Viking Eistla Review

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Review for Europe River Cruise on Viking Eistla
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lj77346
10+ Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Oct 2015

We sailed on a 14-day Grand European Tour from Amsterdam to Budapest. We used an air package from Viking and the flights as well as transfer were good.

Unfortunately due to low water levels in the rivers, parts of the cruise turned into expensive bus tours. We were on the Eistla from Amsterdam to Nuremburg where we were transferred to the Bestla which was docked in Passau. The Nuremburg day was a long bus day where we had a tour of Nuremburg, then a group lunch and finally about a 3 hour hour bus ride from Nuremburg to Passau. So, for those who wanted to see Regensburg the next day, it involved about an 1-1/2 hour bus ride back along the stretch of river we could not sail and of course, another 1-1/2 to get back to the Bestla.

The portion of the river we did not get to cruise had some of the biggest locks and viaducts. Then, when we got to Vienna we found that we would not be able to sail to Budapest, so we would not get to experience what we thought would be one of the highlights of the cruise - sailing into Budapest at night. Instead, the bus tour continued. Those who wanted to see Bratislava had a 1-1/2 bus ride to the city and another 1-1/2 ride back to Vienna. The Budapest day was a 10-hour bus marathon with a 4-hour bus ride to Vienna, a 2-hour lunch, a 2-hour bus "tour" of Budapest where we did not get to go into anything and then about a 1-1/2 hour bus ride to the Viking Ve which was docked "near" Budapest, if you consider 100 kilometers away as being near. The final morning was a 2-hour bus ride to the Budapest airport because of where we we docked.

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Port Reviews

Budapest

A brief drive by on bus where we did not get to go into any buildings.

Vienna

We took a walking tour using public transit from the quay where the ship docked. There were only 3 of us on the tour and the guide was very good. Because of the small size of our group we were able to cover a lot of ground and see a lot of historic Vienna.

Melk

The tour of the Melk Abbey was OK, but we were surprised that it was more of a museum and did not have rooms decorated in period style like other visits to historic buildings do.

Passau

We walked up from the river to the cathedral. In our opinion the guide did not do very well in providing information.

Nuremberg

We took a bus/walking tour of the city and the guide was good. We drove past a number of sites associated with the Nazi presence in Nuremberg and then started our walking tour at the castle. From the castle we walked down to the main plaza in the city and along the way the guide provided interesting information about the city and buildings we were seeing.

Cologne

We started off on this walking tour, but the guide was moving so slowly and was so boring that we left the tour and went to explore the city on our own.

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