Hal Jespersen's Rhine Christmas Market Cruise, December 2024

This is my (Hal’s) report of Hal and Nancy’s Viking River Cruise on the Rhine River to visit Christmas markets in Switzerland, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. We sailed once before on a Viking ocean ship, but this is our first European river cruise. For my general assessment of this river cruising experience, go to the last paragraph.

Monday/Tuesday, December 9–10 — Lucerne, Switzerland

We flew overnight on Swiss Air from San Francisco to Zürich, arranged as part of the Viking package. We started in the SFO Polaris Lounge, enjoying a delicious cheeseburger in their little restaurant. I was underwhelmed by the Swiss 777-300 business class; the lie-flat seats were relatively narrow and uncomfortable, and mine had a cranky motor. Immigration was trivially fast and our bags came right away. A Viking driver met us at the airport and transferred just the two of us in about an hour to the Hotel Schweizerhof in Lucerne, starting a two-day extension before the cruise. In the lobby we met Viking crew member Lars, who gave us a full briefing on the schedule, coupons for free bus rides and free WiFi around town, and advice on local customs. The hotel, built in 1848, is quite luxurious. Our room is facing beautiful Lake Lucerne. The room is dedicated to, and lightly decorated for, Roger Hodgson of the band Supertramp, who stayed here frequently. We wandered around downtown and found a nice little Italian restaurant, Portofino, for a really delicious (pricey) pasta meal.

Wednesday, December 11 — Lucerne

After a delicious buffet breakfast, about twenty of us met Lars again for a walking tour of downtown. The history here goes back to about 800 AD, and we saw some buildings from the 14th century. There’s an interesting ancient bridge, the Chapel Bridge, on the Reuss River, decorated with paintings depicting the town’s history. We stopped in the large 17th-century Jesuit church, quite beautiful. But the primary activity during the walk was hearing a very comprehensive account of Swiss culture, language, cuisine, economics, politics, education, and military obligations. I could not begin to take notes on the firehose of information Lars imparted. A highlight for me was visiting the moving Lion of Lucerne statue (Löwendenkmal Luzern), commemorating the 760 Swiss Guards killed in the French Revolution.

Nancy and I visited the very modest Lucerne Christmas market for lunch and had a grilled sausage and some churros along with Glühwein and Heisse Schokolade. Then we bused to the Swiss Transport museum, which was well-reviewed by other travelers but only moderately interesting to us. (We were actually a bit jetlagged to see the entire collection.) For dinner, we desired some traditional Swiss fondue and tried to get into a few places on the river, but most were seating only outside in 33°F weather (it’s a Swiss tradition—blankets were provided). Eventually, we found Fondue House du Pont and had a nice table inside with a view of the river and the Jesuit church across. A little touristy, but a very nice meal with good service.

Thursday, December 12 — Mt Titlis and Basel

We signed up for the optional excursion to Mount Titlis rather than sit in the hotel lobby for five hours. We bused about 45 minutes to the village of Engelberg, guided by an Ottawan ex-pat named Brendan, and ascended the mountain in two steps: an eight-person gondola and a fifty-person rotating gondola. Together, about 30 minutes. The bus trip up was in rather low overcast with some picturesque farmland to view, but the summit at 10,000 feet was in bright sunshine, way above the clouds. Spectacular views. There were lots of skiers seen barreling down slopes that looked impossible to me.

We crossed a narrow 98m suspension bridge, the Titlis Cliff Walk, that wobbled with every step, disconcerting because the floor was an open grid pattern that let you see every detail way below you. It was a bit windy there, so pretty cold, but surprisingly, the rest of the mountain top was pleasant enough. We suffered no altitude effects. Nancy had to buy a pair of sunglasses in the gift shop because the sunlight and glare were overwhelming. We spent two hours on the summit. Some chose to visit a cave that ran 9m below a glacier, but I demurred because of its limited headroom and slippery path. We had lunch instead in the restaurant, fortunate enough to dine with a magnificent view.

We drove back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and other passengers who had not been on the excursion. Another 90 minutes and we reached our ship in Basel, the Viking Hervor (named after a Valkyrie or maybe an Ikea bookcase). Check-in was really quick and our bags were delivered to our cabin within a few minutes. Our cabin is rather compact but modern and comfortable. It has a narrow balcony that did not get much use in December. We attended a welcome session in the lounge and did a mandatory muster drill. Dinner in the restaurant was pretty good. I had a regional Swiss menu. The complimentary wines were German, from Rheinland Pfalz (Palatinate). Decent. (Nancy and I were stationed in that area back in the 70s and I have no memory of any credible red wines produced there.) The ship departed at 8 p.m. while we dined.

