In a Quest to Find Hidden Gems: Flusskreuzfahrt auf dem Rhein
“The Rhine is the river of history.”
Breathtaking…
Cruising the Rhine
Our journey along the Rhine began near Basel, Switzerland, where the river starts its long passage northward through some of Europe’s most beautiful landscapes. From Switzerland, we cruised through France and Germany before reaching the Netherlands, watching the scenery, architecture, and culture change almost effortlessly along the way.
The Rhine seemed to reveal something new around every bend—medieval castles perched high above the river, church spires rising from centuries-old towns, and vineyards climbing impossibly steep hillsides. In places, we left the river behind for a while, floating high above the vineyards in aerial gondolas, with the Rhine winding through the valley far below.
Along the way, history mingled wonderfully with the modern world. We wandered through grand churches and fascinating museums, including the spectacular Mercedes-Benz and Porsche museums, where Germany’s passion for engineering and beautiful automobiles was on full display. Then it was back to cobbled streets, ancient fortifications, wine villages, and castles that looked as though they belonged in a storybook.
There were quiet pleasures, too: watching barges slip past from the deck, discovering little riverside towns, tasting wines grown on the slopes we had just sailed beneath, and simply letting the changing landscape come to us.
Eventually, the Rhine carried us into the Netherlands and Amsterdam, where the great river journey gave way to a maze of intimate canals, graceful bridges, narrow houses, bicycles, boats, and reflections shimmering on the water. Sitting beside the canals with paints in hand, trying to capture a little of Amsterdam on paper, was a wonderfully peaceful ending to the journey.
From the vineyards and castles of the Rhine Valley to the canals of Amsterdam, it was a voyage through four countries and centuries of European history—filled with art, architecture, engineering, wine, beautiful scenery, and those unexpected moments that make traveling by river so memorable.