Recently returned from a glorious 10-day trip to Portugal. A little background; while veterans of more than 20 Ocean cruises, this was only our third river cruise, 2nd time on Viking, and 4th trip to Europe together. I am 54, DH is 58 and we love to travel.

We had utilized Viking Air, and on paper our flights didn't look so bad. Our trip over had us leaving from Dulles to Newark and from Newark to Lisbon. We had plenty of time in-between flights. However, first our flight from Dulles (On United) delayed boarding by over half an hour because of a mechanical issue with the PA system. After boarding we sat on a taxi way for another half hour because the air traffic over Newark was backed up. By time we landed and taxied to a gate I knew it would be close. Naturally, the gate we landed at, and where we needed to go were about as far apart as one could get at Newark. When we finally made it to the gate for the Lisbon leg, boarding had already started. I am going on the record that United did not impress me at all. The plane used for a transatlantic flight was small. The same size we fly from BWI to FLL. Even in premium economy there was no leg room. Thank goodness it was only a 6-hour flight. The meal was awful (I mean, I know that airplane food is not gourmet, but I wouldn't have fed what we were served to a prison inmate). And finally we had turbulence the entire way. Again, I realize the airline can't control that, but it just added to what was a miserable flight over.

We did land on time (8 am local time), and the Lisbon airport is very easy to get around. Passport control was a breeze. The official scanned our passports, looked at us to see if we matched our ugly passport photos, asked no questions, and waved us through. Our luggage was quickly retrieved, and we walked through customs and straight to the Viking representative waiting just past customs. There were 16 of us, and in no time we were loaded into 3 vans, that carried 6 people each, and it was off to the hotel. Read more