VIKING RIVER CRUISE - ELEGANT ELBE CLARA SCHUMANN AUGUST 27 - SEPTEMBER 6, 2010
After 25 sea cruises, we decided that our "cruising life" would not be truly representative of the genre until we did a river cruise. "We" are my wife Edith, a homemaker and retired health care worker from Phoenix, AZ and I am a retired city attorney from that City also. We considered the many standard cruises down the Rhine or Danube, but chose the Elbe cruise from Prague to Berlin for several reasons. We liked the cities on the trip; Prague, Dresden, Meissen and Berlin in particular. Edith is German born, and enjoys a language advantage in the German portion of the trip. All of the stops (until West Berlin) were under Communist rule until the wall came down in Germany in 1989, followed by the "Velvet Revolution" in Prague, which liberated the former Czechoslovakia. All of this promised a unique experience which was largely borne out by our trip.
Preparations and Getting There
Small, cramped cabins with little space for clothes. Fortunately this type of cruise encorages casual attire so fewer clothes are needed.