Romantic Rhine & Moselle - Antwerp

 Day 4 – Thursday 8 August 2024

When we woke we were moored in Antwerp, rafted on the port side to Phoenix Alina. A Regent ocean cruiser was at our expected mooring spot by the Margrave’s castle.

https://what3words.com/leaned.putter.teachers

 

The Margrave's Castle

It was a 15 minute walk to the place where the walking tour commenced, at the Margrave’s Castle. There were closer places on the quayside but the bank was being renovated and we were told river boats weren’t insured to moor there.

Statue of Rubens in front of the Cathedral that has four pf his gigantic paintings 

There were excursions to Ypres & Passchendale (2 hours by coach) and (Bruges 90 minutes by coach) but we took the walking tour of Antwerp. We learned the city name comes from a legend about chopping off and throwing a hand. The walking tour covered the same ground as the excursion we had done with Viking earlier in the year with the major – and puzzling – absence of entry to the cathedral to see the four gigantic Rubens paintings. If one knew about them, one could use freetime or return after lunch. An American couple went to the diamond area for bargains but later told me they didn’t buy anything because the prices were no cheaper than in the USA.

 

We spent the afternoon relaxing in the Panorama Terrace. The Alina left at 17:00, and we sailed for Nijmegen around 18:45.

 

Sate starter

Tough slow-roasted pork tenderloin (with a side of chips)

The slow-roasted pork tenderloin at dinner was so tough I couldn’t cut it with the knife.

Tarte Tatin was delicious, especially with a glass of Sauternes

This side trip to Antwerp was another that added to our impression that this cruise was badly planned.   Antwerp isn’t on the Rhine or Moselle and wasn’t on the way to our next destination. It did offer visits to Ypres and Bruges but the biggest group of passengers took the walking tours of Antwerp which didn’t include the jewels that are the Rubens paintings inside the Cathedral. It seemed to us that our short time in Antwerp was for marketing reasons to include Belgium  and thus the boast that the cruise visited five countries. In my opinion the time taken on this side-trip would have been better spent on the Moselle.

Romantic Rhine & Moselle - Veere

 

Day 3 – Wednesday 7 August 2024

The boat arrived at Veere about 06:00, rafted on the port side to MS Normandie, a Dutch river cruiser much shorter than Scenic Jasper so our cabin view wasn’t obstructed.

Mooring Location: https://what3words.com/extremes.rang.bronze

We took the walking tour in intermittent rain showers which left at the civilised time of 09:30. Veere is a small, not particularly interesting, town of brick houses with a small harbour that used to be important. We were back on board at 10:40.

After lunch one could wander into the town again but we stayed on board for a Dixie quartet who were jolly good.

Belgians playing and singing American Dixie on an Australian owned ship to an audience of Australians, Brits, North Americans and Germans.

The boat sailed for Antwerp about 15:45 and we had a delightful afternoon sitting at the bow outside the glassed panorama lounge while the boat sailed across the Mere occasionally sounding its horn to warn off boats in its path.

Romantic Rhine & Moselle - Utrecht

 Day 2 – Tuesday 6 August 2024

The boat rafted to us during the night left at 08:15 and we departed for Utrecht 20 minutes later. At 09:30 was the mandatory safety drill. Summoned by an alarm we went to the sundeck where we were handed a lifejacket, which the crew fastened, we gave our cabin number to be checked off and our lifejackets were unfastened and taken back by a crew member.

Back in the lounge the Cruise Director gave a talk on the first four ‘Free Choice’ excursions and we had a form to select the ones we wanted to go on.

We moored at Utrecht at 11:30  https://what3words.com/surround.subtle.panic

Utrecht canal

 

The walking tour of Utrecht left at 14:00 and returned at 17:15, with the boat leaving to head to Veere at 17:30.

 

Dinner tonight was the Welcome Gala Dinner, preceded by the Captain’s Welcome Cocktail in the lounge (which we didn’t attend).

Gala Dinner Lamb Rack

There was a general knowledge quiz in the lounge afterwards in which we were one of three finalists, losing on the tiebreaker which wanted the length of the Titanic in metres.

Romantic Rhine & Moselle - Amsterdam

 ‘Romantic Rhine & Moselle’ - Scenic Jasper - Amsterdam>Basel 5-19 August 2024

This was our 17th river cruise, and the third with Scenic. Our previous cruise ended in July 2024 and was with Scenic in the Douro. The previous two Scenic boats were shorter ones designed for particular rivers. This was the first full-sized ‘Scenic Spaceship’ but Scenic’s fleet isn’t all one design. Scenic Jasper is, with Opal & Amber, one of three in that class. But even so, it appears that there are technical differences.

This was the most chaotic and disorganised trip – so much so that Joan is refusing to go on any more Scenic cruises. How much is the fault of Scenic and how much was the fault of the local team, I don’t know.

