Kinderdijk, Netherlands November 2, 2024.
We are now in the home stretch since today is our last full day on the 15 day Viking Rhone and Rhine River Cruise. We have enjoyed our almost month away from home, but I think with both of us sick with colds, and not sleeping particularly well lately, we are tired and frankly just want to get home. It has been nice to be away for a very long time - the longest I’ve ever been away other than to our home in Florida. The break from golf has been good for my body, but probably my feet have taken a beating with all of the walking we’ve been doing on this trip and I am desperate for a pedicure on Monday the day after we get home!
Sailing on the Rhone in the Netherlands
Sitting in the lounge with our friends Steve and Stacey this morning we were trying to figure out where everyone’s upcoming vacations were going to be and was there any possibility of meeting up somewhere in the world to share some more fun with our new fantastic, well travelled friends?! Stacey is a travel agent in Perth, so her and Steve are always travelling and she works looking after her clients where ever she is in the world.
We managed to figure something out for next spring (April) potentially and once we get home we will firm up the details and are really looking forward to making new memories with our friends! Aussies travel a lot and the distances they have to travel just to be able to get to Europe are crazy! They think nothing of hopping a 5:15 hour flight from Perth to Singapore and then taking a 14 hour flight to get to Europe before they even start their vacation! Lucky for them though a they have a very short 3.5 hours flight from Perth which has them landing in Bali where Steve keeps his surfboard with some guys he’s gotten to know over the many times a year they head to Bali. In fact Steve and Stacey are leaving Amsterdam to go to Singapore and then on to Bali where they will spend 3 days, get time adjusted to Perth time in Bali, and relax before heading back to their home in Perth, Western Australia.
Program Director Jackie did a full review of the disembarkation program for tomorrow and also the Port Talk for this afternoon’s visit to Kinderdijk. I did not attend as I still wasn’t feeling well and Richard deals with all things related to transportation anyway, so this was up his alley and not mine.
Waiting for our last tour in Kinderdijk, Netherlands
Our 2 hour tour of Kinderdijk commenced outside the Viking Hiln at 2:20pm. We were the first group off the ship for the tour of the windmills. We had visited Kinderdijk last year on the Viking Grand European cruise but our grumpy, old volunteer guide was not very good compared to the guide that we had today. It is amazing how much more we learn from having a good guide!
We visited thIs windmill that is set up like a museum inside and which is still a working windmill.
Small bedroom, kitchen and dining room of the Miller. Not a comfortable place to live!
The ‘Miller’ or the person who looks after the windmill was there today wearing his yellow wooden shoes and for looking after the museum windmill he gets to live in the next windmill up from the museum windmill for about 300 euros a month. Our guide said that wooden shoes were the very first safety shoes and if you think about it, he was probably right!
The old pumping station which is no longer in use and is a small gift shop
The Miller’s windmill home which is undergoing some renovations to the outside of the building
The Netherlands has a 25 person Water Management Board which the citizens elect every 4 years and to which homeowners pay specific taxes towards supporting. Our guide who lived about 2 km from this 19 windmill site says he doesn’t mind paying his taxes towards the Water Management Board because they make sure that his land doesn’t flood and that no disaster occurs in the Netherlands, which is about 25% below sea level. Our guide told us that even Schipol Airport in Amsterdam is 13 feet below sea level! He says he never worries that the land he lives on is below sea level because he knows that their system of water management through dikes, windmills and electric pumping stations is extremely efficient and the Water Management Board takes their responsibilities very seriously.
Our guide walked us to a museum building where he showed us parts of the wooden windmill gears which wear down over time with use. The maintenance of the windmills in Kinderdijk is supported by the tourism revenue generated by the tours given to the public and of course river cruise ship passengers which also stop to take tours of the windmills.
Of course no stop on a River Cruise would be complete until we visited a gift shop and had the opportunity to shop. I wasn’t really interested in anything they had for sale as we had picked up some Dutch souvenirs the last time we were in Kinderdijk. There was a food truck though which made amazing ‘stoopwaffles’ so I had to buy a packet of these sweet caramel waffles to try!
We headed back to the Viking Hiln after our last excursion of the cruise and it was time to start packing! I shooed Richard out of the cabin so I could pack in peace and thank goodness for our portable weigh scale which I had brought with me so that I could make sure that each of our large suitcases were within their weight limit for our flight tomorrow!
Richard had a few cocktails with the Aussies while I packed and then I joined everyone for the final toast to the crew and guests by the Hotel Manager Torsten. Torsten went on and on and on about facts and figures on how many toilet rolls were used, cocktails were made, eggs were served, dishes were washed, napkins were folded etc etc, on our cruise. We heard the same kind of numbers last week when we left the Viking Buri. I think it is a ‘canned’ speech by the Hotel Manager each week but coming from ‘Mr Insincere’, Torsten we weren’t really interested in listening to him.
