Pretour- I flew Finn Air from Seattle to Helsinki and then onto Zurich. I spent a night in an airport hotel, Dorint Zurich Airport, and then took the short train ride to Basel the next morning. My flights were good and I really liked making the connection in Helsinki. It is an efficient and enjoyable airport. Even though there were a few issues with a previous departure from the Schengen Zone, passport control went fairly quickly. The hotel has a scheduled shuttle at Zurich airport which runs every 30 minutes for the 5 minute ride to the hotel. The hotel was clean, quiet, and convenient. Just what I was looking for.
Basel is the first spot where I really had to start dealing with the issue of high heat. I had selected the Ibis Basel Bahnhof for my hotel in Basel for its convenient location. Just 5 minutes to walk from the train station and on the tram line. My transport was free was my Basel card from the hotel and I had a whole list of things to explore. Temps were in the high 90’s so I decided to wait a little later when things were cooling off to do much exploring. I walked back to the train station for the grocery store and had the most expensive hamburger I had ever eaten for dinner. It was still in the high 90’s. New plan- get up early in the morning and explore the old town area before it got too hot.
Onto the tram at 6:45 am for 4 stops and then a two hour walk around the old city. It was an extremely pleasant walk seeing some classic buildings, walking along the Rhine riverbank and seeing flotillas of floaters glide by in the river, watching stall keepers setting up for market, and school children making their way to school. I enjoyed this time of exploring.
Hotel check out meant it was finally time to begin my Rhine River Cruise. I decided to use Uber to get to the ship due to the high temps. We arrived at the dock only to discover no riverboat tied up there. It was a slightly remote, slightly industrial area and I felt more than a bit of anxiety at this point. I thanked the driver, grabbed my bags and headed for some near by shade. I turned on my US Phone line and called the company’s emergency number for travelers which is staffed 24/7. The agent informed me that low water had required the ship remain down river and the first three nights of my tour would now be done by hotel stays and bus touring. An email had been sent to me two days previously with new arrangements. I later found this email in my spam folder. Armed with address of the hotel I needed to go to, I arranged for Uber to pick me up. 22 minutes later it picked me up and I was able to join my cruise group. I learned to let the provider know the best way to contact me near my travel time is what’s app. It certainly wasn’t the cruise line’s fault it went to spam.
There are a 63 passengers on my cruise and 3 staff members present to facilitate our alternate plan. We have one night in Basel and two nights in Strasbourg before joining our cruise ship in Boppard for the final four nights of the cruise. It is disappointing to have plan B in operation but the cruise line is doing all it can to give us the best experience possible. Nice hotels, breakfast and dinner served at the hotels and €75 a person given to us to buy our lunches these three days. We are continuing to do the very excursions with local guides that we would have done from the ship.
All the other cruise lines are in this situation as well. One cruise line that did not retreat downstream fast enough has two ships “stuck” in Basel. Those passengers will do all 7 nights by bus.