Viking Herja: 125 departures from Basel to Trier, and a village of 500 that changed Europe
Measured on 25 August 2026: 80 departures from Basel to Trier and 41 from Trier to Basel, out of 125 in total. The downstream direction dominates clearly, as on almost every route beginning in Switzerland.
Schengen, on the Luxembourg bank
Between Remich and Trier the ship follows some thirty kilometres of Luxembourg bank. At one precise point three countries touch: Luxembourg, Germany and France. The village there has about 500 inhabitants.
It was there, on 14 June 1985, that five countries signed aboard a boat moored in mid-river an agreement abolishing checks at their common borders. The location had been chosen for exactly that reason: a point where nobody could say the signing had taken place on any one country's soil.
Today the area covers more than twenty-five countries and some 450 million people cross those borders without showing papers. The village has not grown. A small European museum stands there, and the contrast between the scale of the place and the scale of its consequence is the best history lesson on the route.
A detail that matters for a Canadian traveller
Moving within the Schengen area does not exempt anyone from entry rules. The conditions applying to Canadian travellers change periodically, including online pre-authorisations. Have them checked at the time of booking, not three days before departure.
The hull: a Longship, 190 berths
135 metres, 190 guests, 53 crew, 95 staterooms: 25 Standard, 22 French Balcony, 39 Veranda, 7 Veranda Suites and 2 Explorer Suites. One crew member for every 3.58 guests, a ratio belonging to the Longship class — it does not hold across the rest of Viking's river fleet, where it falls to 1.71 on the Nile.
Viking Hild runs the same route with 125 departures, and Viking Idi reaches Trier from Bamberg with 159.
Herja, the devastator
Herja is a valkyrie whose name translates as "to devastate" or "to raid". The valkyrie lists of the Norse corpus are, for the most part, catalogues of war verbs turned into proper names.
Getting there from Montreal
Basel has no direct flight from Montreal: a connection through Zurich, Frankfurt or Paris. Viking Alsvin offers another way onto the Moselle, from Bamberg, with 157 departures.
Booking: what you need to know
Viking's reservations site does not serve Quebec addresses: it redirects to a page stating it is unavailable and suggesting you go through an agent. The check takes 30 seconds and is better done than taken on trust.
On our side, nothing is booked without writing. Our Viking River Cruises advisors send you the exact fare, the inclusions and exclusions item by item, and the applicable conditions. AquaTerra Travels follows Quebec consumer protection rules and participates in the compensation fund for travel agency customers.
