Basel and Amsterdam: Finding my Inner Cinderella and a Bathroom Snafu

 We spent our first few days (pre-cruise) in the beautiful city of Basel, Switzerland, where our cruise was supposed to begin, but couldn’t because the Rhine River was too low.  We toured the Medieval Old City and learned about the city’s historical importance for commerce due to its location on the river.  We also went on a food tour where we were able to sample an incredible Gruyère cheese, just slightly better than Trader Joe’s, a type of gingerbread that gave your jaw quite a workout and then required you to surreptitiously remove the gingerbread from your teeth.  The best of the samples was the Swiss Chocolates. We tried two different types at two different locations, and both were fabulous.  Unfortunately, I can’t for the life of me remember their very long names. All I know was that it wasn’t Lindt.

The big snafu in Basel, was our hip boutique hotel.  It was very European—which is great— but with such  a hotel, certain amenities are not available…like elevators.  The hotel consisted of two buildings, and our room was located in the building that housed the bar and restaurant.  We looked on the wall to see that our room #5, was upstairs.  As there appeared to be no elevator, we began to ascend the steps.  What our hotel hosts didn’t tell us was that our room was at the very top of the building—on the third floor with six flights of winding steps.  When we got to level 5, we both had our hands on our knees so that we could suck in some much-needed air. I felt like I was Cinderella climbing to my attic room! After catching our breath, we finally got to our room, of which  I can only describe as “spare.” Because the hotel fancied itself as “artsy,” we opened the door and saw that two of the walls had a painting of a body lying on its side with its back to the room.  I spent the next day and a half trying to figure out whether or not the person had a shirt on.  It also had a huge hanging  lamp shaped like an inverted mushroom.  If the room was even a little bigger, I would have been all-in with appreciating this art. But since it was only slightly larger than a walk-in closet, I wasn’t loving it, particularly since my too-big suitcase was smashing against it the whole time we were there. Lastly, like Cinderella, we were actually in the attic, which meant there were wood beams coming from the walls. I am not a tall person, but I nearly knocked myself out each night when I had to go to the bathroom.  

We left Basel and flew to Amsterdam where our river cruise would begin thanks to a sufficient amount of river water. The ship is lovely and the food has been delicious but I had a bit of a mishap in our cabin bathroom.  I woke up our first morning cruising, and went to two 30 minute exercise classes. The ship’s male wellness instructor is the envy of every middle-aged woman on the ship because it appears that his waist measurement is about 14 inches. After a quick breakfast, I went to take a shower and all was fine until I attempted to get out of it.  The door just would not open enough to get my body through it! Fortunately, I was able to get my arm out enough to grab a towel to dry off and minimize the chances of  me getting pneumonia. As time passed however, I had absolutely no idea how I was going to extricate myself from the situation.  Thankfully, after about 10 minutes, Bob came back to the room and was able to move the door enough so that I could get out.  My Prince Charming! The lesson of this experience: Go light on the desserts.