St. Paul, MN: Well, I got one thing wrong yesterday, we are being picked up to go to our ship at 10:30 a.m., we’re in the first group to go. Looks like all 190 of us will be aboard by noon. I wonder if we shove off then?
The river cruise lines put people up at the St. Paul Hotel in the city of that name, and it is a well-maintained grand old hotel. Chandeliers and a fireplace in the lobby, lots of wood paneling, and a quite decent, if pricy, restaurant.
Hotels take a beating and this one doesn’t show it, so they’re taking care of it on a regular basis. My only complaint was the WiFi wasn’t included so I’m on my phone’s hotspot.
Since we flew into St. Paul I presumed that is where we’d board our ship, I presumed wrong. We were bussed maybe an hour downstream to Red Wing, MN, where the MS American Serenade was moored. Now we are cruising downstream at a leisurely pace and the water is smooth as glass. Lunch was great and there are gimme soft drinks for the taking.
Earlier this evening we sat on our private balcony and watched twilight fade to black. Later we both fell asleep with our clothes on and woke up just shy of midnight to get ready for bed. I conclude we are more tired than we realize. All in all a decent first day of our 2 week river cruise.
