came, through a bunch of locks. While we had been asleep for much of this the night before, it became obvious that we were going to be spending a lot of time in this industrial area in the company of barges, freighters, tugs, and various other commercial boats. Being from such a touristy area, I’m used to ferries and pleasure craft, with a freighter here and there—ths was the other end of the shipping spectrum. I don’t think I saw any kind of privately owned pleasure craft all day.
During the afternoon, I walked laps around the sky deck to get in a little exercise, and read my book for a bit as well. When we met in the lounge for happy hour and our daily meeting for the following day’s itinerary, everyone was joking about the terrible scenery, diesel fumes, etc. For the first time, I really began to question why we didn’t cancel the cruise. I couldn’t have from my end, since we had bought our own plane tickets, and the trip insurance wouldn’t kick in unless the cruise was canceled. Cathy had done a little research regarding renting an airbnb in a couple of places, and that would not have been cost effective. Avalon is giving us a 25% refund, but even so, the amount of time we have spent on buses, industrial canals, etc. is really frustrating, compared to my past two Avalon cruises, along such scenic areas, with opportunities to wander without as tight of a schedule. I feel like we have spent more time on buses than in the actual destinations. I was hoping that Geoff would love this kind of travel and we could do it every couple of years, but this certainly hasn’t been the experience to sell him on it!
Friday:
After another night of not much sleep, I woke up with a scratchy throat, as did Geoff. I located the cold medicine in my shower kit and put it in my handbag in case we needed it during the day. We were going to be heading by bus to Cologne, touring the city to see the famous cathedral, then heading to Mainz to stay at the Hilton for a night before getting back onto a new boat, this one on a deeper part of the Rhine.
As we traveled on the Autobahn past farmland, some coal power plants, and signs for some of the scenic towns on the Rhine that I’ve boated by before, I was again struck by how much we were missing. Geoff slept, trying to shake off the inevitable cold we had both woken up with.
When we arrived in Cologne, we walked around the cathedral, and down by the river into the old town, and by city hall, where many weddings were taking place. Eventually our guide turned us loose to find lunch, and we walked into a place advertising kolsch and wurst. When a Western-style statue said “Howdy, partner” when we triggered its motion sensor on the way in, we should have left, but the promise of a bathroom and lunch was too dear. After taking care of basic needs and ordering a beer, we looked around to find an odd mix of Western and burlesque photography, which seemed a strange pairing to me.
I deciphered what I could from the menu, and Chuck, Cathy, and I ordered schnitzel, while Geoff leaned his head back against a railing behind his seat and tried to sleep. It was then that I began to realize how sick he felt. As we were eating, he turned pale, and I thought he might pass out, but he relayed that he had a terrible headache, so I passed over some ibuprofen, since his cold medicine from earlier contained acetaminophen and he wouldn’t be overdosing too badly (he wasn’t having beer, either).
We decided that after lunch, he and I would walk back to the cathedral and people watch until the bus came an hour or so later, while Chuck and Cathy would do some shopping. The ibuprofen kicked in a bit (thankfully before the polka band began to play in the square in front of us!) and we both mostly slept on the hour or two drive to Mainz.
After a quick dinner at the hotel, we both showered and were in bed before 8:00, hoping a good night’s sleep would cure us. It was heavenly to shower in a gloriously large bathroom after the tiny shower on the ship.
Saturday: From the amount of coughing and sniffling we both did overnight, it was clear that the sleep was not the cure. I went down to breakfast, but Geoff didn’t even feel up to that, and I worried what on earth we were going to do, as we had a bus ride, then a tour, then getting onto a different boat in a new town, so there was no place Geoff could just sit and rest all day. We decided that if he still felt awful by the time we arrived in Heidelberg, we would just sit on a bench for the duration of the tour, and get back onto the bus as soon as we were able. After two hours on the bus, the cold medicine and ibuprofen had a chance to kick in, and we decided to join the “gentle walking” group, which is mainly made up of people with canes and walkers. I figured it would be the least strenuous. It turned out to be a good choice—we got to enjoy some lovely views, the pace was easy, and we were both feeling a bit better than earlier in the morning.
After an uneventful bus ride, we got onto our new boat and settled in. We are both still stuffy and hoarse, but feeling better than this morning. We’re headed to bed early again tonight, and hoping to at least somewhat better tomorrow—fingers crossed!
