No matter what excursions u choose, u r likely to be amazed at the wealth of experiences this cruise offers! Personally, I am gawking in retrospect at the totality of a life well lived by having taken this cruise! U feel like it's sensory overload actually: the tastes, the sounds, the animals, wildlife, your fellow passengers sharing their day's adventures at sumptuous lunch & dinner on board, usually. Amsterdam is just a wonderful city to begin in, with its beauty, canals, flowers, lovely architecture along the canals, the Anne Frank House, the Rijksmuseum, one of the world's best, the interesting permissive cultural ethos as well, but beware the many rapid bikers! Not only this city as well. And then u see what feels like the past: the Kinderdijk windmills that keep the flatland country of the Netherlands dry, and safe, and so pretty! Then on to Grand Dame Germany, w beautiful Cologne, until u reach last stop of Passau, which is a chunk of this lovely voyage. U come to understand and appreciate the richly varied German culture, from Munich as a long day trip, to lovely woodworking in Cologne, and so many lovely cathedrals too. From small towns to big cities, this tour makes u feel the steps of your ancestors. And then on to magical Austria, which u can walk into, on a bridge by foot, on the day excursion into Scharding Austria, on a baroque ship, and on the Inn River, take a drinking beer cruise w pretzels! Recommended: the Mozart/Strauss concert evening in Vienna, the Schonbrunn Palace, The Lipizzaner Stallions in Vienna, and oh my, their Sacher Torte! And lovely Budapest is worth an extra long stay too, as I did, taking a post cruise extension there. The night w the feast and the authentic dancing just outside the city, last night, is well worth the loss of sleep it engenders, if u have an early flight out. U take weeks to just process your experiences from this trip, and literally thousands of gorgeous pictures. I can't recommend it enough.