Friday, December 13 — Breisach and Freiburg

We docked at Breisach, Germany, at 4:30 a.m. The ship operation is quiet enough that we slept well, even going through a few locks. Breakfast at 7 was a buffet with an add-on menu from the galley for special items. Our first included shore excursion was the Freiburg Yuletide Market and Organ Concert at 8:45. Freiburg is a university town about 30 minutes away. Twelve buses transported guests from three Viking ships into a small parking area, arriving in shifts. Our guide was a personable young Lebanese woman who studied at the university and told us a lot of facts about the local area, its history, and agriculture. We walked on a guided tour for about 30 minutes and then were set free to roam through some Christmas market areas. Lots of souvenirs were on display as well as the food and drink stands. I had the local sausage, a Freiburger Lange Rote on a Brötchen, and a cup of Glühwein, this time the white wine variety. That was an experiment I will not repeat: the traditional red wine version is a lot better. There is also a new rosé version—no thanks.

We ended our visit with an organ concert at the huge Freiburg Münster (cathedral), about the only building in town to survive two WWII bombings. The organist played four selections that were beautiful. The cathedral actually has four separate organ pipe collections distributed around the church, all controlled by the one console. Low, loud notes were very impressive.

We had lunch back at the ship in the Aquavit Terrace and then wandered around Breisach. We climbed the big hill to see the 14th-century Stephansmünster (St. Stephan’s Cathedral) and the impressive city walls, then back down to see a really tiny Christmas market and children’s skating rink.

Saturday, December 14 — Strasbourg

We awoke docked on the Rhine a couple of miles east of Strasbourg, France. It was delightful to see dozens of beautiful swans and a few Canada geese swimming right up to the ship. Presumably, some passengers have fed them previously. Our excursion today is the extra-cost Christmas Flavors of Alsace, which is one of the typical city food tours that we enjoy taking in foreign cities, although more extensive at almost eight hours. There were only eight guests with our local guide, Eva, but we got a full 44-passenger bus for the 20-minute drive. We parked outside the city island and walked across one of the bridges on the Ill River, next to the famous Vauban Bridge. We roamed around the picturesque Petite France neighborhood with its half-timber buildings. (The name is derived from the “little France disease,” syphilis.)

Our first stop was a bakery, Pain d’Epices, specializing in gingerbread, of which we had two samples, plus chocolate candies called a stork egg and a kougelhopf (shaped like a tiny brioche). We had a little quiz trying to guess the seven spice ingredients in the gingerbread. Then the Maison Alsacienne de Biscuiterie for a Mannelle, which is a large brioche with chocolate chips, shaped crudely like a two-dimensional man. And Woerle Patisserie for a large German-style pretzel and some cookies saved for the next stop.

Next was L’Alsace à Boire, an interesting wine bar. Here we had a sit-down tasting of the pretzel, a charcuterie board (sausage, pâté, Black Forest ham, and a gerkhin), and two cheeses, along with glasses of two Alsatian wines, a dry Riesling and a Pinot Noir. Then a glass of Crémant d’Alsace, similar to a champagne, although with finer bubbles, with the previously obtained cookies. We learned that the Alsatian version of Cheers is not Santé, but S’Gilt.

We walked through Place Gutenberg to our first Christmas market near the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Here we had Glühwein (or non-alcoholic choices) and were set loose to shop. The market was heavily crowded on a Saturday, shoulder-to-shoulder. I didn’t see many purchases occur in our group. We didn’t go into the cathedral because there was a very long line. Meeting up again, we dined a late lunch at a brasserie called Le Gruber. I selected a delicious local biere du Noël (60% of all French beers are produced in this area). Our two courses were Escargots de Bourgogne (which was a new dish for about half of the guests) and Vol-au-Vont (like chicken à la king in an open puff pastry shell).

By this time, 4 p.m., it was starting to get dark. We squeezed slowly through massive crowds to see the colorful light displays and the city’s 100-foot Christmas tree. Finally, we reached the main market, the crowded Chrìstkìndelsmärik, but we sidestepped it to get to our return bus rendezvous in time. We had an excellent time with Eva in Strasbourg. Dinner on the ship was somewhat inappropriately themed German night. It turned out to be a buffet that was actually pretty decent, with more than a dozen typical German entrees, salads, and desserts.

