The short cruise to Rüdesheim took us past 40 miles of majestic castles strung along the hillside of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley, and we then set out for a visit to Mainz through the Old Town and the Cathedral that dates back to 975. Here, you should absolutely leave time to see the hand-carved crib with life-sized limewood figures and a 36ft Christmas pyramid in front of St Gotthard’s chapel. With plenty of time in the medieval
city of Heidelberg, we visited ‘Christmas on Ice,’ where locals skate around a rink ringed in star-lit trees while Christmas music wafts through the air. A dazzling medley of Christmas Markets span five separate squares: Kornmarkt, Marktplatz, Universitätsplatz,
Anatomiegarten and the Bismarckplatz. Next stop Strasbourg is home to the magnificent single-spire Gothic Notre Dame Cathedral and many half-timbered houses. Here, a canal cruise was followed by a visit to the oldest Christmas market in France (on Place Broglie) where we heartily snacked on spice bread, just- made pretzels and pastries as we passed stalls filled to the brim with tinsel and tree ornaments. A variety of events, concerts and exhibitions are also scheduled daily. Final destination Basel included a
walking tour through Switzerland’s second largest city and the Old Town’s illuminated market square, which was beautifully bordered by more than 100 Christmas trees. Uniworld offered an optional afternoon excursion to Lucerne and about 20 of us signed up for a gorgeous ride as snow fell on stunning landscapes along the way. Once there, we enjoyed walking over the world-famous Chapel Bridge, a covered wooden footbridge across the Reuss River built in 1333. The rather small but pretty holiday market here is on Franziskanerplatz.
68 WORLD OF CRUISING I Autumn 2013
Down The Danube Sailing along the Danube with Viking between Nuremberg and Budapest included stops at Regensburg, Melk, Passau, Vienna and Budapest with the scenery along the way wonderfully diverse as we glided by village church spires, medieval castles, forests sprinkled with snow, rolling hills and a series of 16 locks from the lower Danube into the higher monumental Main Danube Canal.
T
he 190-passenger Bragi again offers a variety of accommodations, from 445sq ft Explorer Suites with private
wraparound verandas to 150sq ft Stan- dard Staterooms with half-height picture windows. All included flatscreen TVs with infotainment systems (on demand films and prime networks), hotel-style beds with optional twin-bed configurations, under- bed storage, fridges, safes, L’Occitane toiletries and complimentary bottled water. To complement our shore excursions to historic towns led by local guides for up-close views of monuments, bridges, churches and abbeys, a variety of enhancement activities added lectures on the European Union, hands-on apple- strudel making and language classes. After settling in that first afternoon, some of us took a short walk into Nuremberg for a quick look-see before dinner. The next morning, we took a guided tour that included indelible sights representing the
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