Our Avalon Waterways ship, Avalon Envision, docked at the landmark-rich French city of Strasbourg on the west bank of the Rhine River. Disputed and fought over innumerable times across the centuries, this Franco-Germanic gem of a city posed a problem. What to see first?

I wanted to line up to get inside its magnificent Romanesque/Gothic cathedral, the tallest building in the world for over two centuries. My wife was determined to soak up the three museums of the Palais Rohan, where Marie Antoinette once stayed.

Strasbourg requires prioritizing. So there it was. On the third day of our 20-day ‘Romantic Rhine’ adventure, we did the only reasonable thing a married couple could: we split up. Not in the matrimonial sense, of course. Just for the day. We’d meet back on board for dinner, because no matter what else might happen, you don’t want to miss dinner on the Avalon Envision.

Discovering the joys of river cruising

The source of our contentment, the 135-meter-long Avalon Envision, has 67 suites and 16 staterooms, a Skydeck with a whirlpool and a mix of lounges that’s so long it has its own Vanishing Point.

There’s Starlink wi-fi, an exercise room and a fleet of bicycles. Everywhere you go, the service is impeccable, as good as I’ve had anywhere. Always attentive but never intrusive. There’s 24-hour tea/coffee/snacks in a lounge at the rear, which was part conservatory, library and observation lounge.

In our Panorama Suite, our bed faced the river, so if you feel yourself wishing you had a balcony, just open the floor-to-ceiling glass sliding doors. Then the whole room becomes a balcony.

I’ll admit I approached all this with a little skepticism. I’d spent years sailing on expedition cruise ships and always wondered if river cruising would be my thing. Avalon dealt with my angst. No longer were the endless horizons of the open sea an unchallenged realm in my head. No longer did I think rivers and the ships that sailed them were somehow too narrow, the routes too constraining.

Now I know better. Avalon Envision had nooks and little quiet spaces to spare. And the river? The Rhine is 1,200 kilometers long if measured from its source in the vast snowmelt of southern Switzerland. It flows down to Lake Constance, then continues north past the castles of the Middle Rhine before dispersing over a vast delta across the Netherlands’ pancake-flat landscape.

I ask you: What’s confining about that?

Taking the scenic route

Avalon Envision usually departs from Basel in Switzerland, but for this voyage, due to some bureaucratic entanglements, it started 45 minutes by coach downstream from Basel in Breisach, Germany.

Fortified since the Middle Ages, Breisach was heavily bombed in World War II, but its Old Town on a small hilltop overlooking the Rhine is still gorgeous. It’s also the departure point for Avalon-organized bus excursions to the medieval French town of Colmar.

Colmar is as beautiful as any centuries-old European town can get. Its labyrinth of cobblestone laneways are overlooked by gorgeous half-timbered houses that line its backstreets and tower three and four stories above flower-filled canals, a showcase of over eight centuries of French/German influence and architecture.

The residence of Ludwig Scherer, a wealthy hatter, was built in 1537 and the paintings that still decorate the building’s facade are a magnificent assortment of portraits of German Emperors, evangelists and various allegorical figures and scenes. It’s mesmerizing. Other buildings display similar centuries-old frescoes. I don’t know how I didn’t get a sore neck from all the looking up.

Buying coconut macarons at the Maison Alsacienne de Biscuiterie, I asked the owner if she ever tired of the architectural beauty that surrounded her.

“Never,” she said. “Half-timbered houses weren’t always popular, though. They used to be considered poor quality, so many had their exteriors covered over. Now they are more appreciated and are being restored.”

We decided to avoid our Avalon guide and get the local bus back. It wasn’t our fault that we got off the bus in the wrong country.

Naturally, I blame the Grand Canal d’Alsace. It was constructed parallel to the Rhine in order to tame the fast-flowing river around Breisach, a treacherous mix of shallows and a strong current. Constructed on the French side of the river, it looks a lot like the Rhine to the untrained tourist’s eye barreling toward it on the D415 from the back of a local bus.

Long story short, we were still in France when we got off and had to cross by foot over the canal and the Rhine to get to its eastern bank and into Breisach to board Avalon Envision before it departed. Which we did with 15 minutes to spare.

Some will say that’s a lesson in getting the tour bus, but I can tell you that no guest on that trip came away with an appreciation of the Grand Canal d’Alsace like we did.

For every type of traveler

Daily excursions are optional and varied, and there’s something for everyone, whether it be a visit to a Renaissance palace, a museum or a bakery to see how pretzels are made. Walking tours are graded ‘easy’ (village walks) or ‘demanding’ (hillside vineyards and hilltop castles). Bicycles are available either as part of a group ride with local guides so that never a wrong turn is taken, or you can just grab one at every opportunity, as I did, and go solo.