Sunday:
Well, last night was not as restful as I’d hoped. My nose is running so much I practically have to stuff it with kleenex to keep it from dripping all night. Gross! Our alarm went off at 7 and we had breakfast, deciding to opt out of the morning walking tour of Strasbourg in order to have energy for the afternoon tour of the Maginot Line. Chuck and Cathy are going wine tasting, while Geoff and I fully embrace our history nerdiness. There are a few others who hung back this morning, and we’re all in the third floor lounge, coughing, sniffling and drinking hot tea. At least I don’t have to worry about getting these folks sick, as they already seem to be. It’s kind of a gray day, and we’re surrounded by more industrial scenery. Later today the boat sets sail and hopefully the scenery will improve. So far this morning I’ve finished listening to “The Calamity Club”—so good— and worked on the NYT word games. I have about half of “Abaddon’s Gate” by James Corey to finish on my Kindle, and Stephen King’s “The Gunslinger” audiobook waiting, too. I did a little research regarding train tickets and directions from Basel to Zurich and from the Zurich train station to our hotel. I’m curious to see how the hotel works out—when Cathy and I reserved the rooms, the reviews seemed fine, and its proximity to the train station was a plus, but more recently, when I’ve gone back to look it up, some of the reviews are pretty terrible. We’ll see how it goes, I guess. It’s such an expensive city that I don’t think we have a lot of options. Hopefully no one gets bed bugs!
Later on in the afternoon, Geoff and I participated in a tour of the Maginot Line in Alsace, in an area disputed between France and Germany for many centuries. The Maginot Line was constructed after WWI to provide a buffer from German advances. I was always taught that the Germans blew right through it, but the way our guide explained it, the line did its job by delaying the German advance for several months, doing a better job than expected.
The tour began with a long, downward tunnel, and the first room in it was a morgue—not really encouraging. The bunker held 600 men, and I can’t imagine what that was like—there was no mess hall, only a few bunks that they slept in on a rotation, and the echoes were so loud that any real noise would have been deafening. Most of the bunker was underground by 12 meters, and there were several escape tunnels that were built at a height one would have to crouch to evacuate, by design, the guide said, to slow things down. The idea of being trapped down here and having to crouch for a half mile to escape through a tunnel kind of blew my mind—I guess in an emergency, you do what you have to do. Our guide commented that the only death at this site actually came from a German officer who tried to blow it up. The concrete is so thick, there is no destroying it, the guide said, which to me seemed like tempting fate.
As we made our way further down, my cold seemed to kick into high gear–my eyes and nose were just streaming, and I kept sneezing. It was awful. By the bus ride home, I had run out of kleenex and just had a gummy mass of tissues to sneeze into and dab my nose with. I was about ready to cry by the time we got back to the boat.
Geoff and I decided to skip the disembarkation meeting and dinner, order room service, and lay low for the evening. I did manage to sleep better.
Monday:
We awoke in Breisach am Rhein, a cute little town on the Rhine. Cathy opted for the full day Black Forest tour, and the rest of us decided to lay low on the boat. (Chuck is sick now, too.) Because town is close, we decided to go for a walk in search of a pharmacy to stock up on cold meds and ibuprofen.
The town was charming—a large church dominated the landscape, and the houses looked like various flavors of fruit sorbet. We wandered the blocks until we found an Apotheke. (We stopped at a Perfumerie that had holistic meds—lots of zinc lozenges and elderberry teas, but I drew the conclusion that you must need a special license to sell medicine, so we continued our search for an Apotheke.) When we finally found one, the clerk’s little bit of English and my high school German were enough to figure out what we needed, and we left with 70 Euro worth of cold medicine, which probably would have been half that at Walgreens or Rite Aid. But I am glad to have it! We walked back to the ship to have a rest, and hope to walk back into town this afternoon, before the boat sets sail to Basel this evening.
Later in the afternoon we walked back into town, but during lunch, the boat got moved out to an island in between France and Germany, so we had a different, longer route, which was quite pretty, along the Rhein. We walked across a bridge, past an old border crossing guard hut, and made our way back into town.
The St. Stephen’s was the focus of our walk, and we wound our way up the roads to the hilltop, finally arriving at the church, with a beautiful view of the city. After taking many photos, we meandered our way back down and headed for the boat. We joked that the three mile walk and hill climb was probably not what Cathy had in mind when she told us to take it easy for the day. We changed out of our sweaty clothes, grabbed some cold drinks, and headed for the shaded chairs on the sky deck to read until it was time for the boat to depart.
Later, during happy hour, the boat went through the lock near the dam we had seen while crossing the bridge. It looked like maybe there was a spare inch on either side of the boat. We enjoyed watching the forested shore line as we cruised, the first truly scenic views since leaving Amsterdam, but all too soon it was getting dark and we couldn’t see anything. We had dinner and retired back to our rooms. Tomorrow we will wake up in Basel and that will be the end of the cruise.
