Christmas Markets Along the Rhine (2012)

Depart the U.S. today on your flight to Basel, Switzerland.

This morning, you arrive at the Basel airport, where you are met and transferred to the pier to embark your river ship. From Basel, located where Switzerland, Germany, and France all meet, ships can navigate the Rhine all the way to the North Sea.

A light lunch will be served onboard this afternoon. Otherwise, the balance of the day is at leisure. 

Gather this evening to meet your Program Director and traveling companions over a Welcome Drink, and for a ship briefing on your upcoming cruise.

Enjoy the morning onboard as you sail to Breisach, Germany.

This afternoon you'll head into Alsace on the French side of the Rhine to visit Kaysersberg. This was the birthplace of Albert Schweitzer, the great humanitarian and recipient of the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize, who is famous for his philosophy of "reverence for life" and his work in Africa. Your tour includes a visit to Dr. Schweitzer's former home, now a museum, where his study is preserved exactly as it was when he last used it in 1959. You'll also see the city center, and have time to discover more of Kaysersberg on your own.

Gather this evening with your fellow travelers and Program Director for a Captain's Welcome Reception and Dinner.

After breakfast, enjoy a sightseeing tour by boat along Strasbourg's canals. Strasbourg has been strategically important since ancient times. It became a free imperial city in 1262, and then was occupied by France in 1681 and Germany in 1871. France recovered the city in 1919 after World War I. From your boat, you'll see the major sights (including the Palais de L'Europe where the European Parliament meets) and admire the city's remarkable Renaissance architecture. In mid-morning, your boat tour concludes at the Palais Rohan in the town center. If you like, you may walk on your own from the Palais to visit the city's magnificent cathedral, one of the finest of Europe's great Gothic cathedrals. Its lofty single spire dominates the city.

After lunch aboard ship, you have the afternoon free to visit Strasbourg's Christmas Market or explore more of the city on your own. There is an excellent collection of Renaissance Art in the Museum of Fine Arts, and the Alsatian Museum offers folk art, including reconstructed interiors of Rhine farm and vineyard houses. You may want to visit the picturesque Petite-France area (the former Tanners district) and see the old Customs House and the charming covered bridges with their defensive towers. Return to the ship for dinner on board.

This morning, the ship docks at the German town of Greffern and you depart for a scenic journey by motorcoach into the Black Forest region. You visit the spa town of Baden-Baden, nestled in thick, peaceful forests. Baden-Baden has been renowned for its thermal baths since Roman times. You’ll have a tour of the resort town and a tasting of the mineral waters, thought by many to have restorative powers. Afterwards the motorcoach takes you to Speyer, where you reboard the ship in time for lunch.

Speyer is a city more than 2,000 years old that has retained parts of its medieval wall and gates. As you see the city’s Christmas Market later today, you can contemplate the fact that an earlier version of this town already existed in the time of Jesus.

This afternoon, you’ll join a local family for coffee, cake, and conversation at a Home-Hosted Kaffeeklatsch. Afterwards, consider strolling through the Christmas Market and browsing its festive stalls. We return to the ship for dinner.

You have the morning free in Speyer. On your own, you might take in the Historical Museum of the Palatinate, which has large collections of pre-Roman and Roman materials and includes a wine museum. The ship begins cruising towards Mainz around noon. Or consider visiting Speyer’s four-towered Imperial Cathedral. Dating from the eleventh century, it’s one of the greatest Romanesque buildings in Germany and contains the tombs of eight emperors. This was also an early center of printing as the home of the 15th-century printers John of Speyer and his brother Wendelin.

Perhaps you'll take our all-day optional tour to discover romantic Heidelberg, a historic university town nestled between wooded hills at the edge of the Odenwald Forest and crowned with the ruins of Heidelberg Castle. Begun in the Gothic style of the 14th century and built up gradually over the next 400 years, the castle demonstrates the evolution of architectural style, finally completed in the Baroque period. After lunch, tour Heidelberg’s turreted 600-year-old university, Germany’s oldest. In keeping with the spirit of the holidays, we’ll also stop at Heidelberg’s lively Christmas Market.

After the tour, you’ll ride to Mainz to reboard the ship before dinner.

This morning you'll enjoy a walking tour of Mainz and see the town's great eleventh-century Romanesque cathedral. The 2,000-year-old city of Mainz rose to prominence in the eighth century when St. Boniface, the "German Apostle," designated it an archbishopric, thereby making it the center of Germanic Christendom. The Mainz archbishops held spiritual and political power, serving as electors of the Holy Roman Empire.

But Mainz remains best known for its most famous son, Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of movable type, who was born here in 1397. Gutenberg began his career by creating and selling indulgences—papers that could be purchased and used as "coupons" by the faithful to absolve them of some of the time they had earned in Purgatory. Gutenberg realized he could absolve himself of some of his own monetary debts if he could mass-produce the indulgences. To do this, he created uniformly sized metal molds for letters that allowed him to create error-free, repeatable text. This was the beginning of the movable type that transformed the world.

