Amadagio Provence Cruise, Part 1



Double Parking on the Rhone!

 Lyon currently ranks as France‘s third largest city behind Paris and Marseille (although that depends on who you talk to!). After finally returning the three rental cars, we drivers/spouses reached the ship totally exhausted...and barely made the 7 pm dinnertime. We‘d dropped everyone else in our group off at the ship earlier, so they attended the onboard welcome briefing and captain‘s welcome cocktail reception. Ben and I raced to our cabins to deposit our bags, only to find an invitation to dine at the captain‘s table in 1 minute, normally a wonderful treat, but with no time to change and freshen up and, frankly, in no mood to play nice, it took us by surprise. Somehow, however, we managed to put on our best faces (if not our best clothes) and received our welcome briefing personally from the delightful hotel manager Luis de Sousa Marques seated next to me. The captain, Louis Devaux, and his second-in-command wife Patricia sat across from us and are very congenial, but speak little English.


Beaujolais Wine Country

We have to especially sing praises of our cruise manager, Sue Obermoser, who was diving a borrowed jazzy classic car en route to the christening of the brand new Amacerto, when a call from AMA diverted her to France due to a medical emergency of the woman scheduled to serve. Despite having to receive a crash course on this itinerary, she‘s doing a great job for us!


Scheduled in Lyon the next morning was a panoramic tour of the city to the Place Bellecour and Place des Terreaux, followed by a visit to Fourvier, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Ben and I had visited these site on our previous Provence cruise...and chose to sleep in.

An afternoon sail northward up the Saone brought us to the historic village of Trevoux, where we saw medieval ramparts and watched a traditional game of boules, similar to Italian bocce, while sampling a regional wine. I‘m happy to report that one of our own made the “finals“ of an impromptu tournament for the guests.

We could hardly leave Trevoux without touring the Beaujolais region and visiting the winery of a vintner in the hilltop village of Oingt. Ah, which to buy....

 

With Friend Belinda and Cruise Manager
Sue During Crazy 60s Night

 The Amadagio once again sailed south past Lyon and the confluence of the Saone and Rhone rivers to the city of Vienne on the Rhone for the night. Our treat for the evening was a “Chaine Des Rotisseurs“ Dinner, made possible only because AMA Waterways president Rudi Schreiner along with our ship‘s hotel manager hold membership in this exclusive gastronomic society. (As always, I will add links and photos later and send blog updates.) Thankfully, AMA‘s traditional 50s/60s dance party that evening helped us work off that delicious meal. Always a lot of fun, and ...our group even won one of the dance contests! 

Next up: the Cotes Du Rhone and more Beaujolais--and rain, rain, rain.



Closing Thoughts: Our Rhine Cruise & Italy Travel

In my blog posts about our Rhine River cruise, I focused primarily on our itinerary rather than the ship itself, so I want to add a few lines here about the beautiful Amalyra. Ben and I had sailed on two of her sister ships previously and were already familiar with the design. River ships aren’t very big, and all are easy to navigate with functional, if not huge, cabins offering plenty of storage space.

Breakfast and lunch were served buffet style or via a menu, and dinner featured a variety of local and regional dishes. Regional wines, as usual on AMA’s ships in Europe, were free-flowing and excellent. The pastry chef onboard was one of the best we’ve ever had. I can usually turn down pastries all day long; not this cruise. And her homemade ice cream was to die for!

We were fortunate to have Marion Juhnke again as our Cruise Manager. We marveled at her expertise during our Portugal Douro Valley cruise last year and were delighted to find her assigned to this Rhine sailing. It takes a special person to manage people, itinerary glitches, and the multitude of other issues that can occur on a cruise. Add to that the Northern European drought that left the Rhine’s water level so low as to require docking changes, and you learn quickly how important that level headed manager must be. Thank you, Marion! We hope to see you next year in Provence!

