10/31/2014 – Written by LuAnn Lisell

Today we had a Sauternes tour; Exclusive Artisanal lunch & wine pairing at Chateau d’Arche followed by a visit to another vineyard and wine tasting. This area is known for its sweet wines. We were a bit skeptical about drinking sweet white wines with our lunch, but they were expertly paired. Light, dry and crisp. Perfect for a beautiful fall afternoon lunch. 

The presentation of our food (on and off the ship) has been a work of art. No disappointment at this lunch. I have also been impressed with the options Uniworld makes available to those of us who are vegetarians or have other special dietary needs or desires. Good friends, good food, good wine….doesn’t get much better than this! 

Everyone on the ship was together for the lunch. After lunch, we were divided into 3 smaller groups to go to different Chateaus for our tours and wine tasting. We went to Chateau Guiraud. After the tour, we had our wine tasting. Excellent wine!! We were able to purchase bottles of wine at each winery, however, this was the first time I saw wine sold in tubes. 

One of the unique things about river cruising is that your ship can be tied up to another ship. If another ship happened to arrive at the pier before we did, we had to walk through (or over) the other ship to go between land and our ship. 

Tonight we were next to the Viking Forseti. We seized the opportunity to do a tour of the ship. I have not been on a Viking ship before, so I welcomed the opportunity to see the ship and to speak with a member of their crew. 

We were not able to see a cabin, due to full occupancy. Since the ships were tied together, and my room was next to the Viking ship, we went to my room to see if we were able to see in the rooms. Our rooms were no more than 5 feet apart.  We saw more than what we bargained for. When I opened my drapes, we not only saw the cabin, we also saw a women coming out of the bathroom in a short nightgown and a (large) man laying in bed reading a paperback. OMG!!