Avalon Affinity Review
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My husband and I are in our early 60's and have enjoy traveling a lot. For the past few years we have been thinking about going on a river cruise and decided this was the year, to celebrate our 40th anniversary. We chose Avalon partly because of a recommendation from someone who had traveled with Avalon and partly because of the itinerary.
We flew into Zurich a day early and stayed at Hotel Walhalla, which we booked ourselves. It was very close to the train station. We did our own thing for the day, enjoying the sights on a free walking tour we had read about online. The following afternoon we took the train back to the airport where an Avalon rep walked us to the hotel shuttle bus which took us to our meeting place. From that hotel three buses drove all the cruise passengers to Basel where our ship was docked. We were quickly shown to our room and our luggage arrived within 10 minutes.
Our stateroom was a little smaller than ones we are used to on big cruise ships but it was fine for the two of us. We had plenty of storage space for our clothes and our two big suitcases fit nicely under the bed. The bathroom had a glass door shower which was very good and the L'Occitane bath products -- well they're my favourite anyways so we really enjoyed them. Soap, shower gel, shampoo, conditioner and lotion were provided. The wifi worked great and it's free. I think the only time I had some trouble with it was when we were deep in a few of the locks on the canals.
Cabin Review
Port Reviews
Nuremberg
We took the tour to the courthouse where the Nuremberg trials were held. It is still used as a courthouse today so we couldn't see inside. They are thinking about changing it so it can be toured. Then we carried on to the Rally Grounds where Hitler held his huge (100,000 people) rallies. From there we went to the Documentation Centre which is a museum. It's very well done with excellent commentary on a hand held wand.
Regensburg
Avalon provides their passengers with a coupon for free sausages, saeurkraut and a drink at the Old Sausage Kitchen which is just under the bridge to the left as you walk into the old city. They were delicious and there were 6 sausages. Sausages are cooked over a fire where you can watch. We found the Collegiate Church of our Lady at the Alte Kapelle which is absolutely gorgeous, bright and with beautiful paintings. The cathedral, by comparison, is very dark and the stained glass is very busy and we had a hard time figuring out what some of them represented.