Actually, the entire staff and crew of the Amalyra, from Captain Rien Pols to our cabin stewardess, made each of us feel welcome and did everything possible to ensure our trip was enjoyable. One elderly member of our group needed a walker and/or wheelchair assistance, and both staff members AND our group of friends pitched in to help her whenever needed.

That brings me to another point. Travel in Europe can prove challenging for those with mobility issues, from those signature cobblestone streets to steep stairs. Oftentimes, rest rooms are located on lower or upper levels of buildings accessible only by stairways, not elevators. Much of Europe would hardly receive a stamp of approval by the ADA! Even in the “gentle walker” sub-groups river cruise lines form, guests must keep up—and those on walkers can have a difficult time doing so. Now, Ruth, our wonderful friend from church who joined us, did an amazing job for a woman of 86, moving as quickly as she could, bailing out of the trickier excursions, and never once complaining; but every outing required more advance planning, more “thinking through” the next several hours, and most of all, more time. The beauty of river cruising, however, is the cruising itself. The day our ship sailed through the Rhine River Gorge was perhaps the most enjoyable of all for Ruth and her cousin Margaret. Well, that and maybe riding up Mt. Pilatus in Lucerne via bus, cogwheel railway, cable car, and chairlift! These ladies kept shaking their heads in disbelief that they were actually making that exciting trip.

Finally, a few words about train travel in Europe. Admittedly, this was Ben’s and my second venture into Europe’s rail system, so we don’t pretend to be experts. Our goal was a more relaxed trip from Switzerland to Italy without flight hassles or car rentals, and that’s what we got for the most part. About 60 days before the start of our train travel, I ordered first class tickets from Zurich to Ancona via Rail Europe.  An easy purchase, and tickets arrived in just a few days. There is some beautiful scenery along that route, although tunnels interfered with part of the journey. We were dragging bags, of course, which are a lot more trouble than backpacks on a train. However, a porter was hovering outside our train in Milan just waiting to assist someone, and we gladly accepted his offer and his open hand for the tip so well earned. Upon arrival in Ancona, the only issue was needing to go downstairs, under, across, and up again to the station—and we couldn’t get the elevator working. Many thanks to the helpful man who at least got it going for me!

We bought our last set of tickets from Ancona to Chiusi in Tuscany at the Ancona train station. I learned, however, that there really wasn’t much of a price difference, and I could have more easily purchased them from home. Our departure from Ancona was complicated by one of those nasty Italian strikes that can last just minutes or a few hours, in this case delaying us by about an hour and a half. As a result, our train was more full than usual, and disembarkation in Chiusi was almost a disaster. We didn’t get to the exit door soon enough, and the stream of incoming passengers totally blocked our departure. Ben finally got off, but I was caught in the door while it was trying its best to close on me! With Ben holding one hand, me holding my remaining bag, and the conductor yelling at us for causing the delay, it’s a miracle we proved stubborn enough to finally get bodies and bags off the train! But we did. And the bruises on our bodies healed in a week or so....

We love river cruising! These lines cater primarily to those 60+ in age, but days are full with walking or touring excursions once or twice each day. What we are able to see, however, far outweighs the rich schedule. Provence in May 2012, anyone? We have two cabins remaining...

Siena!

Santa Catarina Garden View

We arrived in the Siena Province town of Chiusi after bidding a fond farewell to Ben’s relatives in Ancona. We miss them already! Our friend and excellent Italy tour guide, Roberto Bechi, was at the train station as promised and took us northwest to Siena through the rolling hills and valleys of the Tuscan landscape. Train connections from Ancona to Siena aren’t very good (3 am departures, long layovers, etc.), whereas we could buy an easy one-connection train ride to Chiusi via Bologna with a more reasonable schedule. Disembarkation was less than easy, but I’ll save that story for another posting.


 Roberto had booked us at the absolutely charming Hotel Santa Caterina just south of the Porta Romana. The hotel director, Lorenza, could not have been more helpful and cheerful, making every guest feel especially welcome and important. The hotel features 22 rooms, an elevator, and both a sunny breakfast room and garden overlooking the countryside. You’d never know you were in walking distance to the center of Siena. The road from our hotel to the city center changes names several times; however, it’s a primary roadway with all the conveniences a traveler could want: an ATM, a grocery store, a regular laundry, and—most importantly—a gelateria every hundred feet. Can’t get enough gelato in Italy.