Sunday, December 15 — Mannheim and Rüdesheim

We drove about 15 minutes to downtown Mannheim. Our guide led us around a big square dominated by a fancy water tower, describing various architectural styles in the rather dull industrial city. There is also a monument to Carl Benz, who invented the automobile here in 1885, the Benz Patent-Motorwagen. After an hour, the Christmas market opened, and we had another hour to navigate it. We tried a fried potato dish called Reibekuchen, like a latke, and deemed it enjoyable.

Meanwhile, our ship steamed north, and our bus met her in Gernsheim, a small port city. We left immediately, and Nancy and I enjoyed lunch in the Aquavit Terrace, where we could watch the river cruise for the first time in daylight. That afternoon on the river, cruising by Wiesbaden, we attended a demo of whipping up a Rüdesheimer coffee (with brandy, sugar, whipped cream, and dark chocolate) and another for decorating Christmas gingerbread man cookies.

We reached Rüdesheim by 5, and at 6, we caught a little tourist train (street-ready with rubber tires) to downtown, about five minutes away. The Christmas market took up much of the town and was very pleasant, crowded but not as frantic as Strasbourg. We walked ten minutes back to the ship and noticed that there were ten ships similar to ours moored up, so the river was importing over 2000 tourists. The Viking Gersemi was moored directly next to us, and their passengers had to walk through our identical ship to reach shore.

Dinner on board featured an excellent Wiener Schnitzel.

Monday, December 16 — Koblenz

Today is the 80th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Bulge, about 100 miles west of here. Check out my travelogue here.

We left Mannheim and sailed all morning down the Rhine in an area chock-full of interesting castles and vineyards. The weather was not as cold today, but it was still not too pleasant staying in the wind on the Sun Deck, so we camped out in the Aquavit Terrace, listening to running commentary from our program director, and ducked out to the ship’s bow for photos. I have attempted to remember the various castle and town names in my captions below, but no guarantees. We did have a map of the area with thumbnail photos, so I hope they match up.

We stopped in Braubach to let off passengers heading for the optional excursion to Marksburg Castle, then resumed downstream to Koblenz. This section of the river is bordered by towns that are larger and more modern than this morning, so no commentary was forthcoming. At 1:30 we disembarked and had an included excursion, a walking tour of Historic Koblenz at Christmas. Our guide Benjamin was excellent—perfect colloquial English, humorous, informative. We walked to the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle rivers (the Deutsche Eck) and stopped at the statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I, commemorating the unification of Germany in 1871, but more recently its reunification. There are flags there representing the sixteen German states (also the EU and US) and Benjamin gave us info about the economies of various ones in comparison to the one Koblenz is in, Rhineland-Palatinate. I was surprised to hear that Bavaria is the economic powerhouse of the republic, thanks to tech firms, BMW, and beer, but the Palatinate is doing well temporarily because of Pfizer and COVID. He told us that Germany in general is in poor shape with a limping economy and a recently collapsed government.

We stopped at a memorial to the lives lost during the separation of Germany, featuring three panels of the Berlin Wall. He told us that the starting date for reunification, November 9 (1989), is not commemorated because it is also the anniversary of Kristallnacht, so October 3 (1990), its completion date, is the German Unity Day holiday. Also, in German date format, November 9 is 9/11. We walked into the old town and visited one of seven small Christmas markets. No crowds here. We stopped at one stand where they gave us bags of gebrannte Mandeln (roasted, sugar coated almonds) and showed us how they are cooked up. We wandered a bit more, passing the impressive Liebfraukirche (Church of Our Lady) and a number of stores. Then a short walk back to the ship. Nearby is a gondola across the Rhine to the Fortress Ehrenbreitstein, but we did not partake. The fortress hosts a Christmas light show after dark.

After dinner, we had a special treat in the lounge: a local string quartet performed a number of familiar classical pieces as well as a few modern songs. Really excellent.

