The flight into Paris was arranged poorly, so we arrived at 10:30pm. Our friends from the same city arrived 12 hours earlier on their flight, also arranged through Viking. The next day was jet lag and a bad included tour of Paris. We should have explored on our own.

Boarding the boat was better. Check-in was effortless, and the small group felt more friendly. Rooms were quite nice and the staff was very good. Food was very good, but not extraordinary. Cruising the Mosel was gorgeous and peaceful, and even though I am a night owl, I arose to see the sunrise over the river standing on the deck with my cup of coffee amongst the vineyards on the faces of the gorge.

The Rhine, unfortunately, was too shallow to navigate, so the Rhine tour was a bus tour instead. Viking has us change to another boat in Strasbourg and did a decent job on the exchange, but we still had to pack all our stuff, leave early, and spend a full day doing bus tour things, to give ship staff time to turn over the boat for new guests. It was probably that long day on the busses when we all seemed to get Covid. Read more