Ben and I have visited Tuscany many times, including Siena, so our first stop was to the local self-service laundry just a few steps from Il Campo. It had been a long trip!  Since we had already seen many of the most frequented sites, Roberto recommended that we go to the Santa Maria della Scala Museum. For such a nondescript entry off the main square of the Duomo, this multi-level former hospital is a gem, housing a lovely chapel, amazing frescoes, an underground archaeological museum, the Art Museum for Children, the Giuliano Briganti Library and Photo Library of Art, and more nooks and crannies in its labyrinthine lower levels than I could ever have imagined. While there were plenty of people in the square and entering the Duomo and Duomo Museum (Museo dell’Opera a Panorama), the smaller crowds we encountered in the “hospital” museum made for a very enjoyable visit.

Casalciccia Breakfast Room View

Roberto invited us to dinner at his home one night, and it was a treat to see his wife Patti and their two children again. They are in the process of building a bed and breakfast next door to their present home that is scheduled for completion in October. Both buildings are perched on a hilltop near Asciano, about 13 km from Siena on Via Lauretana. This is the most photographed roadway in Italy for calendars, books, and in commercials. As a matter of fact, it had been closed for awhile recently when Volvo rented the whole road to film a commercial endorsement with George Clooney! The B&B, to be named Casalciccia, will house 10 guests, and Roberto can book them as part of a tour package or simply as a B&B. Travelers not using his touring services are certainly welcome, although they will need transportation from the B&B to surrounding areas.

Sandra and Roberto

One day, Roberto invited us to join him on a tour he’d arranged for another couple. It was fun returning to some places again and a joy to visit new ones. Since he is an Etruscan expert, he again took us to the archeological museum in Chinciano Terme. This time, we listened more closely and learned a lot more about this civilization of ancient Italy. Lunch brought a return the amazing Podere Il Casale organic farm and restaurant in Pienza. The owner, Sandra, never fails to lay out a spread of certified organic foods that will be the best you’ve ever tasted—from tomatoes, beans, and fresh springtime-only Pecorino cheese to proscuitto, pasta and wine. 

Lynn and Cesare

We visited the Contucci winery in Montepulciano and topped off our wine-tasting event with a surprise even for Ben and me. Just a few steps away was the Bottega del Rame, a copper workshop owned and operated by Cesare and Iolanda Mazzetti who inherited the business from their ancestors and now continue a long family tradition in copper crafting begun in 1857. This delightful octogenarian creates copperware that is as beautiful as it is functional--and I received a wonderful copper souvenir of our visit with him!  Roberto took Cesare with him to Portland, Maine, June 9-11, for the Italian Life Expo to demonstrate his skill and perhaps inspire others to help keep such time-honored craftsmanship alive for future generations. If you are in that area this weekend, stop by and say hello to Roberto, Cesare, and all of Rick Steves’ friends. 

For our final night in Siena, we finished a bottle of Chianti and picked up some local cheese, San Daniele prosciutto, and bread, and savored a few more hours in the Santa Caterina courtyard. It doesn’t get any better than that.

I’ll add a further review of our AMA Waterways cruise, some tips for traveling for the mobility- challenged, and a few pointers on traveling by train in my next posts. In the meantime, you can tell that Ben and I love Italy and visit often. That means we have the knowledge you need to book travel to that special part of the world—call us when you’re ready to go!

Rhine River Cruise-Post 4

My blog posts will never catch up with our itinerary this trip, I'm afraid. I am writing this one about the Alpine world of Lucerne and Zurich while overlooking the Tuscan gardens of our Siena hotel. Contrasting beauty in two magnificent parts of the world. Hotel Santa Caterina lies just south of Porta Romana on Via Roma in easy walking distance from Il Campo. Our friend Roberto Bechi reserved this 22-room charmer for us, and it's on Rick Steves' recommended list. Breakfast this morning seemed but a side note to the sights and smells of the rolling hills of Tuscany below our garden tables. Picture perfect!

