14 Oct

Day 1 – LAX to Amsterdam to Basel

The day has finally arrived!  We booked this river cruise about 18 months earlier and it was time!  We left the house at a perfectly reasonable 10 am, for a 5 pm flight out of LAX.  Thus begins about 24 hours of travel.

We flew KLM and it was fine.  Nothing exciting to note about it. We left on time and had a good movie selection.  We were served two meals, the first one about an hour and a half into the flight.  I wasn’t really hungry, but it feels wrong not to eat free meals on a flight!

We slept off and on for a couple of hours, read books and watched movies. About two hours before landing, the lights came on and we had a light breakfast. 

Welcome to Amsterdam!  Here we met up with my parents who had just spent several days in Germany visiting my childhood home and Disneyland Paris.  We caught up and got ready for our next flight from Amsterdam to Basel.  We were essentially doing the reverse of the route we were about to take on the cruise!  But on a plane.  Much faster, not as exciting.

We struggled to stay awake during our four hour layover, but we did it.  Well I did.  Stephen was not as successful.  We met another couple who was headed to a Viking river cruise and we chatted for a little while. We finally boarded our flight and were off. 

We were in a small plane for this one.  They served us wraps, and then the flight got a little crazy.  We tried to land but the plane was getting thrown around so much by the wind that we had to go right back up again! 

They actually came on and told us to review the safety cards one more time. 

Uh… That can’t be good.

After another incredibly rough approach, we made it!  Woohoo! The funniest thing about this entire flight, was an older couple across from us.  They slept through the whole thing!  I mean we were kind of thrown around!  And they didn’t even stir.  They were sleeping hard.  I mean like snoring hard.  Loudly.

Respect.

We landed at 6 pm in Basel and went the correct direction in the airport.  If you went one way you were in France, the other in Switzerland!  That was kind of crazy.

We caught a shuttle to our hotel – Hotel Euler.  It was a cute little hotel, in a great location right next to the trains.  Our room included passes for the trains, which we did use the next morning.

There was a Starbucks attached to the hotel, so Stephen went to get me a Starbucks mug, and my Dad and I checked in. Dad and Mom were adjusted to the time zone, so they were thinking about going to get dinner, but there was no way we were.  It was bed for us! Here’s my mug!  And SD-14 who made the trip with us!  

We said goodnight to my parents and went to bed!

7 Night Rhine River Cruise – Cruising Down the River – August 11-19, 2019
Day 1 – LAX to Amsterdam to Basel
Day 2 – Embarkation Day! 
Day 3 – Hiking and Eating in the Black Forest 
Day 4 – Bikes in Strasbourg
Day 5 – Heidelberg and Daytime Sailing! 
Day 6 – Rudesheim and Lahnstein with 30 Castles in Between! 
Day 7 – Cologne 
Day 8 – Amsterdam Tour 
Day 9 – Disembarkation Day with a Disney Magic Cameo!