When you travel by river, be prepared to go with the flow.
The Riverside Debussy, a 110-passenger luxury river cruise boat, was scheduled to sail its “Romantic Rhine” route northbound from Basel in mid-April. But low water levels on the Rhine led to a last-minute deviation, with the boat departing from Koblenz, Germany instead. A broken lock on the Moselle River later led to another change in the itinerary, but the Riverside Debussy’s friendly staff was quick to offer new excursion options.
Passengers who couldn’t change their flights were picked up at the Basel airport and delivered to the dock in Koblenz, where the Rhine meets the Moselle at the “German Corner” marked by an imposing 14-m. equestrian statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I.
The Riverside Debussy is an elegant new boat, launched in 2024, with amenities like a pool, spa, and gym. Cocktails are available in a glass-ceilinged lounge and from a little jewel-box bar that sinks into the top deck when the boat goes under a low bridge.
Meals are served in the Waterside Restaurant and in the casual Atelier Café, with barbecues on the top deck when the weather allows.
Riverside Debussy won the 2023 and 2024 Cruise Critics Award for Best Riverboat Dining. Menus are locally inspired and paired with different local wines every day.
The breakfast buffet includes not only the usual eggs and pancakes but on a typical morning also offered salads, dragon fruit, goji berries, broiled grapefruit, kiwi, two types of juice shots and smoothies, herring, smoked salmon, marinated mackerel, homemade bread and pastries, and at least 10 types of cheese.
Lunch is also served buffet-style, while dinner is full service. The menu changes daily, though favorites like vegetarian lasagna and grilled salmon are always available.
The first night’s dinner menu offered Mallosol Osetra caviar, asparagus soup with smoked trout, and turbot fillet.
The variety of desserts seemed infinite – rice pudding with warm vanilla sauce, poppy-seed panna cotta, lavender crème brulée, Eton mess, Pavlova, rhubarb tarts, and more new delicacies every day.
The ship can accommodate vegans and vegetarians, as well as other dietary needs, but doesn’t have kosher supervision.
Suites on the Riverside Debussy range from 17 sq.m. to the 70 sq.m. two-bedroom Owner’s Suite, all with water views. The king-sized bed in my 23-sq.m. Riverside Suite faced a wall of glass. With a push of a button, the upper half of the window lowered and a polished wooden railing popped out to form a balcony.
As we embarked, the view scrolled past like a diorama – steep hillside vineyards, quaint villages, romantic ruins, fruit trees in blossom, swans, and scullers.
Stops visited on cruise we were on
OUR FIRST stop was Cochem – a small town of 5,000 people that attracts more than one million visitors during a tourist season that runs from April to October. At the height of the season, there can be as many as 10 cruise boats double-parked along the riverbank.
The local economy is based on wine and peaches, which combine into a sort of German Bellini cocktail made with local sekt (sparkling wine) and peach liqueur.
The town’s senfmuhle (mustard mill) still uses its original 1810 grindstone – the last of its kind in Europe. The condiment comes in a dozen flavors and is sold in stoneware crocks.
Our next stop was Trier, the oldest city in Germany, with the towering Porta Nigra (black gate) built by the Romans and now a UNESCO heritage site. The city’s archaeological museum has the largest collection of Roman mosaics north of the Alps.
Trier’s Church of Our Lady was built around 1230 and is one of the oldest Gothic churches in Germany. It was damaged during World War II, and a US Army chaplain collected pieces of broken stained glass that, decades later, were used to create a new window in the Presidio Chapel in San Francisco.
A highlight of the cruise was the scenic stretch of the Rhine between Koblenz and Rudesheim, lined with more than 25 castles, palaces, and fortresses. (The Riverside Debussy provided a helpful guidebook so we could tell which was which.)
Fortified with mugs of mulled wine, we drifted past the most famous stretch of the river – where the Rhine is at its narrowest and deepest and the legendary Lorelei once lured sailors to their doom while combing her golden hair atop her cliff.
We arrived in Rudesheim – the number two tourist attraction in Germany and a UNESCO World Heritage site – to sample its Rudesheimer coffee, made by melting sugar over brandy flames and topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. On weekends, there’s live music and dancing in the town’s numerous pubs.
IN COLOGNE, the ship offered a Jewish history walking tour. The city already had a well-established Jewish community by the time of Emperor Constantine, around 308-325 CE. A Jewish museum, now under construction, will include the ruins of a medieval mikvah and synagogue.
We continued to Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Nearby Arnhem was the site of the Bridge Too Far and the failed Allied Operation Market Garden in 1944. (The 1977 movie about the battle was available on the Riverside Debussy’s in-room entertainment system.)
Arnhem has an active Jewish community along with several memorials to past Jewish life. There’s also a cat café. The cathedral, destroyed in World War II, was rebuilt as a museum with glass-floored observation decks in the tower and whimsical decorations including a tardigrade (water bear), a COVID-like virus, and Disney-inspired gargoyles.
Our last night, in Amsterdam, the Riverside Debussy hosted a dessert cruise on the canals, with sparkling wine and accordion music. The city is rich in Jewish history and a ticket to the multi-media Jewish Museum also includes the candle-lit 1675 Portuguese Synagogue and the hands-on Jewish Children’s Museum.
Riverboats may lack the flashier features of ocean-going cruise ships – like casinos, virtual-reality game rooms, waterslides, and go-carts – but they’re also much quieter and free of crowds. They’re a great choice for those who like to maximize their exploring while minimizing shlepping luggage and avoiding the risk of sea-sickness.
The writer was a guest of Riverside Cruses.