Now back to Switzerland. It had been almost 30 year since Ben and I had visited Lucerne, that picturesque city on the lake of the same name and at the edge of the Alps to the south. We toured by foot and boat and then up Pilatus Mountain by cogwheel railway (the steepest in the world), cable car, gondola, and bus. Clouds at the very top prevented all but brief peeks at the verdant valleys below, but there is no bad way to view this delightful city. I love Lucerne.

AMA booked all of us in the ultra modern Radisson Blu with breakfast included. It is a beautiful hotel in a very convenient location near the central rail station and shops, even if we did decide that the architect never spoke to a group of women, let alone a housekeeper during the design process. Breakfast offered a wide variety of options, however, and the concierge and hotel staff were tremendously helpful every day.
Our trip from this more heavily Catholic region of southern Switzerland, to Zurich in the Reformation-heavy Protestant region was via both tour boat and bus. We sailed across Lake Lucerne to Vitznau, where we reboarded our buses for the final drive along scenic mountains and lakes.

I felt my Presbyterian roots in this city of Zwingli and Protestant churches, and our guides were well versed in the religious roots of their native land. There is much to see and do in this bustling city. Some of us took in the Rhine Falls, others visited the KunstHaus Zurich museum, and some chose to shop. Take your pick! For all of us, though, the most amazing highlight was the view of the Alps 100 kilometers to the south for both days of our stay--a rare treat even for the locals.

Our Zurich hotel could hardly have differed more from Lucerne’s Radisson--a pronounced veer from the contemporary to the traditional. Hotel Continental, formerly a Sofitel property, also positioned us near the city’s booming train station, the largest and busiest in Europe. Easy walking to the main shopping street, too.

I’ve focused thus far only on our itinerary and not the ship, food, and logistics of our cruise. I’ll do that in one of my next posts, however, since I’m more determined to stick with the itinerary for now. Since we were traveling with an elderly slow walker, I also want to add some pointers about traveling with the mobility impaired.  And watch for additional hyperlinks and photos when I've had a chance to edit and embellish my posts.

We said farewell to our cruise group in Zurich as most headed back to the States. Ben and I, however, boarded the Cisalpino train for our journey south to visit his relatives in Ancona, Italy.

Rhine River Cruise--Post 3

Our train is presently passing through Vicenza, not far from Verona. Pardon a moment of personal reflection as I remember the birth of our son Jeff at the army post here back in 1973. There was no hospital in Aviano where Ben was stationed back then, so he had to drive me here for the big event. Seems like yesterday.

Strasboug is an enchanting Alsatian gem of a city and one I would enjoy for a longer period of time. The charm of the city‘s historic center, the Grand Ile, is matched by its role as seat of several European institutions such as the Council of Europe, European Parliament, and the European Ombudsman of the EU. Certainly two of the main tourist attractions are the sandstone Gothic Cathedral with its famous astromical clock and the Petite-France district, where our canal tour led us through a couple of locks past quaint timber-framed buildings adorned with geraniums. Lovely.

A group of us decided to eat lunch in town today and found a nice outdoor cafe on the edge of Petite-France. Ben and I ordered the local specialty, flammekueche which is similar to pizza, but more delicate--and delicious!

On Saturday, the ship docked in Breisach, situated on the German side of the Rhine and directly facing the Alsatian region of France. From here we had our choice of two excursions: to Colmar, France, with a city walking tour and visit to an Alsatian winery; or to the Black Forest region for a scenic drive and visit to a cuckoo clock shop.

It was here, however, that we encountered our first day of rain, complicating both outings a bit. Nonetheless, Colmar is a lovely city, especially the area known as Petite Venise (Little Venice), and one that would be fun to explore on a sunny day. The drive through the Black Forest also proved beautiful to those on that tour, but rains again interfered with photo ops. We cannot complain, however, since this turned out to be the only wet day of our entire trip.

