We enjoyed our opportunity to see Sagrada Familia on the pre-trip as during the trip this excursion was sold out before the opening date for excursions. We loved our balcony room and proximity to the elevator. The ship was friendly, clean, and elegant. We spent the extra money for every excursion because the included trips did not allow for any in-depth experiences. We enjoyed the tour to Penncarrow House in England. The gardens were in spring. bloom and the master gardener gave a beautiful tour. We enjoyed the day in Keukenhof immensely. We were able to spend five hours taking in all the seven million tulips in the gardens on their peak day on April 18th. Our trip to Windsor Castle was canceled and we had planned to celebrate our fiftieth anniversary of meeting there, but it was also fun to visit Arundel Castle on the Medieval Fair day. We enjoyed the chance to see Giverny, the home of Monet. It was so beautiful which made its artwork of Monet far more personal for the future. The day of the tour of Picasso's house in Malaga was outstanding. the guide was so well-versed and passionate about her subject. We loved that town and we loved the time spent in Murcia, which I probably would never have found on our own. We were lucky enough to run into a procession for Holy Week and a wedding on the same day. It made our trip very exciting.

The dining rooms were lovely. We had reservations at 8:30 pm and 9:00 pm at first. These were the only times available. Again, the disappointment was the sense of competition to be able to get what you paid for or you had to settle for less. This was a disturbing practice that I had not experienced on a trip with Viking on the rivers in the past. The entertainment was sometimes great and sometimes mediocre. The lectures were interesting and helpful in getting some important details about each country we visited. The Planetarium on the top deck was fantastic. The astronomer was very engaging, but like the other concerns that I have already mentioned, these lectures needed tickets and there was no mention of them in the daily newsletter. That meant that only those who talked to other passengers were in the "Know" about how to see these beautiful shows. We had a beautiful time on the extension tours. We took the train from Bergen to Olso. If we had not done that, the trip to Norway would have been painfully under-planned. On our own, we took a boat trip to Bergen to see the fjords. On our own, we got tickets to the opera in Oslo. When we took the extension tour in Oslo, we were brought to the Maritime Museum in a museum park. The experience which wraps up my remarks about Viking is that on this tour, we were told we would only see a small model of the Viking ships because their building was under renovation. That is understandable, but the fact that we were standing in front of the Fram Museum and the guide told me there was no time to go in took the cake! I asked if we could depart from the trip so that we could see the Kon-Tiki, the Ra II, and the Fram. The guide told us we could take a ferry back to the town center. Since I was assertive, I enjoyed the most exciting part of the trip to Oslo. I cannot thank Viking for that. The best part of the trip was that we had the ship to go back to each day and we felt well cared for including the protocols for Covid-19 protection. It was a great trip but it required an experienced, assertive traveler to get the most out of it.