Viking Danube River Cruise

 Viking Romantic Danube River Cruise

In July 2023 we went on a Viking river  cruise that was scheduled to go on the Danube river from Budapest to Regensburg, Germany. Viking has several Danube cruises; this one was called Romantic Danube. This was our second Viking river cruise; we have never been on any other cruise. Note that since this cruise we have gone of the Viking Rhine river cruise. Write-up will be forthcoming.

Viking sends out many offers for its cruises with large price differences. It pays to look for the better deals. You can usually get free airfare. The Viking portfolio of cruises continues to expand. I usually concentrate on the river cruises in Europe although there have been some recent great deals to China. I have a Yin and Yang relationship with Viking. We love the floating hotel idea and they do treat you well. However the food is boring and repetitive, wine lists have been deteriorating and their travel arrangements can be perplexing.

We started out in Budapest. We flew through Frankfurt. The connection was good. Frankfurt is huge and connecting can be problematic. We took a cab from the airport to the hotel. Hungary is fairly inexpensive so a cab made sense. We flew business class on United. The wine list was ok, nothing special. Champagne was good.

We stayed at the Marriott in Budapest. Buda is the hilly section on one side of the Danube and Pest is the flat section on the other side of the river. We stayed in Pest right on the river. The Marriott was great. Location right on the river and there is a river walk. The main tram stops right outside the hotel. We got a 24 hour pass that allowed us to take all public transportation. Keeps things easy when travelling in new cities. The service in the hotel was great. They recommended a very nice restaurant for dinner. They also have the concierge club which served some interesting Hungarian wines. Marriotts in Europe serve free alcohol in their concierge clubs. Budapest was a fun city to walk around. The Pest side has stores and restaurants and the Parliament building.

We find that trams can be a great way to get around in cities. You can see where you are and just get off anywhere. Buying an unlimited  ticket is usually a good deal but it has the psychological effect of freeing you from trying to make decisions on where to go. Just hop on the tram and see where it takes you and if it starts to look boring  get off and take another tram.

Like many big cities today Budapest has a Ferris wheel in a park in the middle of the city.

A church  in Pest. In front is a big central square with cafes.

The Marriott and the  tram stop.

Some Hungarian wines we tried at the Marriott. Hungary has some decent dry wines, but they are famous for their Tokaji, which is  a sweet wine and can get quite expensive. A good explanation of Tokaji wines can be found at this site. The wines are classified by sweetness. ohttps://winefolly.com/deep-dive/the-story-of-tokaji-wine/

 

A local beer. Nothing special.

A Viking boat on the Danube. It is amazing how many boats Viking has on the European Rivers.

The hotel recommended a restaurant for dinner and we went to a very nice place that I have forgotten the name. We had goulash and what came out was amazing; a modern take on Goulash. We also had a very nice Hungarian red wine that was medium bodied with good fruit and nice tannins.

Hungary also has a special breed of pigs that provide excellent pork.

The goulash.

This musician in the restaurant played this contraption which had an amazing sound almost like a xylophone. The instrument was quite old. We ate outside and he played inside. When we spoke with him he played a song for us that was cool.

The Parliament building which is the postcard shot for Budapest.

Budapest has a wonderful food market in an old building.

The Buda side is hilly and give great views. Great for wedding pictures. We took a car tram run by a private company to get around Buda. It was about $15 per person. It had about 5 stops and made a loop back to the beginning along the river. It worked out great.

Parliament building from Buda.

Church in Buda.

A military drill squad guarding a building did a drill routine with their guns. It was a bit creepy.

Buda has a few museums and other buildings to check out. There is lots of construction going on. There is a Hilton Hotel in Buda on the hill overlooking the Danube. The hotel is built into an old historical monument. You walk into the lobby and there are the remains of an old building. Very unusual and unexpected.

If you don't take the tram train you can take this funicular up the hill.

