We began the day with a leisurely breakfast and checked out at 10:30. We were really pleased that we had made the effort, two days ago, to confirm how to travel to St Johann Dock 1 where the boat was to be docked for the day. There was no rush as we would only be sailing at 20:00.
Once again, we caught the tram outside the hotel, alighted once we had crossed the Rhine River over the St Johann Bridge and walked the route that we had used when finding the dock previously. Fortunately, there were both stairs and ramps but it was still a reasonable distance when pulling suitcases. When we arrived at the dock, we were surprised to see 3 boats but none of them was of the Viking Line. We hadn’t received any notice of a change.
When we asked a crew member from one of the 3 docked there, he said he knew nothing about the Viking Gersemi, which was our boat, named after the Norse Goddess of adoration and beauty. He kindly asked his Captain who found out that it was docked 5kms downstream at the Dreilandereck Dock. This was very annoying as the only way to get there was by taxi which was a costly exercise. Once again, they tried to assist by calling for a taxi but, when it had not arrived half an hour later, took one which had just dropped passengers off for the other boat. While we waited for the taxi, another gentleman walked down the road and enquired about the Viking Gersemi. He was quite angry as he and some others had purposely booked into an hotel within walking distance of the St Johann Dock. The taxi ride took 10 minutes and there were lots of friendly Viking staff waiting to greet us and to take care of our luggage. Sadly, for them, they received a rather frosty response.
Once we had checked in, we were told that our State Room (not referred to as a cabin anymore) was ready for us and that our luggage would be delivered shortly, which it was. Our room was located on the lowest deck and had a window which was too high for me to see out, but Trevor told me what he could see which was nothing exciting as this dock was located within the working area of the harbour. We decided to phone Nadia and tell her not to come with the girls as planned because of the location of the dock. They were disappointed but understood.
A smorgasbord lunch was available in the dining room whereafter we explored the boat and learnt where everything that was of importance eg the coffee station was to be found. After such a frustrating morning it was good to be able to relax in pleasant surroundings.
I thought that I would close with a few facts about the Rhine.
- It rises in the foot of the Alps and passes through Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany and France before flowing into the North Sea at Rotterdam in The Netherlands.
- In 1932, the German Encyclopaedia, Knars Lexicon incorrectly recorded it as being 1320kms or 820miles instead of 1230kms or 764 miles long. In 2010, Bruno Cremer of the University of Cologne discovered the error and arranged for it to be corrected.
- It is a natural border between Germany and France and so became the North-Western border of the Roman Empire.
- One of its most spectacular sights is the 430ft high Lorelei Rock which has an interesting story which I shall include in my post when we pass it.
- It is an extremely busy waterway today, with hundreds of barges and boats traversing it daily. This was not always the case as many of the castle-dwelling aristocrats demanded tolls or customs duty before allowing the boats to pass. In the 14th century there were 62 of these customs stations. Once again, more detail will be given in a later post.
We set sail at 20:00 and arrived at our first stop, Breisach, early the next morning.