Tuesday, December 17 — Cologne

Our program director told us that we would be crossing under the bridge at Remagen in the night, but since it was dark and we didn’t know the exact time, I slept through it. We docked around 8, hitched up to a sister ship, the Viking Tir, so that we had to walk through her to the gangway ashore. We met our guide at 9:30 for a walking tour, Christmas in Cologne. He was good, but a bit snarky. We walked down the waterfront to the Groß St. Martin, one of twelve Romanesque Catholic churches in town, while the guide talked about 87% of the inner city being demolished by Allied bombing. So virtually every building is 1960s or newer. We walked through Heumarkt (hay market), a giant open square that had been used for cattle auctions. Now it is the site of one of a few Christmas markets, but not open till 11. This and the following large square used to be a channel parallel to the Rhine in Roman times, but it silted over and was too foundationally weak to be used for anything other than open spaces.

Next was Alter Markt (the old market) with more Christmas. At one time this was sort of a commodities future market. Our final stop was outside the Kölner Dom (Hohe Domkirche Sankt Peter, or Cologne Cathedral), which is a magnificent structure that mostly survived the WWII bombing. Built 1248–1560, it is the tallest twin-spired church in the world and features a strongly consistent architecture throughout, even though 21 generations of architects and builders worked on it. The inside is beautiful with beaucoup stained glass windows.

We returned on our own through three large Christmas markets and enjoyed them a lot, probably our best such experience on the trip. Very extensive, substantial stands that seem like permanent buildings, and not overly crowded on a Tuesday. I was able to find a Lebkuchen gingerbread cookie, which eluded me in the previous seven markets. It was exactly the same as the ones I get from Trader Joe’s in the States, but this one was about 5x the price. (I found out that Lebkuchen are mostly popular in Nuremberg. On a recent trip there, I found an entire store devoted to them.) We also had Glühwein, a raclette (melted cheese on a baguette), a Krakauer sausage, and Muzen (fried dough balls, like doughnut holes, with powdered sugar). These markets had more foreign, ethnic food for sale than previously ones. We ate so much that we skipped lunch.

Back on the ship, we had an “enrichment talk” about the lives of everyday Germans—taxes, expenses, politics, and societal quirks. Well done. After dinner, there was a Christmas sing-a-long, but I had developed a head cold and didn’t feel up to singing.

Wednesday, December 18 — Dordrecht, the Netherlands

Once again, we passed by a significant WWII site, the city of Nijmegen, famed for having a “bridge too far” in Operation Market Garden. The 82nd Airborne seized two bridges across the Rhine here in September 1944. Unfortunately, sunrise here was not until 8:44, so we couldn’t see much of anything.

We had a disembarkation briefing at 10 and an intro to the Netherlands at 11. The ship finally arrived in Dordrecht at 1:30. Our included excursion at 2 p.m. was Historic Dordrecht. There are no Christmas markets in the Netherlands. Our guide Veerle took us through the old downtown and harbor areas, highlighting points of historical significance. This was the first day of the trip that had unpleasant weather: windy with a light rain. The town probably looks really cute in sunshine, but today it was just cold and dreary. Dordrecht is the oldest town in Holland and had a significant event that we visited—the square in which William of Orange was appointed to lead the rebellion against the Spanish Habsburgs.

There was a pre-dinner cocktail party where various ship’s officers gave little thank you speeches. After dinner we had some light entertainment, a duo called Cherry Pop. It was a guy with a bass fiddle and a girl singer who essentially gave a karaoke performance with all the other instruments and background singers prerecorded. Nostalgic and very entertaining.

Thursday, December 19 — Amsterdam

We awoke in Amsterdam. Unlike on an ocean ship, we put our luggage out in the hall at designated morning times, in our case 7 a.m. Our disembarkation group was three couples who booked the Amsterdam post-cruise extension. We drove in a van about 15 minutes to the Pulitzer Hotel, which is really nice and quite unusual. They converted part of a city block of 25 old houses into rooms, retaining their facades, with the central area used as gardens and restaurants. It is on the fourth canal ring out from the old city, next to the fashionable Jordaan district. Luckily, our room was available right away, while the other couples had to wait.

We took a 90-minute walking tour with our Viking guide, passing by Anne Frank’s house, the Dam square, the Royal Palace, Old Town, and the Rokin district. We learned a bit about the city’s history, commerce, and architecture. We visited the Begijnhof, a small square surrounded by houses that are occupied only by single ladies, 30 and older. One of them is the oldest wooden house in the city. We visited one of the two churches in the square.

