In the early part of 2022, we began looking into a Danube river cruise to be taken sometime during the year. We discovered a fantastic deal from Viking, with airfare included that would take us on a cruise from Budapest, Hungary to Regensburg, Germany the week before Christmas with stops at several cities along the way to visit the Christmas markets. We decided it would be fun to take our nephew to Europe with us, as he had never been outside the country, and since we had to fill a cabin with two people, we asked his sister to join us if her dear husband would allow us to borrow her. He was quite wonderful in letting her go, and we’ll have to find a way to make it up to him sometime!
Over the months we were able to review the cruise route and book the trip excursions. Here’s what that looked like:
We selected one or more of the included excursions from the cruise itinerary each day, and decided to upgrade one day on Vienna to see Schönbrunn Palace. It turned out to be a great idea, as the palace was a fantastic high point of the visit to Vienna. The rest of our tours were half-day orientation tours to show us the highlights of each place, since we would have limited time to see them all on our own.