The waiter at the restaurant where we  ate dinner told us about Langos. Every eats it. Of course we had to find a restaurant that served it. It was  really good and cheap- about 8 Euros. Fried dough with sour cream, cheese, sausage and onion. It comes in lots of permutations.

A poppy seed pastry. It wasn't too good.

The wine list on the boat.

A wine we drank on the boat. A top producer but not a good wine. Spatburgunder is a Pinot Noir in German.

Entering a lock on the Danube. Locks are amazing. Huge concrete dams that have chambers for boats. The chamber/lock then fills with water or empties water to allow the boat to continue on its rout through the dam.

Vienna. The boat stopped in Vienna for 2 days. We walked from the boat to the underground train.

Laderach is a Swiss chocolate shop that seems to be everywhere these days. The chocolate is very good and on the cheaper side for premium chocolate.

Schoenbrunn Palace. https://www.schoenbrunn.at/en/ We took an excursion from the boat there. It was worth the visit. We took a horse drawn cart around the gardens which was fun.

Another wine from the boat. Silvaner is a grape used in German wines. A white wine. It is fruity and good acid. They can be quite nice.

A Vienna Museum - https://www.khm.at/en the Kunsthistorisches Museum

There is a long stretch of open food markets in Vienna. We had lunch in one of the restaurants. Most of the markets are Middle Eastern influenced which was a surprise.

We wandered upon the Secession Museum https://secession.at/ an interesting small museum with a famous room with a Klimpt Frieze. You can listen to Beethoven's 9th on headphones which inspired the frieze. A cool place.

We were recommended to a restaurant in downtown Vienna with great schnitzel. It was great . Look at the puffiness of the breading. Local beer as well.

Even the potato salad was good.

https://www.plachutta-oper.at/ In the summer eat outside as their is no air-conditioning. Prices are reasonable.

The original Hotel Asher with their famous Sacher Torte. They have a shop/cafe that sells the torte. We did not indulge.

But we had some Sacher Torte at this place with the double extension. It was very good.

Viking as an exclusive excursion to Gottwig Abbey.https://www.stiftgoettweig.at/&ts=1721078583679

A great excursion. The Abbey is active and we met with head of the Abbey. We took a tour around the buildings. The Abbey owns a large amount of land and makes wine that it sells. It also tends the forest land that it owns. They are famous for apricot dumplings. We took a short class in how to make the dumplings. Good stuff. I have not made them yet but I have the recipe.

The famous dumpling!

Their wine. We tasted it and it wasn't too good. They make  a few different wines.

The boat docking in Krems.

Sundeck on the boat. All the Viking riverboats have a top deck that is open to sit and relax or play shuffleboard.

Waterskiing on the Danube.

The wine list on the boat was not great. The boat was out of several wines. Each night they highlight 1 or 2 wines that go with their special dinner dishes. Every night they have a special regional dinner that you can choose. The alcohol package that you buy includes bottles of wine under 50 euros on the wine list at dinner. One night the special wine was $47 Euros so I ordered it .The special wines are on the main wine list just highlighted for an evening. The waiter told me that the bottle was not included in our package because the regular price of the wine was 52 Euros on the wine list. I was  incredulous. This was very un-Viking. 

Anyway I ended talking to and befriending the head of the ship and he apologized. The next night they brought us the most expensive wine on the list -Chateau D Armailhac 2017. It was 97.50 Euros but they comped the bottle for us. The wine was very good. The 2017 vintage is Bordeaux is underrated but I really enjoy them. The wines tend to be lower in alcohol than some other top vintages. After that I was best buddies with the crew and the head guy actually recommended the Schnitzel restaurant in Vienna to us.

Dinner that night was duck which was very good.

Sunset from the boat.

Just to give an idea of how small the docks are sometimes where the boat can dock. This is a nice perk of the riverboats.

I believe that this is Passau. There were river water issues on our cruise and the cruise could not end in Regensburg as the water level was low. Instead they found some temporary docking spots and set up a bus trip to Regensburg. There are an amazing amount of riverboats on the Danube and parking can be tough. Viking boats sometimes triple park!