Our cruise ended in Basel, Switzerland, where guests enjoyed a city tour with lunch on our own before boarding a bus to Lucerne and the first part of our post-cruise hotel program through AMA Waterways. Ben and I diverted from the tour group in Basel, though, to assist Ruth and Margaret in getting to just one of the churches, Munster Cathedral, for photos, and then to the museum cafe. Munster is a historic Protestant church offering a variety of worship services, one of which was in progress when we arrived, or I would have enjoyed a peek inside.

On to Lucerne, one of our favorite cities in Europe!

Enchanting Rhine Cruise-Post 1

There is something magical about sailing down the Rhine River. Ben and I last did this on a Christmas markets cruise a couple of years ago, also on an AMA Waterways ship. This time, however, spring is in full force and newly planted green vineyards bank the sucession of castles we passed this morning along the Rhine River Gorge.

Our trip began in Amsterdam--that fascinating city of canals, houseboats, first-class museums, and famed Red Light District. We toured the canals, sailed past those drafty houseboats, and visited the Van Gogh Museum (having made the Rijks previously), but left Amsterdam‘s seedier side to braver souls.

Both the Marriott and Eden American hotels are conveniently located in the museum district of Amsterdam. The nearby plaza that in December lured ice skaters and hot pastry vendors was now the scene of several lively outdoor cafes. The beauty of changing seasons.

Then we were off down the Rhine toward Switzerland. Whereas the mighty Mississippi‘s waters are curently spilling over banks and levees, the Rhine is periously low, creating navigational challenges for all who sail her.

The first stop for our ship, the AMA Waterways Amalyra, was Cologne with a quick walking tour of the areas around the majestic cathedral. This UNESCO world heritage site never fails to amaze us with its gothic ceilings and seemingly endless dimensions. No markets with hot spiced wine and Christmas ornaments tempted us this time, but instead the surrounding plaza was filled with street artists making the most of the mild, sunny weather.

A special treat awaited us that afternoon with an included excursion to the Koblenz Horticultural Show. The low river level had caused such a delay for us, however, that our time was much too short and bus ride to get there too long. But for Ruth, one of the special ladies in our group, the trip meant a glimpse at Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, which once held special meaning for her parents. For that reason alone (not to mention the stunning floral gardens), the trip was worth it, indeed.

Our very busy day then, however, was rewarded this morning by these incredible castles and panoramic views. Rain is desperately needed here (just as it is in South Texas), but we have certainly enjoyed this beautiful weather. And as we rounded the bend of the once dangerous Loreley Rock, we raised a toast with a special fortified coffee beverage served by the AMA staff. To the Rhine!

Cruises Inc Agents of the Year 2010!

[Following is my first post from our National Conference cruise, delayed because of technical issues.]
 The Cruises Inc National Conference Cruise is well underway on the new Norwegian Epic. Today, I will post a brief blog while we are docked in Costa Maya, but I confess this one is to brag a bit.

Last night [Sunday, October 17] was Awards Night for both Cruises Inc (independent contractors like Ben and me) and our sister company CruiseOne (franchise owners). Drum roll, please! Ben and I were honored to receive Cruises Inc. top producer awards for AMA Waterways, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Princess Cruise Line.

We were also recognized as million dollar sellers.

Best of all, we were named Cruises Inc Agents of the Year 2010--a total surprise, since we first received this honor back in 2004. We feel, however, that we must share it with our wonderful clients who continue to value us as their agents, and we send a huge thank you from this amazing ship! We must also thank our corporate staff at Cruises Inc and our parent company, Wolrd Travel Holdings, for the tremendous support they continue giving the agent community.

And kudos to NCL for going the extra mile to ensure a great conference for us. With over 800 onboard in our combined companies, we comprise the largest group yet on the Epic. Despite the logistical challenges, NCL is doing a fantastic job in accommodating all our needs.

More on this amazing ship in my next posts.