This is our first river cruise – my mom was always a big fan – and we thought we would give this travel mode a chance. Weve been on lots of cruises, mostly in the Caribbean, and a couple of bus tours of Spain, Portugal, and Italy, so this time we thought we would try to see how the river We looked around for and decided Viking is probably the best, and a 15 day tour from Amsterdam to Budapest is probably a good representation. Viking is more than typical cruises, as it includes shipboard beer, wine, and soft drinks (but theyre only free with meals, if you want a drink in the lounge, there is a charge). The ships are small, with 95 staterooms and about 190 maximum guests. No one under 18 is allowed on board, so no kids activities. There are 3 decks with rooms and a topmost sundeck, but there is no pool. There is one restaurant, with breakfast, lunch, and dinner (dinner is at 7:00pm). There is a lounge area at the aft of the ship with a bar, and some live entertainment at night. There is evidently a small
Our flight was uneventful, it was nice that we left at 12:55 in the afternoon, so we werent scrambling to get to the airport in the early morning hours. Jody had a with some ancient Karen next to her in the plane who didnt like Jodys backpack encroaching on her floor space. The lady tried to get her seat changed, but the flight was full, and she just had to deal with it. Im so glad to see that the airlines are doing more with streaming video for inflight entertainment. Unfortunately, I didnt think much of the selections, and ended up watching the new Jurassic World movie (which was ok, but kind of predictable) and Nomadland (which was good but depressing). But quickly, it was 7:00am local time and we were arriving in Amsterdam. The airport transfer was easy, and we were at the ship by 9:30. Luckily, the room was ready, and we were able to catch a couple hour nap to recover from the flight.
By noon, we were up and around and ready for a quick lunch in the restaurant. The restaurant is small,
and the seating is shared with other couples at larger tables, which we like. We met a couple from Pennsylvania(Jan & Kent), and a lady from California(Debbie) at lunch and they were very nice. They had already been in Amsterdam staying in a hotel for a couple of days, so they were fully rested, and we were still a little from our flight.
The feel so far is much more like a cruise than a bus tour. The total group is less than 190, and there is a cruise director, so I assume over the next 15 days, we will meet most of the people on the boat, but most of our time is our own, except when heading out for shore excursions. There is generally an included shore excursion every day on the tour, and we are doing some of them. Others have been augmented with an additional paid shore excursion, or we have replaced the free one with a better paid shore excursion. Unfortunately, we made those choices long ago, so well have to figure out what weve booked over the next few days.
about hours with a local guide. They use the audio boxes like on the bus tours, and they kept our group size to below 10 people, so that was nice. Per was our guide, and though originally from Sweden hes lived here for 28 years. Amsterdam has a population of about 900,000 in the city itself, with about 1.5 million in the metropolitan area. Amsterdam looks like a fun city, theres lots of people, mostly young, and a LOT of bicycles. Since there are no subways in Amsterdam, and the city is either at sea level or below, so there are trams that run on rails to travel around the city. Unfortunately, this means the trams must stop for traffic, so travel by tram is slow. For that reason, most people ride bicycles. And most bicycles are shabby bicycles.
According to Per, bicycle theft is a big problem in Amsterdam, and if you have a really nice mountain bike, or electric bike, it will quickly be stolen.