Tuesday:
We woke at 6:30 in order to shower, finish packing, and get our bags out on time. At breakfast, we joked about the terrible scenery where we were docked. I don’t know anything about Basel, but we were on its outskirts, and it didn’t look like much. Compared to waking up to downtown Budapest on our last cruise, this was again a disappointment.
Our taxi wasn’t until noon, so we sat in the lounge and read. Cathy and I tried to buy train tickets online but I wasn’t able to set up my credit card to do so. She was successful. Eventually the new batch of passengers began to arrive, and our taxi arrived. The ride to the Basel train station was like the Night Bus scene in Harry Potter—he was a crazy driver! But, he got us to the train station, which was a classic European design, in a big half circle with lots of windows at the entrance. It was like a small city inside, with multi levels, shops, restaurants, etc. I was easily able to buy train tickets from an automat and we bought some pretzel sandwiches for lunch. They were delicious! Geoff found a little free library and left behind the book he had finished. Settling into the train, I was excited for the next stretch of our vacation, where we are on our own to figure things out. So far, so good!
The train ride was smooth, quiet, and had pretty scenery. Within an hour, we arrived in Zurich, and began to navigate toward our hotel, which we chose in part because of its proximity to the train station. After a little consultation with Google maps, we set out, passing by a sex shop on the way. I figured we were getting close, as one of the negative reviews I had read about this hotel complained that it was in between a pot shop and a sex shop, and this did turn out to be true—not right next door, but within a stone’s throw. No matter! I was more concerned with the quality of the hotel—some of the reviews had been brutal, and I wondered why Cathy and I had chosen it—turns out, the Expedia reviews were more positive, while the Trip Advisor reviews were more negative. Anyway, we checked in without incident, the rooms were spartan but fine, and after washing out some clothes and hanging them to dry, we set out to wander the city.
I had noticed an older looking building that I thought might be a church, so we headed that way, and discovered it was the Landes Museum (Swiss National Museum). It seemed to be some kind of castle complex. We are planning to visit it Thursday because of the rain, but we enjoyed walking outside that night. We randomly found our way into Old Town, which was a touristy but beautiful set of streets and alleys with gorgeous architecture, flowers, signs—all the things. And good people watching! After an hour or so of wandering, we made our way back to a German restaurant that Geoff had pointed out when we began our walk into Old Town. We were all feeling well enough (finally!!!) to enjoy a beer. Cathy, Chuck, and Geoff all ordered schnitzel and I had cordon bleu. We shared each others’ sides of potato salad and spatzle. We had a leisurely walk back to the hotel, and Geoff retired to our room, which Chuck, Cathy and I played cards in the breakfast area of the hotel. Chuck won one round of Golf and I pulled out a win in the second.
Wednesday:
Today we took the train to Lucerne, about an hour away, and what a feast for the eyes that city is! I didn’t really know much about the town, except for that it was on a lake and in the mountains. I had looked at a few Viator trip/tour options but Cathy mentioned that a friend of hers had told her that it was easy to get there by train and do the sightseeing on your own, so that’s what we did, and it was just perfect.
We wandered around the old town, crossing the Ruess River that drains out of Lake Lucerne on these cool old wooden bridges—Cathy looked it up—they were built in the 1300’s. Guessing there’s not a lot of original wood left, but they were beautiful, decorated with flower boxes, and inside, there were paintings with religious themes.
There were so many old gorgeous buildings, but my favorite appeared to be an historic apothecary. The architecture and gorgeous door caught my eye, and then when we got closer, through the windows we could see a stuffed owl, a book of spells, a bunch of potions materials like herbs and animal horns and bone, and I was absolutely convinced we’d discovered the Swiss Hogwarts. I really hope they’re sending me an invitation via owl!
We wandered for an hour or so, then bought ferry tickets for a two hour cruise on the lake, and that was just magical. The mountains surrounding the area are craggy and kind of blend together in a blue haze. The water is a deep greenish blue, and the hillsides green with forests, vineyards and grazing land. Cows and goats dotted the landscape. It was the most idyllic scene I’ve ever seen in my life. I thought nothing could top New Zealand, but here we are. (Although I think I could afford to stay in New Zealand longer—this seems like the kind of place where George and Amal Clooney would have a house.) The boat stopped at various towns to let passengers on and off, so we were treated to some close ups. It was probably my favorite part of this entire trip.
Upon returning to shore, we went in search of someplace to have lunch. More tourist groups had arrived, and we tried to find someplace a little off the beaten path. Eventually, I shoved the group toward a pizza parlor with threats of “hangry Jen” looming over them, and it turned out to be delicious, thin crust, Italian style pizza. We were all happy.
