We landed in Amsterdam about 8:00 AM (local time) Midnight (Boise Time).

Madeline had arranged for a wheel chair for Bill, so he was met at the gate and whisked away through passport control and on to the next gate while the rest of us wandered around until we found a likely looking line to stand in.  Seriously, there were a LOT of people! But they moved pretty quickly so we didn’t burn too much of our 3 hour layover standing in line.

We boarded the last leg and were on the way to Basel about 1:00.

Arriving in Basel we stopped by Baggage claim to pick up Bill’s suitcase (too large for the regional jet) and then met the Viking people who checked us off on their list and directed us to a waiting bus. Then we waited.  It seems that the Basel airport is pretty much on the boarder between Switzerland and France. So if you go out of the doors at one end of baggage claim you end up in Switzerland. If you go out the doors at the other end of baggage claim you end up in France.  Most of the Viking passengers left by the wrong door and it took the better part of an hour for the good folks from Viking to find and wrangle them across the border.

But all were eventually accounted and loaded and we headed for the boat – arriving at 3:00 (check-in time).

We were shown to our state-closet (pictures forthcoming) where we had about 15 minutes to get ourselves organized before meeting the group for the (free) walking tour of Basel that our cruise director had arranged.  I should say that Cheryl and I availed ourselves of the tour.  Bill and Madeline chose the horizontal option.

Turns out that Basel is a very interesting town (and well worth a repeat visit when we can spend a bit more time.  (Fun fact, there’s a carving on the front of the cathedral St. George and the Dragon. This is important to Basel because of the name of the dragon – Basilisk.  During our walk we noted quite a bit of dragon art. These people are proud of their Dragon connection.)

Following the tour we boarded the bus for the short ride back to the boat and Cheryl immediately fell asleep. (She’s asleep now and I’m hanging out in the lounge typing this.)

Later we had the introductory briefing by the crew management.  That lasted until dinner time and we joined Bill, Madeline, and a group of four fun people from Phoenix for a delicious dinner.

Then it was out to the front deck to get an up-close view of our navigation of the first lock. That took quite a while as we waited for a pair of boats to clear the lock and Cheryl eventually declared the lock as less interesting than sleep, so we retired to the cabin. Then our boat started to move so I grabbed my camera and headed for the deck. I took a few pictures and then settled in the lounge to post this update.

And that brings us up to current. We’ve just arrived at the second lock but I’m for bed.  I’ll just have to trust the crew to successfully navigate the lock without my help.

My pillow calls. Nite all.