I have to say that we experienced two very different back to back cruises with Viking on this 15 day trip. Last week with Program Director Daniella we had an amazing time with her spirit and enthusiasm when it wasn’t even her usual ship or sailing route. She was asked to fill in at the last minute because the Program Manager for the Buri had broken their foot. Daniela normally works the Douro River in Portugal. All of the senior leadership of the Buri operated in an engaged manner with the staff and couldn’t do enough for us; constantly checking up on us and making sure we had enough food, wine and were enjoying ourselves. The food though on the Buri by the Italian chef was not so great. The soups were always luke warm, lacking taste and frankly the food wasn’t seasoned properly, despite being nicely presented. If only the food on the Buri had been better, the cruise would have been perfect!
What a change this week getting to the Viking Hiln to find that the food under Chef Chris was amazing! Every meal was outstanding and all of the soups and main course regional menu items were a home run! The issue this week was Torsten, the Hotel Manager and Jackie, the Program Manager who both seemed to be ‘mailing it in’ or just doing everything by rote. We found out Jackie was going on a month’s vacation once our cruise was over and Torsten was always on a ‘break’ whenever we needed him for anything. He actually told our Aussie friends that “he wasn’t paid to mingle” last evening. He also said that “170 other guests are having an excellent time on this cruise” to our Aussie friend Rob who told him that he wasn’t showing very good leadership keeping to himself and chatting with Jackie at the bar, while guests were waiting for drinks. Jackie said to Vange when she inquired why an optional excursion was so expensive that “Viking prices their optional excursions that way” when an optional dining tour was so very expensive at about $800 Australian dollars per person. Jackie also said that “Viking doesn’t want the staff dressing up for Hallowe’en” so instead she did a spider eye makeup on one eye. To us, the guests, both Torsten and Jackie are representatives of Viking and shouldn’t be blaming Viking for anything. Their lack of leadership filtered down to the rest of the staff on the Viking Hiln, with meal times being very disorganized waiting for wine lists, waiting for wine, plates not cleared fast enough and frankly just forgetting to bring water or tea when requested. We weren’t sure if the ship was short staffed in the dining room or that they were just disorganized, but the Restaurant Manager was never around during meal times and he also didn’t check to see how our meal was or did we get everything we had requested.
I know these are first world problems and we are ‘complaining with our bellies full’ as Richard likes to say but given that Viking claims they are #1 by Condé Naste in River Cruising, Ocean Cruising and Expedition Cruising, we would expect better and a more consistent experience from ship to ship. We had a fabulous cruise last Christmas on the Viking Grand European River Cruise with a fantastic staff and crew, and amazing food, despite the 3 ship switches we endured because of high water levels. If only Viking could have had the staff of the Buri and the food of the Hiln, this 15 day cruise would have been a much better experience. Because of our somewhat mediocre experience with Viking this year on this River Cruise in which they are supposed to be the leaders on the European Rivers, we are going to cancel a planned Viking Ocean cruise that we have booked for next October. I think it is time to find out what else is out there given Viking is appealing to the masses and not providing the service or food experience that we would prefer to enjoy. Viking is not a cheap cruise line but yet there are many things that are cheap on Viking. For example the included wine option at lunch and dinner if you don’t buy the Silver Spirits package was ‘La Vielle Ferme’ which in France costs 4.95 euros a bottle or $8.49 U.S. To buy the Silver Spirits package was 350 euros per person per cruise and I don’t drink. So it didn’t make sense to spend 700 euros so Richard could get ‘finer’ wine at dinner. At least Viking does allow people to bring their own wine or spirits on board and many people on our cruise, including Richard, did just that.
Viking includes a tour in every port but the quality of the tours is not always that great. It is very guide dependent on whether you have a good tour or not and we still have to tip the guide for every tour, because that is not included.
Richard, me, Rob, Vange, Stacey and Steve
Our last dinner with the Aussies was a hoot and the meal was fantastic with white bean soup as the appetizer and very tasty beef brisket as the main course. There was also poached halibut as an option for dinner, but we both had the brisket and the smoky flavour of the brisket was divine!
After dinner Viking brought in a lounge singer and string bass player as the accompaniment. The duo’s name was “Cherry Pop” and we can only imagine they got on in Kinderdijk when we stopped there and would get off in Amsterdam where they lived when we docked later this evening.
The song choices were all on point and the lounge was finally the busiest we had seen it in 2 weeks! We all ended up multiple times on the dance floor enjoying some last evening fun on our cruise.
We said our goodbyes to our Aussie friends who were excited that we would hopefully be seeing them again in the not too distant future next April.
Our wake up call was very early in the morning and we put our luggage out at midnight for Viking to collect it and put it in the lobby for us to claim in the morning.
We are very tired and unfortunately won’t be getting much sleep with a 10:10am flight tomorrow out of Schipol in Amsterdam. We’ve had a great time away but all good things have to come to an end with the last stop.
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