We caught the train back to Zurich, and while some of us slept, I didn’t want to miss a thing. We napped after returning to our hotel, then ran out to a nearby grocery store to grab some deli food for dinner, and ate back at the hotel. What a perfect day! (Except I lost at cards twice after dinner.)
Thursday: Rain was predicted for today, so the plan was to visit the Swiss National Museum, located a couple blocks from our hotel. Geoff and I woke early and went down to breakfast. We didn’t see Chuck and Cathy, so I assumed they were sleeping in a little. We returned to our room and I read for a while, until it was late enough to politely message them about the day’s plans. Not too long after returning to our room, Geoff became unwell. He looked pale, and commented that he thought he’d feel better if he threw up. Not good! I went to the grocery store to see if they had any ginger ale, and Chuck and Cathy messaged me to say they were going to a pharmacy and asked if we needed anything–good timing. By the time we returned from our missions, Geoff had moved into the vomiting stage of what I’m guessing was food poisoning, and opted to skip the museum. We left him in the privacy of the room, and gave instructions to housekeeping to please leave him in peace.
We walked through the rain to the museum and began working our way through the exhibits, the first of which was about cartography in Switzerland. It was interesting to consider the challenge of mapping such a mountainous country. From there, we moved onto an exhibit about sex work which comprised video interviews with several sex workers who explained how they entered this trade, legislation, policies, and enforcement that affected them, etc. It was very thought provoking. Other exhibits included Switzerland’s policy of neutrality, watches, banking, graphic design, and I’m sure I’m forgetting some–the museum was huge. After about three hours, I felt like my head couldn’t absorb any more knowledge, and we decided to have lunch at the cafe and head back. I had a slice of Quiche Lorraine that was glorious. Back at the hotel, Geoff was resting, feeling a bit better, and not throwing up anymore. Chuck, Cathy, and I opted to play cards in the breakfast area, as the rain continued.
After an hour or so, we queried Geoff about dinner and whether or not he thought eating was a good idea. He was hungry, which I took as a good sign. Since we’re flying home tomorrow, it would be excellent if he was over whatever was going on this morning! After looking online, we found a restaurant not too far away with a menu that seemed like it would be to everyone’s liking. Unfortunately, when we arrived, they had a 40 minute wait, so we were back to square one. In a situation like this, I’m usually content to wander until something looks good, but a woman by the door offered us a recommendation and directions, which did not include a restaurant name or street name, so I felt as though we were being sent on a bit of a wild goose chase as we set off in the general direction she had shown us. After going through the train station in order to cross all the tracks (a bit like walking through a small city) we emerged in a less touristy part of Zurich. The rain picked up, and we walked meaningfully but without much sense of where we were going. We passed a sushi place, which we skipped over, and eventually spotted a place called Beet Root. I have no idea if this is where the woman was talking about, but we popped in. It was a vegan restaurant, so I wasn’t sure how that would go over, but the waitress was friendly, there was seating, and it was dry, so we stayed. I had a delicious tomato, lentil, and coconut milk soup, while Geoff and Chuck opted for some kind of meatless burger and Cathy had a sweet potato/nacho bowl of some sort. When the guys’ burgers arrived with pink buns (a little beet juice in the dough, maybe?) I again wondered how this was going to go, but they declared them delicious! Yay!
That night, we packed up and got ready for an early departure to the train station–our flight left Zurich at 8, so we planned to be on a train to the airport by 6. I was surprised the next morning by how empty the train station was, and we learned that not all of the train cars are open that early in the morning, so we had a bit of a rush when the train arrived to find a car that was open. After boarding, we had a smooth trip to the flughafen (airport) about 20 minutes away. Our $12 train tickets probably saved us a $150 cab ride, so that was nice. The trains have been so nice to use–reasonably priced, clean, comfortable, and efficient. I’ll spare you the details of our flight home, other than to say that it might be a good idea to avoid Germany for layovers until they get their new biometric scanning requirement at customs figured out–what a bottleneck that creates. Lots of stressed out travelers worried, with cause, about missing their connections. A Frankfurt airport staff member we spoke to on the way here recommended to us that we arrive at least five hours before our flight. Not easy to do when your layover is only 2 hours. But, we made our connection and arrived safely back in Detroit on schedule.
Looking back, I realize that my favorite part of the trip was in Switzerland, when we were on our own. While the tours on the cruise were really great, it was nice to be off the boat and have the freedom to explore. The river cruise makes it very easy to see multiple countries, but I felt like we didn’t have enough time on land to explore. I think the next time we travel, we’ll rely on trains and airbnb’s more, and have a bit more of an adventure, for better or worse.
