Looking back with a month’s perspective on our European river cruise, three things made it unique. The people, the pace and a handful of special excursions coordinated by Viking. I’m not talking about my favourite sights (the Baroque palaces), or the places I’m most keen to return to on my own (the stretch known as the Romantic Rhine), but the things we couldn’t have replicated if we’d defaulted to our usual continental holiday and organised ourselves.
The People
We inevitably chat with people and strike up new acquaintances on holiday, but river cruises should be thought of in the same way as an organised group tour. You are with the same people for the duration, and numbers are small enough that you’ll be on nodding terms with almost everyone in a few days. There’s only one dining room and one lounge, so unless you seek the solitude of your room, you’re sharing your holiday with these people. While I wouldn’t want to do it all the time, it was a pleasant novelty, and there was great joy in comparing each others’ days, seeing familiar faces and forming a little community, albeit temporary.
The staff added to this, with their incomparable skill for making each cruises’ passenger list feel unique. (It’s hard to believe they’ve delighted two more iterations since we left and probably don’t remember a thing about us.)
The surprising imbalance of nationality … given the scope of Viking’s marketing in the UK … was a distinctive factor of the trip. Of 90 passengers we were the only two resident outside the US. If I ever needed proof that I’ve “gone native”, this was it. My accent may still be American but my world view, behaviours and conversational topics are solidly English and European. While the near-celebrity status our foreign origin gave us was fun, and I rather enjoyed everyone seeking my opinion on the Royal family, we found it a bit odd to consistently feel the outsiders, especially when cruising through places so close to home. If either Americans or group togetherness bother you, this may not be the trip for you.
The Pace
I adored the stately pace of river travel. Though my love of art and architecture will always push me into a sightseeing frenzy in historic territories, some of my favourite memories of the trip will be of the cruising times. (This is radically different from ocean cruises, where the flat, blue expanses of days “at sea’ generally offer little to interest the eye.) While the two afternoons of scenic cruising down the Rhine and Wachau valleys were as spectacular as promised, it was solitary mornings on my balcony that I’ll treasure most.
While the waterways we travelled are full of big, industrial cities, Viking plans the route so the ship is going through less attractive areas when you're asleep, or off sightseeing. Most mornings brought the joys of a pastoral riverbank. In many cases the scenery wasn’t noteworthy, but the peace of the riverside, the babble of brooks joining the river, the morning chorus of wildfowl in an otherwise silent world soothed the soul. Of course the misty morning on which I stepped out to see King Ludwig I's circular temple celebrating the defeat of Napoleon, the Befreiungshalle, looming over the trees as we pulled into the riverbank to tie up was a special combination of art and nature.
Both of those elements are probably typical of other cruise companies, but Viking would certainly argue that they differentiate themselves on the quality of their special excursions. Marketing solidly into the cultural tourism space, Viking includes one guided tour at each destination and these are always with thoughtful, well-educated guides. (Although we were really curious if those guides would have given us a different take on things had they not been using their script for Americans.) But there is almost always the chance to add on specialist tours (for a fee, naturally), and some of these were particularly good.
The Excursions
We were a bit profligate with our excursion booking, given that our starting point was a very large credit with Viking. (Due to the cancelled cruise you can read about here.) They weren't all a success. The cruise on the salt barge on the River Inn was too brief (Our time on the boat was roughly equal to the time on the bus to get there), the "baroque town" of Scharding was pleasant but didn't live up to its promise and the salt making pit-stop was so brief as to be almost pointless. That excursion needed another hour or two to live up to its billing. The special access to the Lipizzaner stallions and stable in Vienna sounded good, but reality was one group moving through immediately after another at maximum density, while a quick search shows you can book the same tour for yourself on multiple websites for less. So not so special.
The deep dive into Gouda cheesemaking was good, and I loved the fact we were on a family farm where dad took us through the dairy operation before handing over to the daughter who made the cheese. But I really wanted us to then sit down and get guided through a tasting, with some attention given to why Gouda is special and what differentiated the different varieties. Instead it was a rushed visit to the store where we could spear samples on toothpicks while the bus waited. Almost great, but not quite.
But a pub crawl with a fantastic local guide, our ship's hotel manager adding to the local colour, redeemed an otherwise unimpressive Cologne and gave us some proper local food. A tour of storybook Rothenburg not only gave us the main sights but some quiet backstreets; the drive there was spectacularly beautiful. A private tour and dinner in a Benedictine abbey felt properly exclusive ... we only saw a few other people ... and was made all the better by a traveller's blessing by one of the monks in their spectacular, off-the-beaten track church. In Hungary, a drive out of Budapest brought us into beautiful horse country where daredevil riders showed off equine skills dating back to their nomad forefathers who originally established the country.
I'd advise anyone on this cruise to go easier on the extra excursions. We overdid it, pumping up the base cost of the trip substantially, and ending up with a schedule so busy we undermined the R&R part of the holiday. The four above, which I'll cover in the a coming article for each, are the ones I'd do again.
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