Viking Longship - Rhine River Journey

Where this cruise calls, day by day

9 ports over 8 Nights.

1. Day 1

   Amsterdam

   NetherlandsDepart

   One of the few big European cities where the cruise berth is genuinely in town - the Passenger Terminal Amsterdam sits on the IJ waterfront, a ten-minute walk from Centraal Station. Note that the city has capped sea cruise calls at 100 a year from 2026 and plans to move the terminal out of the centre by 2035, so berths here are getting scarcer. River ships moor nearby along the same quays.

   • Anne Frank House on the Prinsengracht (timed tickets, book weeks ahead)
   • Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum on Museumplein
   • A canal boat through the 17th-century grachtengordel
   • Cycling out to the Jordaan or the Albert Cuyp market

   Getting ashore

   Ships berth alongside at PTA on Piet Heinkade; it is a flat 10-15 minute walk west to Centraal Station and the top of the Damrak, no shuttle needed.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct (tulip season mid-Apr)

2. Day 2

   Kinderdijk

   NetherlandsPort

   A river-cruise stop rather than a town: 19 windmills built around 1740 to drain the Alblasserwaard polder, standing along the dykes below sea level between Rotterdam and Dordrecht. It is a UNESCO site and the whole visit is a flat walk or bike ride along the canals, with two of the mills open as museums showing how the miller families lived inside them.

   • Walking the dyke path past all 19 mills
   • Going inside the Museum Mill Nederwaard, still furnished as a home
   • The Wisboom pumping station and its visitor film
   • A hopper boat between the mill groups if you would rather not walk

   Getting ashore

   River ships moor alongside at the Kinderdijk landing, right at the entrance to the mill network; larger ocean ships do not call here.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct

3. Day 3

   Cologne

   GermanyPort

   The cathedral is the entire approach - twin soot-blackened Gothic spires standing directly over the water, a couple of minutes from where ships tie up. Cologne was bombed flat and rebuilt plainly around it, so the pleasures are concentrated: the Dom, the museums beside it, and the brewhouses where Kölsch arrives in small glasses until you put a mat over the top.

   • Cologne Cathedral, and the 500-odd step climb up the south tower
   • Museum Ludwig for Pop Art and one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe
   • Kölsch in the Altstadt at Früh am Dom or Päffgen
   • The Hohenzollern railway bridge, its fencing buried under padlocks

   Getting ashore

   Vessels moor at the Frankenwerft below the cathedral or slightly downstream at Rheinauhafen; both are a short flat walk into the old town.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct; late Nov-Dec, when the city runs several Christmas markets at once

4. Day 4

   Koblenz

   GermanyPort

   Koblenz sits at the Deutsches Eck, the wedge of land where the Moselle empties into the Rhine under a colossal equestrian statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I. It is the hinge between two river routes and the northern gate of the Rhine gorge, so a call here usually comes immediately before or after the castle stretch. A cable car crosses the river to the fortress above.

   • The Deutsches Eck confluence and the Kaiser Wilhelm monument
   • Seilbahn cable car over the Rhine to Ehrenbreitstein Fortress
   • The Baroque Electoral Palace and the Schängelbrunnen spitting-boy fountain
   • Sailing the Middle Rhine gorge south past Marksburg and the Loreley rock

   Getting ashore

   Vessels moor on the Rhine promenade at the Konrad-Adenauer-Ufer or on the quieter Moselle bank, both a flat five to fifteen minute walk into the old town.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct; Aug for the Rhein in Flammen fireworks

5. Day 5

   Rüdesheim

   GermanyPort

   Rüdesheim is a Rheingau wine village that has fully committed to visitors: the Drosselgasse is a couple of hundred metres of tavern doorways and live music, and it is heaving by mid-afternoon. It also marks the mouth of the Rhine gorge, so most ships call here on either side of the castle run. Riesling is the local trade and it is genuinely good.