It’s a plus if you have at least a passing interest in locks, too, because on this trip you’ll pass through around 10 of them. Which is why river cruise ships are the width they are. They are by necessity narrow, which means balconies are often sacrificed in order to maximize internal cabin space.

We made sure we made the bus for the tour of the Maginot Line, the sprawling defensive line the French built in the years after World War I to deter any future German aggression, which failed because the Germans simply parachuted in behind them.

Our tour took us to Ouvrage Schoenenbourg, a large artillery emplacement completed in 1938 with over 3,000 meters of underground tunnels serviced by a 600-millimeter electrified narrow-gauge railway. It was a great excursion and typical of the sort of experiences Avalon is so good at organizing.

Continuing north, we arrived in the university city of Heidelberg on the Upper Rhine Plain. Heidelberg University was founded in 1386 and is the oldest university in Germany, although its youthful demographic gives the place a visceral energy.

I recalled being told when I was last here years ago that the reason it wasn’t bombed in World War II was because a British member of Bomber Command had studied there before the war and managed to convince his superiors of the need to spare it.

Almost everyone took the tour up to its imposing castle built on the site of a 5th century BC Celtic temple. The more energetic did the 2.5-kilometer Philosopher’s Walk, a simple path taken by the university’s faculty over the centuries in the hills above town.

Castle views and culinary delights

Northwest of Heidelberg, in the heart of the so-called ‘Romantic Rhine’ with its endless array of castles and palaces, we arrived in Rudesheim, home to possibly the quirkiest museum you’ll ever see – Siegfried’s Mechanical Musical Instrument Museum.

Opened in 1969, it is a cacophonous celebration of self-playing musical devices, some of which you will hear on the tour. The museum houses over 400 instruments covering 300 years of outrageous innovation, all of it packed into a 15th century building, the Bromserhof, the one-time home of a celebrated medieval knight.

You’ll see things here I can guarantee you’ll never see anywhere else, from a tiny snuffbox that’s home to a miniature singing bird you can hold in your hand to the outrageously gigantic Orchestrion. As big as a minibus, the Orchestrion contains its very own orchestra, everything from violins to trombones, which will play whatever song is fed into it on old paper rolls.

Rudesheim is also known for its Drosselgasse, a narrow historic alleyway filled with bars, restaurants and a density of tourists that would rival the Vatican at Easter.

Prone to wandering and not good at following guides, we maneuvered our way out of Drosselgasse and ended up in the midst of a Turkish community, which was putting on a free lunch in return for donations to raise funds for the renovation of a local mosque.

Lunch on Avalon Envision, as delicious as it was, was often sacrificed in favor of the lure of local cuisine. In Rudesheim it was a delicious kebab and a side dish of saksuka (eggplant, zucchini, garlic, tomatoes and chili). Back in Heidelberg it was a sausage-laden carousel barbeque. Did you know there are more than 1,500 types of sausage in Germany? Grilled, cured, smoked – and every region has its specialties. Bratwurst alone has more than 40 regional varieties and then there’s Currywurst, Weisswurst, Wollwurst, Regensburger wurst…

After Rudesheim came Koblenz, founded by the Romans as a military stronghold in eight BC. Also heavily bombed in World War II, its Old Town remains a delight and the city is a highlight of any Rhine cruise. We grabbed a bicycle each and took off on our own along its broad cycle-friendly promenade along the Rhine’s west bank, past an array of pop-up eateries and food stalls, to Deutsche Esk (German Corner), the promontory at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle rivers.

The final glorious stretch

This was freedom, the sort of kaleidoscope of choices you just can’t get at sea. I was being wooed, challenged, seduced – but too busy having fun to realize.

Cologne was our last major stop before our journey ended in Amsterdam. Its cathedral is one of Europe’s greatest, a monument to German Catholicism and Gothic splendor and, at 157 meters, the tallest twin-spired church in the world.

We arrived in Amsterdam the next day, enjoyed a canal cruise and a city walking tour, and our trip was done. I’d been converted.

We’d been taken through the heart of Europe in grand style – our cabins were made up daily for us, visiting musical groups played for us, an elegant tea service every afternoon was set for us, free cocktails at Happy Hour awaited us, sumptuous meals with locally sourced ingredients were prepared for us, and every day at lunch and dinner complimentary local and international wines were poured for us.

We chose when and where we dined: in the beautifully paneled and surprisingly cozy Panorama Dining Room, the less formal bistro, a steak from the grill on the Sky Bar or breakfast in bed.

There was at once no reason and every reason to leave the ship each day, and I’d go again in a minute.

Avalon Waterways has multiple routes on all of the great rivers of Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. Go to www.avalonwaterways.com.au to find your perfect cruise.