That is apparently what I was offered after speaking with my travel agent - it was gone within the hour. I know better now. I am watching the Main River go by now - this Grand European is AWESOME! We have met the nicest, most interesting people from all over the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Just a lovely trip of partly sunny sweater weather so far. Getting colder tonight but the castle cruise on the Rhine was perfect. “May” have to do a ship swap between Regensberg and Passau since the weather has been so nice - you pay for it later in the cruise. I heard ship swap is a breeze you dont even know you are coming back to a different boat when returning from your excursion. Already signed up for the London, Paris, D-Day cruise in 2027 and a couple we met on the boat from Boston has convinced my husband to do the Arctic Adventure - not sure I’m up for that, we’ll see. Trying to catch up on CC from the lounge on the way to Wurzberg. Won’t post much but “needed” to check in and see whats going on in the CC world!
One of the reasons we picked Viking is that the (at least I know on the Rhine) set boats from “both ends” same day, have ability to swap if water levels are too low or too high to continue. Seems more fun that switching to a bus tour, as we heard (but never verified) that other cruise lines do as backup.
For the last few years we’ve been doing spring and fall trips, mostly to England or Spain combining about a week of hiking with about two weeks of sightseeing. It’s been great. We just got back from hiking in the Picos de Europa and visiting Burgos, Santander, Bilbao and San Sebastian-Donato. When I was first planning the trip I had not fully realized that Spain has so many caves with human remains. We visited two caves with paintings from 35,000 years ago. (Stencilled hands, horses and bison mostly.) The archeological museums in Burgos and Santander were also really interesting. (not my cave painting photo cameras not allowed.) We had to adjust some of the hiking as we are not spry 20 year olds any more, but it was still gorgeous.
I drive an Audi, so the museum was a stop on one of our trips. We were driving to Munich, so it was an easy stop to make.
mathmom that sounds amazing - would love to do something like that some time.
Just recently returned from our first-ever cruise trip to Europe.
I’ve never been a fan of cruise vacations, but my wife and a couple of her close friends—all of whom, like us, were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversaries this year—had their hearts set on marking the milestone with a 9-day cruise departing from Ravenna, Italy. The cruise, Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas, took us to Croatia (Zadar and Dubrovnik), Civitavecchia, Italy (with excursions to Civita di Bagnoregio and Orvieto), La Spezia, Italy (excursions to Cinque Terre), Villefranche, France (excursions to Nice, Èze, and Monaco), and finally to Barcelona, Spain, where we disembarked.
Before the cruise, my wife and I spent 2 nights/3 days in Rome (not enough!) and 3 nights/4 days in Venice. After disembarking in Barcelona, we stayed 3 nights/4 more days there, including a day trip to Montserrat, before continuing on our post-cruise travels: Madrid (2 nights/3 days), Granada (2 nights/3 days), Seville (2 nights/3 days), then a long bus ride to Lisbon, where we stayed 3 nights/4 days with a day trip to Sintra, and finally Porto for another 3 nights/4 days before flying home.
All told, the trip lasted a full month, covering roughly twenty cities and towns across five countries. For my nearly 70-year-old body, I think I held up quite well—especially considering how many steep hills and staircases we climbed in almost every city. In Lisbon, we discovered upon arrival that all the elevators and escalators were out of order, so I had to carry two pieces of luggage up the stairs by hand. In Granada, our Airbnb sat atop a cobblestone hill, forcing me to either haul the luggage up or risk breaking the wheels while dragging them over the uneven stones.
Despite those challenges, everything went remarkably smoothly. The only real mishap occurred in Porto, where I narrowly avoided being pickpocketed, and again upon our return to Newark International Airport, where our connecting flight was delayed five times. As I stood in the airport restroom, it suddenly struck me how convenient life is back home—no more having to pay just to use a toilet!
A month adventure, that’s amazing!
It was indeed an adventure that, in retrospect, would have been more appropriate to my younger self. From all the walking and climbing (did 10+ miles of walking on day one in Rome with hardly any sleep) for a month, I lost 5 lbs in spite of over-consumption of gelatos, churros con chocolates, pasteis de natas, pastas and pizzas, paellas, tapas and cicchettis and whatnot. My wife, on the other hand, had gained 6 lbs!
The switch to a bus happened to us 2 years ago when the Rhine flooded. Our last couple of days were by bus which wasn’t great
Bummer. Was it Viking? (they can swap boats, but I am not sure that covers every high/low water vulnerability along the Rhine)
It was Amadeus. My understanding though was that all ships headed up stream had to stop because the ports all closed.
Our next big hiking trip to the UK is booked for July 20 to August 10. We will spend 11 days walking the 102 miles of the Cotswolds Way and then spend a few days in Bath and few in Dover
A friend did the Cotswold hike last summer and raved about it.
I just returned from 3 weeks in Europe on the Viking Grand European Cruise. It was everything they advertise. Literally going down the Rhine with the castles on either side, no other boat in view, stewards bring us clean blankets, serving hot chocolate with another steward following up with shots of Baileys in our hot chocolate. We were all looking around to see if we were in that commercial because it is exactly like that. I am pooped because we did both the pre and post extensions but I cannot say enough about Viking. We have signed for another trip in 2027. We had gorgeous 60+ partly sunny skies which made the landscape and tours beautful but since it had not rained enough in the previous weeks we did have to switch ships. It is a nothing issue, we knew 2 days ahead it was a possibility and the day before they told us so at our port briefing so we had to put all our belongings in their bags except what we were wearing the next day on our tours and when we returned to the ship - it was a differnet ship in a different location but same stateroom, different art, different crew but everything else was the same. There was a bus ride to the new location but no tours were lost in the transfer. It truly was seamless. Again, highly highly recommend this company.
We did the same, Viking GE cruise 2 years ago. We were lucky in the weather and we didn’t have to change ship at all. However, we wer told the next Viking ship after us had to change ship. We also spent a few days before and after the cruise but on our own since we’ve been to Amsterdam and Budapest before. We enjoyed it very much.
We leave for our first Viking ocean cruise in two weeks
We enjoyed our 2 river cruises, wanted to try something different
Hope we like it!
Have fun! Looking forward to your feedback.
My sister toured Lake area in UK and loved it!
We were in the same “boat”–2 Viking river, followed by our first ocean cruise this past June. We enjoyed the Alaska cruise we took very much, but still like the river cruise even more. Smaller group, more intimate setting (all dine at the same time) and river felt more egalitarian, in that excursion bookings open up at the same time for everybody, not dependent on cabin level. We were a little disappointed that when excursion bookings opened, almost all optionals were already filled up—we have NEVER had trouble getting any optional tour on both our past river cruises.
My mom would like me to take her on a river cruise. She is vision impaired and would require a walker at all times (she has to hold my hand to walk outside her home) and probably a wheelchair for any excursions. Do those of you with river cruise experience think that is doable? She is mentally very sharp and healthy- other than the vision issues.