A beach on the Danube.

Another wine for dinner, a red Sancerre which is a Pinot Noir. And earthy Pinot Noir and it was 42 Euros on the wine list.

Dinner.

Regensberg. The cruise was supposed to end in Regensberg but due to low water it ended in the Krems area. They bussed us to Regensberg for a tour. Viking gave  us  a credit   for another  cruise for the inconvenience.

A beer garden.

More wines on the boat.

This was from Gottwig Abbey. Someone at our table bought it. Not very good.

Munich. (Munchen) Ever wonder why English speaking countries have changed the names of cities and places around the world. Florence - Firenze; Rome- Roma;

We had been to Munich several times before and really enjoyed the city. For convenience we stayed very close to the train station, across the street, in a comfortable Marriott brand hotel. We love the beer in Munich and love the beer gardens. The old city is a short walk from the train station or you can use their subway/underground trains. All trains in center of Munich are available using the city metro tickets. Service is very frequent.

There is a beer garden in the old city which is convenient and good for people watching. The Old City was jampacked with tourists and I wouldn't spend too much time there. It like Times Square in NYC. We got a table in the beer garden which had waiter service. The self serve tables were packed.

There are only about 6 beers made in Munich and the big ones have their own beer gardens. The beer gardens are generally restaurants with outdoor tables. Munich beers include Spaten, Hacker Pschorr,  Paulaner, Hofbrau(HB), Augustiner Brau Munchen, and Lowenbrau Munchen. 

The food in Munich is very good and reasonably priced. We ate in restaurants outside the old city tourist area and very good meals.

The line for a fried dough snack. I got on line and tried it .It was good.

Frying.

A chocolate and candy shop that made a passion fruit candy that was great.

Love the pretzels in Munich.

OldCity hHall in the old city. There is arestaurant in the central coutyard.

Crowds.

We decided to find some places to eat outside the center of the city. We found a restaurant sev=rving pizza and good wines. We had their own organic red wine. It had that reduction aroma and was light and intersting.

The pizza was good. Munich has good Italian food as it is in southern Germany somewhat near Italy.

Restaurant in courtyard of Old City Hall.

Crowds even at night.

A Isar river runs through Munich.

A beach and people swimming.

One of the coolest places in Munich is the Englischer Garten. It is a large park with a beer garden and oompah band in the middle of it. It also has a small river that flows through it. The river comes out of an underground pipe at the edge of the park. When the water comes out it has such force that it is great for surfing. People surf there all of the time. People also use the river as a lazy river on which they tube along with the current.

The beginners surfing spot.

The tower is where the oompah band plays.

Pretzels, chicken and potato salad.

Of course the beer. Beer gardens usually have only one brand of beer.

You give a deposit to get beer in a mug. No plastic cups here.

Fish on a stick being roasted.

We took a train out to the Olympic park area. There is a big BMW exhibit building there where you can see all things BMW. Bruce Springsteen was giving a concert that night. German Springsteen fans are an older group and there appeared to be anumber of big time fans.

The BMW building.

For dinner back  in the city we went to a Paulaner beer garden that had exceptional food. It was also not too large.

Duck at the restaurant.

Their special dumplings - huge and delicious.

The menu.

Inside was empty but beautiful wood everywhere.

There is an Eataly in Munich.

The Hacker Pschorr beer hall.

The old City Hall at night.

Our hotel across from thee train station.

The train station.

The flight home wine list on Lufthansa. The Champagne was good. 

Crazy story. On the boat we went through a number of locks. Some locks were wide enough for 2 river boats. I started to speaking with someone on the other boat. He was German but spoke some English. here I am shaking hand with my new  friend boat to boat.

So at the next  lock the other boat was next to us again. I went looking for my friend and found him in another section of the boat. He had  written out his name and e-mail address to contact him. Unfortunately I can't read the email address he sent me. I have tried several permutations but no luck.

This cruise was taken in July 2023. We went on the Viking Rhine Cruise in April 2024. Details to follow