I first spotted her on the banks of the Rhine River in Frankfurt, Germany, on a sunny Saturday this past May. I immediately thought, “What a beauty!”
First impressions matter in love — and when you’re traveling. That’s why the Viking Baldur’s good looks boosted expectations for the seven-night cruise from Frankfurt to Amsterdam that I was about to board.
Paying homage to the Norse heritage of her name — Baldur was the god of light and joy — this 443-foot-long ship is one of a new generation of luxurious vessels designed for river journeys.
She boasts fresh, Scandinavian good looks, with interiors of blond wood, glass and marble, and a soothing color scheme of sand, sapphire and celadon.
My Viking Cruises stateroom was similarly attractive and ingeniously designed to offer ample closet space, even for a couple traveling together, plus a built-in desk that doubles as a vanity. A flat-screen television has a great selection of films and shows, wireless Internet access was complimentary and the spacious bathroom came with a stall shower stocked with L’Occitane toiletries.
This cabin’s knock-out amenity, however, was a roomy private veranda with two chairs and a table. It proved to be the perfect fresh-air perch from which to privately study and savor some of the most beautiful scenery in Europe. (Luckily, Central Europe’s cruising season lasts through November and into December.)
If my first surprise was that river cruising, once the dowdy sibling of ocean-liner expeditions, had gone so dramatically upmarket, the next one came after my friend and I had dropped our bags aboard and headed for Frankfurt’s leafy Sachsenhausen district for lunch in an apple-wine tavern. Compared to regular fermented cider, Frankfurt’s favorite quaff is more acidic, with a higher alcohol content, because it’s essentially apple juice that has gone through the same process used to make wine. It was hard for us to pull ourselves away from free rounds of worry-wilting apple wine in big glass mugs to make it back to the ship for its inaugural sailing.
The Rhine gets its name from the Celtic word “rhenos,” which means a “raging flow of water.” Today the 760-mile river, Europe’s second-longest after the Danube, presents a carefully tamed (through centuries of work by engineers) and very pretty face to the world as it descends from its source in the Swiss Alps to the channeled delta in the Netherlands that directs its waters into the North Sea.
Over the next week, we had more chances to experience Germany through unscripted encounters and beautifully organized shore excursions to places like picturesque Heidelberg. One of the great advantages of river cruising is you almost always dock right in the heart of a town or city, including the wine-making hamlet of Rüdesheim, 2,000-year-old Koblenz and Cologne, home to the storied cathedral.
The river’s most magnificent scenery, a main reason many passengers choose this itinerary, is the 40-mile, UNESCO-listed upper middle Rhine valley between Bingen, Rüdesheim and Koblenz. This is the stretch that offers the money shots of what a trip on the Rhine should be.
The Norwegian who founded Viking Cruises, Torstein Hagen, describes the “Legends of the Rhine” voyage (which will be known as the “Rhine Getaway” in 2016; from $2,356/double occupancy) as “a thinking man’s or woman’s cruise” — but it’s also just a very good time.
The trip offers the pleasure of hearing birdsong coming from terraced green vineyards that cover the valley’s steep slopes and a succession of soul-stirring castles, one more improbably beautiful than the next, that crown strategic hilltops. For World War II buffs, the highlight was Ludendorff Bridge, better known as the bridge at Remagen, which the Allies took over in a significant battle during the closing days of World War II.
“One of the many reasons river cruising has become so popular today is it combines the adventure of going on a trip, or traveling somewhere to discover a new culture and country, with a peaceful vacation, since the rhythm is so relaxing,” says Jens Wehrenberg, the amiable hotel manager on the Viking Baldur.
Impeccable service was provided during our cruise by a multinational staff that ranged from a hard-working, hawk-eyed Romanian chambermaid to the jovial Hungarian bartender — probably the most popular person on the ship — to the talented Russian head chef.
And because all great trips should come with an unexpected discovery, we were completely charmed by Nijmegen, a tidy, friendly little riverside town that’s the oldest city in Holland. During a peaceful morning on foot, we visited the city’s superb Muzieum, where local archaeological finds attested to the fact that it was the Romans who built Europe’s most enduringly resonant empire, and came across its handsome Art Deco synagogue, beautifully maintained but no longer used after the devastation of the city’s Jewish population.
We also brought big slices of aged nutty golden Gouda to bring home as souvenirs, had a superb lunch of white asparagus and cheese soufflé at Het Savarijn, Nijmegen’s best restaurant, and whiled away a sunny afternoon over an assortment of excellent locally brewed beers on a terrace in the shadows of the cathedral.
After disembarking with full bellies, we concluded that the Rhine is Europe’s most vital main street, and there’s no better way to explore it than from a boat.