Day 8 - It's over?? No!!!
You thought we were done??? Think again!!
Nick here. I'm going to interject my thoughts in these little quotations
At some point in the night, the ship docked in its final port in Basel, Switzerland. After one last yummy buffet breakfast onboard, we said goodbye to our cruise ship, the Avalon Panorama, Quick ship features (sorry these are all photos we took near the end of packing since we realized we hadn't taken any yet).
I have a few pictures of the ship but they need some editing. Also good bye to endless lox bagels :( But very ready to say good-bye to the very whiny entitled old people :P
Also we managed to save $600 versus Viking on cocktails and prepaid gratuities, another win for Avalon.
After we were booted from our rooms, we hopped in a taxi and made our way to Basel Bahnhoff (train station) to catch a train to.... Luzern (Lucerne)! Nick was able to get half price tickets for the train, and we managed to get all four of our luggage bags onto the correct train. The rain was like a very nice Amtrak, and overall a really quick trip! Only took about an hour to travel the roughly 100 kilometers to Luzern. We saw idelic fields, old churches, and THE ALPS.
Actually Robyn got us half priced tickets, thanks Robyn.
Also its way nicer than Amtrak, the seats have wood finishing and we were in second class. And there are so. many. trains.
Once in Luzern, we hopped on a bus (yay public transit) and made our way to our hotel, the Art Deco Hotel Montana.
When we arrived, our room wasn't ready yet, so we got a drink in the bar, took the funicular down (YEAH, the hotel has its own funicular!!), then strolled around outside along the shores of Lake Lucerne (Vierwaldstättersee, in German). We hit a few Christmas markets, including a craft fair that was open only on weekends, and an international Christmas Market with food booths from all over the world!
I'm pretty sure I knew the hotel had its own funicular railway when I booked it, but totally forgot about it. So it was a VERY fun surprise. I mean come on we get to/have to ride a train just to leave the hotel every day.
Lucerne has up to 5 Christmas Markets, depending on what week you go. While we are going to be there, there will be 4.
Lauren and I were very hungry but the markets in Lucerne are very crowded. Luckily there was a KILLER Bahn Mi shop next to one of them and we took that back to the hotel room. It was glorious. They baked their own bread
We got back to the hotel and got the keys to our room, and let me just say, it's really incredible - it's equipped with an outdoor whirlpool hot tub overlooking the lake (though you have to go out on the balcony to see the lake, still spectacular), overhead rain shower, and FREE mini bar. We were welcomed with some chocolates and champagne.
We realized we hadn't really relaxed or rested at all on the cruise with all of the planned excursions and schedules to keep, so we hung out in the room for a bit until the sun set. Then we left to go to the Christmas Markets again. And WOW, do they know how to do it in Luzren:
Anyways yes, we went to the Christmas markets, but for food. We got some gluhwein (new mug!!), spatzel (also duh), and scoped out booths to try for meals the rest of the week.
There were a ton of lights
We called it a fairly early night in preparation for all the fun stuff we want to do the rest of the week - checking out more of the historic downtown, museums, and going up into the Alps!
But before we go, FAQ as promised. (Possibly our final inclusion, idk)
Tell us about the boat.
The river cruise boat had about 150 passengers, and about 50 staff, so 200 ish people total. General structure for this cruise was night sailing, docking in the early morning, then meals on the ship and port excursions in between. We'd need to be back on the boat again by dinner, when we would typically start sailing to the next port. Each day there was at least one included excursion (sometimes more, hence our decisions), and some days additional excursions for extra money. This had its ups and downs since the ship had to leave before we could really get a good Christmas Market experience in some towns. For example, in Strausborg we had to leave before they turned any of the lights on, and before any music performances started.
Have there been any language barriers?
Luckily not really. For the German cities, Nick learned a fair amount of conversational German (numbers, key phrases, etc) and for the most part was able to do full orders and transactions in German. Sometimes there would be an advanced or unexpected question that would trip him up, but luckily almost all Germans also know English. Though in Straubough and Luzern the German did not help much, they speak French and Swiss German, respectively.
Are you Christmas-ed out?
Somehow, no! (lol no thats the whole point of the trip -nick)
Did your house blow over in the storm?
Nope its all good! The underpass by our house flooded though
No, for real, who made up Swiss German? You can't just take a language and make a weird version of it with the same words but also some French and Italian in it.
We are going to miss the river cruise experience dearly. It had its pros and cons, but I already know Switzerland is going to cover all the bases the cruise did not. The service and staff were amazing, and even compared to our current very nice hotel, the ship experience was really top notch. It was a great way to get introduced to Central Europe and find many "go back" spots for future non-cruise (i.e. train) vacationing. Hopefully we will be able to go again in the future, maybe in 30 years hahaha
Tonight we will try to sleep without being woken up by entering and existing a lock on the river. Should be refreshing!
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