Around the Rhine

Drought, detours, and going with the flow

After some 20 years of being tempted by a relentless onslaught of marketing brochures, my wife Marianne and I decided to take a European river cruise. It had always been an indulgence that we could not quite rationalize. We loved the idea, of course: floating down a river, sipping cocktails on the top deck or on our stateroom balcony, historic medieval castles panning slowly across the landscape on each side of the boat. And yes, perhaps another cocktail as we cross into the next country… lovely!

It would be our first-ever cruise of any kind. We had never seriously entertained a full-on, ocean cruise-ship experience, packed in with several thousand passengers on the open seas, taking in structured fun and more food than a digestive system should ever have to face, not to mention a spin-the-wheel chance at norovirus. The concept felt like a big tub of anxiety and claustrophobia, an overstuffed cornucopia of options you would not choose unless you were trapped on a boat.

But early in 2018, our friends Roberta and Keith told us they were going on a Rhine river cruise in November — from Basel to Amsterdam — and that Roberta’s cousin Janet, a Napa Valley winemaker, would be hosting events on board. Here was the perfect opportunity! Not only would we have that magical river-cruise experience we had imagined, but we would do it with great wine and, especially, a group of friends. That may sound like a sappy sentiment, but having friends on a confined ship full of strangers is no small gift. It grants you a social shield of immense power, avoiding the need to meet others but using the conviviality of the group to make it easier to do so. It helps you relax and enjoy the trip. So this was all perfect.

We booked our tickets with Ama Waterways, one of the higher-rated river cruise lines, and I got to work researching the path the ship would take — documenting the sights we would see, capturing maps on my iPad, and finding restaurants in areas where we might have some free time. This is what I do, and I spent a few solid weekends of pure joy doing it.

When November came, the Rhine river region in central Europe was suffering one of its worst dry spells on record. The drought had left the river less than a foot deep in stretches, shutting down the movement of cargo on Germany’s most important shipping route. We discussed canceling the trip with our friends, knowing it was likely we would would not be able to make the full journey. But Ama Waterways had a good reputation for taking care of passengers in situations like this, and we decided to stick with the plan and hope for the best.

It was not the best. The ship didn’t make it past our second river stop. We did not have our idyllic river cruise. But also, it wasn’t the worst. It was surprising, and different, and inconvenient, and enlightening. Like travel.

Here’s what happened:

Story & Photos

Special thanks to my wife, Marianne, for a few of the better photos shown in this series. Check out her amazing work at Soul Spark Photography!