From A to B - a week of luxury.

Amsterdam to Basel. Amazing to breathtaking. Overall - a great experience - even though the reality has been a little different from the expected 'cause  all the rivers we're travelling have high water. This means they're about eight metres deep instead of the more usual three to four. They don't call it a flood until the level gets to more than ten metres.

So the poor Cruise Director has had to make alternative travel arrangements, almost on a daily basis, to make sure 137 Aussies, 2 Singaporeans and 6 token Kiwis get to enjoy all the experiences of a Rhine River Cruise.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, 'cause the boarding was an experience all on its own. After our learning experience with suitcases and cobbled streets when we arrived in Amsterdam, we decided that the only way to get to the ship to start the cruise was by taxi. A brand new Mercedes taxi of course. So we arrived at the gangway to the MS Armachello...

and were met by a hoard of very friendly, uniformed people who whisked our suitcases away, invited us on board and immediately took possession of our passports. This photo's actually from where we stopped at the first lock. I was a bit overwhelmed at the boarding and didn't think to take any photos.

Then came one of the great unexplained mysteries of our time. When we stepped up to the reception desk on the ship, no one even knew our names. In a matter of a few minutes we had checked in and were shown straight to our room - where our bags were sitting waiting for us!!... How did they know which room to put them in??

Anyway, after sorting ourselves out we wandered down to the lounge...

Where we were joined by lots of friendly, smiling fellow passengers, all keen to make sure they were going to enjoy this experience.

So, over the last seven days, we've enjoyed pretty much every aspect of shipboard life. The room was obviously not the largest room we've stayed in, but it was clean, well appointed and the service staff were excellent. We struggled a little bit with the concept of the French Balcony...

but that was OK. It made it more interesting when we went through locks...

Yeah... I know! You can't even tell what the photos are, can you?

So, the top one is the first lock we went through in Amsterdam. The next three are taken from the "French Balcony" in our room. The top right one shows us entering a lock. The bottom left one shows us in the lock with another vessel entering behind us. The bottom right shows the same view but after the lock has been filled and the vessels are now about 10 metres higher than when we entered the lock. The reason I didn't take these photos through the day was 'cause I was busy, out being a tourist.

Anyway, after having cruised the Rhine for a week, two things have happened. I've become an expert on locks -  so if you want to know anything more just ask and I'll see if I can find someone to answer your questions. 

The other thing that's happened is that I became an expert on Rhine River Traffic. It seems that the majority of barges on the river are privately owned and they operate pretty much the same way an Owner Driver operates a truck and trailer unit in New Zealand - with one significant difference. The barge is also home for the wife and family. 

So, seeing a barge with either one or two cars on deck is very normal. Apparently when the barge is loading or unloading, the car will be swung onto shore and mum will use it to go and do the groceries and take the kids out to blow off a bit of steam. When they're ready to go - these barges have a tare weight of 150 tonne, so it can take a day or two to load them - they swing the car(s) back on board and off they go.

Have you heard the term: "Loaded to the gunnels"? That means nothing to these guys 'cause in a lot of cases the gunnels are under water... Literally!!

I guess if you're getting paid by the tonne you just keep throwing it on, but some of these barges are operated with no freeboard at all. When I saw the first one I immediately thought there was something wrong - but no! That's how you do it on the Rhine.

Anyway, enough boy stuff. On the last day of the cruise, the hotel staff put on a German lunch - it has a special unpronounceable name that I can't remember - and It was great...

So now I know there's a basic methodology to the way these tours work. Every time the ship (you're not allowed to call it a boat!) stops you have a choice of a couple of local tours, or you can wander off by yourself, or you can hang out on the boat. The tours seem to be either local walking tours or coach trips to surrounding areas. We did all we could when we could and we've been on some pretty interesting activities and some really interesting activities. Some of these I'll write about later.

In the meantime, here's a few photos our trip down the Rhine on the MS Armachello..

And, here's a link you can follow to see some more...

https://picasaweb.google.com/102502153151045712202/Armachello?noredirect=1

Bye for now.