We had arrived on the afternoon of April 12th and were met as planned at the airport.  Everything was going according to plan.  We had booked a room for the night on a "hotel ship" and were looking forward to getting a preview of what our cabin on the Viking Sun would be like.

Our taxi took us to where our "hotel" for the night was to be.  It wasn't there!  It had never shown up!  We'd been duped!  Fortunately, our credit card wasn't charged!

BaselWorld, the annual International Watch and Jewelry Show, was going on in the city so there were no rooms to be had. Fortunately, we had not dismissed our taxi!  Our driver didn't speak English, however, he led us to a temporary office BaselWorld had set up at the dock!  The young man there spoke English, understood what we needed and provided directions for our driver to the center BaselWorld Hospitality Center.

We found the Hospitality Desk and two wonderful young ladies, called hotels in nearby cities and found us a room in a little guest house out in Biel-Benken, about 25 miles away!  We arrived there safely and found a quaint little hotel. A great experience we would not have had would our original plans gone through.

The next morning, we headed back to Basel to board the Viking Sun. From there, all went as planned. We spent the afternoon exploring the ship, took a little water taxi ride the next morning and set sail in the early afternoon.