The Flight to Basel Switzerland

We were looking ahead to almost 24 hours worth of traveling, an air journey of three legs: Jacksonville to Atlanta to  Amsterdam to Basel Switzerland.  We left Lake City on Friday 22 May 14 at about two thirty in the afternoon to the Jacksonville Airport.  We had an early dinner at The Millhouse Restaurant and Steak House located on the road leading into the Airport.  I wanted to have a leisurely dinner and cocktails to calm us both down prior to a very long flight.  This time we were flying economy, because we ran out of American Express points that we easily accumulated in private practice which could be used to upgrade to first class.  We were dreading being packed into Economy with very limited leg room for eight hours straight.

The dinner and drinks were quite good at the Millhouse.  You can never be sure, because a certain number of people say they loved it on Trip Advisor, and a small, but still significant, number say they hated it.  Now, fortified, we checked our bags all the way to Basel and said an incantation over them hoping we would see each other again.

The flight to Atlanta was on time and uneventful.  Only an hour an a half layover in Atlanta, but of course we landed at the extreme opposite end of the Airport from The International Terminal where we needed to board the aircraft.  The subway is very efficient, and we got there in plenty of time.

Boarding seemed interminable because the plane was huge, a Boeing 777.  The flight itself was smooth, and we landed in Amsterdam at 1250.  After another hike the length of the airport, we boarded a KLM City Hopper jet from the tarmac and arrived at Basel Switzerland at 1755.  We were greeted by Viking agents and bussed to the ship in about twenty minutes. 

Dinner was served almost immediately so we didn't even have time to change clothes.

Our Travel Documents

A few weeks ago we received out travel documents from Viking River Cruises.  This is what the package contained:

We also did some reading:

We had been considering a European river cruise for some time now, but the catalyst was John and Julie Kime booking the Viking River Cruise, "Rhine Getaway".  It was the perfect length, one week; we had never been to that part of Europe before, and it conjured up visions of castles along the Rhine, Siegfried's Rhine Journey music, the Black Forest, schwartzwalderkirschtorte and gemutlischkeit; and, we could enjoy it all with our friends John and Julie.  The cruise starts in Basel, Switzerland on Friday, 23 May 14, and ends in Amsterdam on Friday, 30 May 14.  The ship is the Viking longship Ingvi.Ingvi