We walked through the red light district but managed to miss any unsavory activity. Also part of De 9 Straatjes (The 9 Streets), which is a small district near our hotel containing lots of boutiques and interesting shops. That walking tour was okay, but it rained lightly throughout, putting a damper on things and discouraging much photography. We ate in the hotel bar, had an excellent lunch, and pretty much vegged out for the afternoon, except during a brief dry interlude when we roamed around the Jordaan district. It’s a former down-and-out working-class neighborhood that has been gentrified. One big impression I had is that when you have literally hundreds of bicycles piled up on the sidewalks, it sort of looks like a junkyard. The bicyclists in this city are world-class aggressive, by the way. Pedestrians don’t seem to have any right of way in intersections or even some sidewalks. On the way back, we got caught in a minor hailstorm! (No damages.)

We dined at a little pizzeria called Pazzi, a few blocks from the hotel. Quite good.

Friday, December 20 — Amsterdam

We bought a guided tour through Viator: all day in the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. This was an excellent choice because while we didn’t see every piece in either, our guide, Frank, gave us a lot of historical background and artistic analysis on the most important and interesting works. There were four of us on the morning tour; we broke for lunch in a café (a delicious Dutch pea soup with ham), and then just the two of us for Van Gogh. The Rijksmuseum is a gorgeous building, fully renovated about ten years ago, and was not overly crowded. Admission is free, although on busy days, you need a reservation. The Van Gogh has a very large collection (his descendants owned 600 of his 800 works, forming the basis of the exhibition), but some of the most famous, like Starry Night, are in other international museums.

Since we were in such a small group and listening intently, I did not attempt to photograph lots of works, along with their ID signs, or take notes. But we were impressed by lots of the Dutch masters, such as Franz Hals, Vermeer, and particularly Rembrandt. Van Gogh (pronounced somewhat like Fahn Coke) had a short (8-year) career that spanned over a thousand very detailed drawings, then rather dark paintings in the Netherlands and Paris, ending with much more color and imagination in southern France. We could see how his declining mental state—possibly bipolar or epilepsy—affected his art. This museum was quite busy, but not as bad as, say, the Louvre.

That afternoon, we celebrated the arrival of the sun, that alien ball of fire in the sky that we had not seen since leaving the States. We returned to the hotel by Uber and took a canal boat tour in the hotel’s own small boat, the Tourist. It was over 100 years old but was beautifully restored. It was dark by 5 p.m., so we got to motor slowly by the annual holiday light festival. We found photography difficult in the small boat, but have included a few that turned out. The lights were generally LED sculptures, some animated. Dinner in the hotel bar, a really delicious mushroom risotto.

Saturday, December 21 — Flying Home

Viking provided us (just the two of us) with a van for our airport trip. Today is the year’s shortest, and it was odd driving in the dark at 8:30 a.m. (Sunset is at 4:30.) Schiphol airport is a zoo today, probably because of the impending holidays. We had a comfortable flight in United business class, stopping in Chicago before continuing to San Francisco.

Viking Christmas Assessment

Here’s my overall assessment of the Viking Rhine Christmas cruise. In general, we had an excellent time, but for others who might wonder whether to book this cruise in the future, I offer some observations. Virtually all of our experience in cruising has been on ocean vessels, including one Viking ocean cruise, so it is useful to compare the experiences. The Viking ocean ships have larger cabins, lots of free space around the ship, additional services like spas, gyms, and pools, lots of enrichment lectures, more elaborate entertainment, and more flexible dining options, including multiple eating times, larger menus, optional small tables, room service, and specialty restaurants. The river ships are much smaller, with a more intimate passenger count, and are easier to navigate and embark/disembark. The food and staff on both types of ships are equally very good. This cruise on the Rhine had some interesting stops, but there is quite a lot of duplication between the Christmas markets, so the experience is somewhat like Groundhog Day. The other thing to consider is the weather. We had generally acceptable weather throughout, cold (30s and 40s Fahrenheit) and overcast, but this puts a damper on the river cruise experiences of dining outside in the Aquavit Terrace or relaxing on the Sun Deck or our tiny cabin balcony. And in fact, with the exception of the two hours of narration about castles between Rüdesheim and Koblenz, almost all of the sailing was in the dark. Nancy and I will probably consider another Viking river cruise in the future, maybe on the Danube, but only when the weather is more amenable. Oh, one more thing: the pre- and post extensions are really worthwhile. They are a very convenient, a good value, and a great buffer to shield you against travel problems, particularly before the cruise starts.