You'll see the Gutenberg Bible and the printing press, which are housed in the town's Gutenberg Museum. The museum exhibits one of the 47 extant copies of the Latin Gutenberg Bible—a 42-page volume with elaborate Gothic lettering, dating from the 1450s.

After lunch aboard ship, you have the afternoon free to visit the Christkindlmarkt (Christmas Market) in Mainz. You'll have ample opportunity to explore the myriad craft stalls, and to explore the rest of the city as you please.

This evening, enjoy an optional evening outing to the cobbled Drosselgasse wine alley in Rudesheim for a dinner with wine, food, song, and dance.

Today, the ship cruises along some of the most beautiful and inspiring parts of the Rhine as you sail for Koblenz. You'll pass the Lorelei, a large rock rising 440 feet above the river. Since ancient Greek mythology, there have been legends of sirens, women-creatures who lure sailors to their death with sweet songs. Ancient Germanic legend places one such siren (Lorelei) here, and it is said she enticed sailors to destruction on the reef below the rock.

This afternoon, embark on a walking tour of Koblenz, the 2,000-year-old city that stands at the confluence of the Rhine and Mosel rivers. Sitting amidst hills populated with castles and fortresses, this strategic location has made the city vital to European trade—and explains why it was heavily bombed during World War II. Many of its historic buildings have since been restored and the Altstadt (Old Town) features distinct architecture like the Liebfrauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), a 13th-century Gothic basilica with twin towers capped by onion-shaped spires, and the Basilica St. Kastor or Kastorkirche, dedicated to Castor of Karden, with four towers. Across the Rhine you’ll find the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, central to a ring of fortifications built to protect the town and the region.

The morning is at leisure to explore Koblenz and stroll among the stalls of its wonderful Christmas Market. Savor the smell of chestnuts roasting over open fires, and perhaps savor an authentic Bratwurst as you shop for handmade gifts and enjoy watching artisans at work. Perhaps you’ll visit the Deutsches Eck, or "Corner of Germany," where both the Altstadt and the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, across the Rhine, are visible.

Enjoy an afternoon of sailing as you cruise to Cologne. En route, enjoy an exclusive Discovery Series cooking demonstration where you’ll learn how to make Stollen, a traditional German bread made with fruit and nuts and topped with powdered sugar.

After breakfast, disembark for a guided walking tour of Cologne's Old City. A Roman settlement called Colonia Agrippina after AD 50, Cologne came under Frankish control in the fifth century. You can still see the ruins of Roman temples scattered through the city, and the Roman Tower near the cathedral was once part of the medieval town walls. During the 15th century, the city flourished as a member of the Hanseatic League.

Your tour ends in front of the city's magnificent Gothic cathedral (Dom), which you may visit on your own. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the cathedral largely escaped the World War II damage that ravaged the city and the rest of Germany. (There's evidence that Allied forces worked deliberately to avoid damaging this beautiful structure.) It's the largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe, boasting beautiful stained-glass windows, an ornate gold shrine on its elaborate altar, and the intricate detail common to 14th-century Gothic churches.

After your tour, enjoy some time on your own in Cologne. Perhaps you'll spend time at the Romano-Germanic Museum, with its beautifully restored Roman mosaics and reconstructed tomb. The museum is the home of the largest collection of Roman glass vessels in the world and also holds a significant collection of Roman and early medieval jewelry. You could also visit the Christmas Market, and browse its wide assortment of Christmas creations.

After dinner on this or one of your other evenings aboard ship, you'll have the chance to join your travel companions in the ship's lounge for a rousing evening of Christmas caroling.

This morning, arrive in Nijmegen, a Dutch city built on seven hills overlooking the Waal River just west of its confluence with the Rhine. You'll see the arching bridge that spans the Waal, which was the site of an important battle during World War II that caused devastating damage to the city. As a result, Nijmegen, one of the oldest towns in Holland, was almost completely rebuilt. The town center, however, was remarkably unscathed by shelling, and provides a striking contrast to the newer architecture that surrounds it. Nijmegen's Christmas Market is here, surrounded by the surviving medieval architecture and 16th-century Town Hall.

Later, join an optional excursion to nearby Groesbeek for a visit to the National Liberation Museum (Bevijdingsmuseum). Here, the occupation and liberation of wartime Holland is vividly recreated through interactive displays.

After lunch onboard, enjoy an afternoon of sailing and take in the passing landscapes as you cruise to Amsterdam. En route, join an exclusive Discovery Series discussion on Europeans Today.

Tonight, gather with your fellow travelers for a Captain’s Farewell Reception and Dinner. Arrive tonight in Amsterdam, where you will dock for the night.

After breakfast, disembark and transfer to the airport for your flight home.