   • The Drosselgasse taverns and Rüdesheimer Kaffee, flamed with Asbach brandy
   • Siegfried's Mechanical Music Cabinet, a house full of working automatic instruments
   • The vineyard cable car up to the Niederwald monument
   • The Rhine gorge run past the Loreley rock and the Mouse Tower

   Getting ashore

   The quay is a two-minute walk from the Drosselgasse, but Rüdesheim rafts hard in season - three vessels deep is normal, so you cross other ships to reach land.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct; Aug for the wine festival

6. Day 6

   Heidelberg

   GermanyPort

   Heidelberg is up the Neckar rather than on the Rhine, so unless you are on a small vessel working the Neckar locks you arrive here by coach from Ludwigshafen, Mannheim or Speyer. The draw is the red sandstone castle above the old town - part blown up by French troops and deliberately never rebuilt - and Germany's oldest university below it.

   • Heidelberg Castle, the Great Tun wine barrel and the funicular up to it
   • The Alte Brücke and its gate towers over the Neckar
   • The Philosophers' Walk on the far bank for the classic view back
   • The old university's Studentenkarzer, the student lock-up covered in graffiti

   Getting ashore

   Most passengers arrive by coach from a Rhine berth; a handful of smaller vessels work up the Neckar and moor within walking distance of the old town.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct; Dec for the Christmas market under the castle

7. Day 7

   Strasbourg

   FrancePort

   The Alsatian capital sits on the French bank of the Rhine and is where Rhine cruises meet the German border - Kehl is directly across the water. The Grande Ile, the island holding the cathedral and the old town, is UNESCO-listed, and the timbered quarter of Petite France along the canals is the postcard. Strasbourg is also an EU seat, so the modern European quarter is a genuine second half to the city.

   • Strasbourg Cathedral and its 16th-century astronomical clock
   • Petite France, the canalside quarter of half-timbered houses and locks
   • A boat tour of the Ill through the locks and the European quarter
   • The Alsace wine route and villages such as Obernai, a short drive out

   Getting ashore

   Unlike most French river stops this is not a walk-off: larger vessels moor in the Rhine port around Rue du Havre or Rue de la Minoterie, roughly 5 km out, and you take a ship coach or tram line D into the centre.

   Best months

   May-Jun and Sep-Oct, plus late Nov-Dec for the Christmas markets

8. Day 8

   Breisach

   GermanyPort

   Breisach is a small Rhine wine town under a hilltop minster, and most passengers leave it within minutes - it is the standard berth for the Black Forest and for Colmar and the Alsace wine road just across the border. If you stay put, the climb to the minster earns its keep for the Schongauer frescoes and the view over Kaiserstuhl vineyards.

   • St Stephen's Minster on the hill, with Schongauer's Last Judgement wall painting
   • The excursion to Colmar's Petite Venise, twenty minutes into Alsace
   • Black Forest day trips for cuckoo clocks, Freiburg or Titisee
   • Kaiserstuhl volcanic-soil wine, much of it through the Badischer Winzerkeller cooperative

   Getting ashore

   Vessels moor on the quay a short walk below the town, but almost every call is built around a coach excursion rather than the town itself.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct

9. Day 9

   Basel

   SwitzerlandArrive

   Basel is the practical head of navigation on the Rhine, so most Rhine itineraries begin or end here rather than pass through. Berths sit downstream in the Kleinhüningen and Klybeck port area, which is a tram or shuttle ride from the old town, not a walk. The city is Swiss-serious about art and sits on the corner where Switzerland, France and Germany meet.

   • The red sandstone Münster and the Pfalz terrace above the river
   • Kunstmuseum Basel, one of the oldest public art collections anywhere
   • Fondation Beyeler out at Riehen, in a Renzo Piano building
   • The reaction ferries that cross the Rhine using only the current, and Tinguely's clanking fountain

   Getting ashore

   Vessels berth in the industrial port reach north of the centre; embarkation transfers are by coach and getting into town on your own means a tram.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct; Dec for the Münsterplatz and Barfüsserplatz markets