May 11 – May 31, 2024
Some time ago our friend Betty mentioned that she was thinking about going on a European river cruise and needed some advice on which river and cruise line to consider. (Bill and I had gone on a Rhine and Moselle river cruise with Vantage some years ago, so I had some limited experience with such cruising.) Since I love to do travel research, I immediately started investigating the various river cruise lines and itineraries. As this was her first river cruise, I concentrated mainly on the Rhine and Danube rivers. My research seemed to indicate that due to the all-inclusiveness and reputation of the cruise line, Viking would be a good choice. Additionally, one of Betty’s relatives had recently completed a Viking River Cruise and loved it.
Of course looking at all of these river cruises stirred our travel bug as well. It wasn’t long before we decided to join Betty (and her friend Linda) in booking a cruise. But which itinerary and what time frame? We selected Viking’s Grand European Tour (a 15 day cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest) since it sailed three rivers – the Rhine, the Main, and the Danube – while spanning 4 countries.
As for time frame, river cruising is tricky. If the water is too high, the boats can’t fit under the bridges. If the water is too low, they can’t sail as they scrape the bottom of the river. In either case, cruise lines will swap passengers between two (hopefully identical) ships on either side of the blockage or remain stationary and bus passengers (sometimes lengthy distances) to the various locations for the shore excursions. Neither is a particularly desired situation.
We decided April might be too cold and subject to high water due to snow melt and spring rains (although as a Master Gardener, Linda would have loved to see the tulips at Keukenhof). Summer months often bring high temperatures (especially in Budapest), bigger crowds, and sometimes low water due to lack of rain. The autumn months can be quite pleasant but didn’t fit into our schedules very well, so we selected mid-May. We also decided to extend our journey by adding 3 extra days in Amsterdam pre-cruise and 2 extra days in Budapest post-cruise.
Betty and Linda elected to fly out of St. Louis since they would both be in that area in mid-May. Bill and I decided to fly out of Ft. Myers and delay moving the RV to Michigan until we returned from this trip. The 4 of us would meet up in Amsterdam.
We have a plan. So what do you think? Would you like to follow us on this river journey?
