My wife and I recently returned from a utopian Viking River Cruise from Budapest, Hungary to Nuremburg, Germany aboard the Viking Alta. Three years ago we had the best experience taking our 4 adult children on a Viking cruise from Amsterdam to Basel, Switzerland to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. When my wife's sister decided she would like go on a European river cruise to celebrate her 60th birthday, we strongly recommended Viking and invited ourselves to come along!

We arrived in Budapest a day early and stayed at the Hilton on the Buda side of the Danube by the Fisherman's Bastion. We attended Sunday Mass at St. Mattias Church and loved exploring both sides of the city -- Buda and Pest. Our first evening meal on board the ship was fantastic, and the service even better. A real highlight was the later evening cruise to see the glorious Parliment building all lit up at night!

The Vienna City tour was amazing, and lunch at Sigmund Freud's hangout the Cafe Landtmann was really cool. The optional Mozart and Strauss musical evening arranged just for Viking was simply incredible -- to enjoy the musicians and dancers in such an intimate setting was a memory for a lifetime! Read more