Viking River Boats, Hlin and Kara, and swapping on the Rhine

Viking River boats are very attractive and comfortable. I spent about an hour or two taking photos of the Hlin and Kara.  I researched the Norse valkyrie Kara and discovered that the name Kara means “the wild stormy one.”  What follows is the result of my photographic efforts. I will caption the photos. A trip on either of these boats, or any other in the Viking fleet, is a delight.

Before I proceed with your tour of these two beautiful river boats, let’s talk about the boat swap for a moment.  While it was certainly an inconvenience it was far better than the alternative.  We were scheduled, from start to finish, to travel on the Viking Kara but it could not traverse the Rhine from Amsterdam to Basel due to low (really low) water levels.  So we packed our bags, following our stop in Cologne, to move from the Hlin to the Kara.

Both boats are identical.  And the crew on each was very nice.  There was really no difference between the two.  So, after our visit to Marksburg, we “swapped” boats.  We left our luggage outside our cabin on the Hlin in the morning and found it hours later, after our stop at Marksburg and our cruise through the Rhine Valley, in our cabin on the Kara.

Now, before thinking that this was awful, consider the alternative.  Without a boat to move to we would have been relegated to a bus tour, moving from place to place packed like sardines into tiny seats, seeing the area through the windows of a tour bus; packing and unpacking nightly.  That’s not my idea of a vacation.  So, give me a boat swap anytime.  Thanks Viking for having enough boats that swapping was a possibility.

Now, lets continue our tour of the Hlin and Kara.