The first reason that we were attracted to this cruise was the inclusion of admission to the Passion Play in Oberammergau, which had been delayed two years by the pandemic. As it only takes place every 10 years we decided that, at our ages, to wait could be risky.

The second reason was that, despite being avid ocean cruisers, we had never taken a river cruise, nor had we been in that part of Europe. We are curious, and we wanted to "grow our minds" as Mr. Torstein Hagen says in those wonderful Viking Cruises ads.

The trip started in Munich, where we had booked an extra night in order to take advantage of the last weekend of Oktoberfest in that city. Then it was on by motorcoach to Oberammergau for one night, followed by beautiful Innsbruck for two nights. The hotels selected by Viking were of high quality, and conveniently located for independent exploration on foot after the included tours. The local tour guides were informative and fluent in English; some shared bits of their family history that was relevant to our location and made the experience so much more personal and interesting. Our Viking tour guide, who was with us from day one until we boarded the ship, was brilliant. He maintained a pleasant balance of information-sharing and quiet times during our drives between cities. And, he managed to keep all 27 of us on schedule for our departures from each site, which is quite a feat in itself! Our motorcoach driver was excellent - whether on the autobahn or driving through the narrow city streets, we always felt safe. Read more