Romantic Danube: Overview

Last fall several of us took a Viking River cruise down the Danube.  The cruise officially started in Nuremberg, Germany and ended in Budapest, Hungary.  While my friend C and I considered doing Viking's official pre-trip extension in Prague, Czech Republic and the post-trip extension in Budapest, when we compared what was offered to what we could piece together on our own, using hotel points to offset the cost, we decided to do our own thing before and after the cruise.

As we looked at flights to Prague using our United miles, we had a couple of options: one with a long layover in Brussels and another 2-stop flight.  Not wanting to risk our luggage being transferred any more than was necessary, we went with the stop in Brussels.  It just so happens that I have a Twitter friend who lives in Belgium and she agreed to drive down to meet with us for a few hours.

Later that afternoon we caught our flight to Prague and spent a couple of days there walking the cobblestones of Old Town.  On Saturday we boarded a bus for Nuremberg and we timed it right because it was during the bus ride that we experienced the worst weather of the trip.  Once we arrived in Nuremberg we caught a train for the 20-minute ride to Erlangen, which is the small town where our longship was docked.

Overnight our longship moved into Nuremberg itself and we had our choice of a couple of different tours available.  Over the next several days we had stops at ports in Germany and Hungary and had to change longships mid-trip because the water was so low in some places that our longship could not pass through.

We sailed into Budapest on Friday and had a front-row view to the spectacular lights along the river that night.  When the rest of our group left on Saturday we checked into the Hilton in the Castle District and enjoyed a couple more nights of Hungarian hospitality.

For our return trip, C and went our separate ways.  She used her United miles to return in Business Class on Turkish Airlines via Istanbul while I used my Lufthansa Miles and More points for their Business Class cabin.  Lufthansa is known for opening up first class seats within a couple of weeks of the flight so I had hoped that I'd be able to upgrade as my date approached.  Why was flying first class such a big deal?  Because in Frankfurt, Lufthansa has an entire first class terminal and you get driven directly to your plane in a luxury car.  I'd hoped to be able to try this out but unfortunately had chosen to return home on a Monday, when there are loads of business travelers, so no first class spaced opened up.  Poor me, was "stuck" in business class.

Our flights. Mine in Red, C's in Cyan, joint flights in Pink
Map made at gcmap.com

We had a terrific time and I hope to get this posted fairly quickly.  If you'd like to see Viking's official video ad for the cruise you can see it here.