Epilogue

Marc's wrap up

This Epilogue is to share some post-journey thoughts about both the experience, and the Viking River Cruise, should you ever consider one. When watching PBS, it's hard to resist the draw of the beautiful ads and the promised cultural experience.

In a nutshell, I'm thrilled that we booked the trip. Since it was my first trip to Europe, having all the travel details nailed down, and the cultural training provided to navigate where Dutch, German, and Hungarian are not my first language, was just what I needed.

If you have scanned these pages, you can see that our experience was rich.

Is Viking the best choice?

We were both delighted, and befuddled at times. Viking aimed to make it a memorable experience and strove to make everyone feel 100% comfortable.

Viking Pros

• Having never been to Europe, Viking was a good choice and scheduled all trip details from beginning to end. This included the very best stops with the most interesting tours. It was a cultural treasure.

• Being on a floating hotel meant meals were prepared for us and housekeeping provided. We were never far from home even when in a new city.

• A river boat is small, so it did not feel like the overwhelming masses of a cruise ship. It was easy to meet new people and hang around with those whose company we enjoyed.

• The Viking staff went above and beyond to take care of every detail. They were flexible and helpful. They even scheduled a "gym visit" for one passenger at every stop.

• Scenery from the river was spectacular.

• Every day there was a schedule delivered to each room for the next day's activities. That along with the evening "port talk" helped us make our plans. The same information was delivered to the room TV and the Viking app on my phone.

Viking Cons

• Travelers must be flexible, low water levels, unless one sails in spring, can bring changed plans. We experienced two, over land bus journeys when we should have been on a boat.

• Viking knew about the itinerary changes before we sailed, but was not transparent with them or their impact. (I'm sure a few may have cancelled.)

• For Diane and I, those aboard were predominantly from an older generation. By itself, this isn't an issue, but with older bodies often come older mindsets. There were some beautiful exceptions. Bob and Marcia were mid 80's and could be my parents, but their thinking, wit, and humor were refreshing. Maybe 10% to 20% were our age or younger (my guess).

• Sometimes the old school mentality scoffed at germ awareness. Hands constantly jutted out to shake when meeting new people -- which I mostly declined. People understood, but still it was awkward. I returned home with COVID so my concern was warranted.

• Everything is scheduled. The worst of it was the meals. So free time to contemplate and journal had to be forced. Also, there were no food options outside of scheduled sit-down meals. It would have been good to have some grab and go snacks like fruits, nuts, etc. Meals were heavy on the waistline and our time commitment.

• I thought we would dock and have time in the various cities, that only happened at the end in Vienna. The schedule was so tight that self exploration was minimal, or at the expense of the planned tours.

• There are no exercise facilities on the boat. The upper sun deck has a walking path, but about five days of the journey required the deck to be closed as the boat sailed under minimal clearance bridges. The captain's cabin had hydraulics to lower it out of the way. I squeezed in a few runs only at the end.

My Conclusion

This was an expeditionary journey. One in which I was able to envision myself returning, on my own schedule. Possibly to an Airbnb for a few weeks, or even a month. There was so much in each town and we really could only read the table of contents. I want to return and read the chapters.

There were only a few times where locals did not speak English. For that, there was Google Translate. Navigating was comfortable and people in the host countries were mostly welcoming. 

If one wants to plan a Viking trip, the captain recommended that one make the trip in the spring when the rivers are reliably high. 

Oh, and by all means, skip Heathrow if you can. OMG, it's horrible. (Below, Diane with a smile in one of the transit tunnels at Heathrow.)