It was a 15 day cruise so we got to know the staff, and they knew our likes. Joan chose the cruise because it was two weeks, and it was heavily discounted. We've cruised twice from Basel to Amsterdam, so chose to do it the other way around. We also had fond memories of the Moselle, which we cruised Basel to Trier in 2022 with Viking

We had a balcony cabin in the middle desk on the port side and made full use of the balcony, as the air-con in the public areas was very cold, and loud recorded music didn’t stop.

There were 104 passengers. The capacity is 163, so there were 59 people fewer than there could have been. Our previous Scenic cruise was 75% full, this was 63.8%. Nationality breakdown by passport was:-

1 Indonesia (but lives in Australia)

4 Germany (3.8%)

8 USA (7.7%)

18 Canada (17.3%)

32 UK (30.8%)

41 Australia (40.4% - includes Indonesian)

Trip Review

The cruise covered 1148 kilometres passing through 35 locks.

Mooring locations are identified by a What3Words square. What3Words have divided the world into 3 metre squares and given each square a unique combination of three words. To see the location click the what3words link. You can switch between map and satellite view.

 Daily Schedules at end

Day 1 – Monday 5 August 2024

We arrived early at Amsterdam at 14:00 after a 40 minute flight from London and I had hope of getting to the ship before the embarkation buffet closed at 15:00. After speedily passing immigration the baggage carousel sign showed a 30 minute wait for bags from our flight. When we finally had our bags and exited via customs we were faced with reps from Viking, Ama and Avalon.  But not Scenic.

A Viking rep suggested going to the Meeting Point which is on the railway station concourse, but although we could see Ama and Avalon reps in distinctive clothing surrounded by passengers we could not find a Scenic rep. We went back to the arrivals exit where another couple were also looking for Scenic. They phoned the Scenic emergency number and after being shunted around a while were told the rep should be at the Meeting Point.

We agreed that we’d stay at arrivals and they would go to the Meeting Point and if they didn’t return we’d assume they’d found the rep and we would again go the Meeting Point. They didn’t return so was went again to the Meeting Point. We couldn’t see the rep but we did see them and then we saw the rep next to a pillar. The rep was wearing a black polo shirt with the word Scenic on the left breast, hidden below her arm holding a mobile phone to her ear. She had her back to arrivals. Next to her was a luggage trolley with her shoulder bag and perched on that was a small black rectangle with Scenic written in white, also pointing away from Arrivals.

 

After our names were ticked off she phoned the taxi driver who’d wandered off.

All the passengers for Ama, Avalon and Viking had gone, leaving just us. Forty minutes later the taxi driver appeared and we got in a people carrier which left the airport at 15:50.

Centraal Station, seen from our cabin

Two ocean cruisers were moored by the Movenpick hotel where river cruisers moored in April and we were moored closed to the Centraal Station.

We took a much shorter walk than last time to have another dinner at Gaucho’s in Spuistraat. https://www.gauchosgrill.nl/en

Overnight Location: Amsterdam - https://what3words.com/small.ends.parting

Jack

 To Aylesbury for dinner 

How Wood

 

Pleasant walk  at How Wood down the sunken path to the Ver, along the river bank and back past the lakes.

Unforgettable Douro - Scenic Azure - Day 11

Day 11 – Monday 8 July 2024

 

Last day. We had to vacate our cabin by 08:30. Our flight to Madrid departed at 12:20. We were told that, by Scenic’s rules, we should be at the airport three hours before our flight, but as check-in/bag-drop at Porto didn’t open until two hours before flights, the coach departed at 09:15, and we had a wait before the check-in opened. Scenic had checked us in online the afternoon before and printed our boarding cards.

 

Scenic Azure is on lower left of picture by line of trees on river bank

 

Scenic Azure is on left of picture by line of trees on far side of river 

 

The flight left on time and we had a great view over Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia, and we could see Scenic Azure at its moorings.

 

Several couples were taking an extension in Madrid, but we were connecting to a London flight which left from the same terminal. There was no security and no queue at immigration to get the all-imported Schengen exit stamp. We had a hot meal in Iberia’s lounge.

 

Note for others making an onward connection. Spain is an hour ahead of Portuguese time. When I said it was time to go to the gate, Mrs M replied there was another hour to go. She hadn’t adjusted her watch and would have missed the flight if she’d been on her own.

 

We didn’t have the spacious long haul plane we’d come out, just a standard short haul jet.

 

Back home we had a Chicken Piri-Piri from Nandos, delivered by Deliveroo – a South African take on a Portuguese dish - cooked in England. Let no one say I’m not a man of the world!

 

And next day I found Cockburn’s Special Reserve Port in Tesco’s for £12, which is €14.24, only 62p more than the €13.50 Cockburn’s were charging