Cities of Light Viking River Cruise
October 17, 2023 - October 29, 2023
Summary
We really enjoy the Viking River Cruises (VRC), in case that wasn't clear. This will be our fourth VRC. While some people
like to take the ocean bound cruises - not that there is anything wrong with those - we prefer the river cruises.
We prefer having land visible from the ship at all times.
This trip is a little different than our others too. Immediately following this cruise, "Cities of Light" (COL), will be the
Elegant Elbe VRC. Though they are back-to-back, they are, technically, separate cruises
and will be chronicled as such too. With the EE (the second one), we added a pre-cruise extension in Poland and a separate post-cruise
extension in Berlin - but all that will be documented in the Elegant Elbe chronicle.
We print a packing list and a house checklist (thanks dad) before we leave. One item on the list is to turn
the clocks back or ahead, in case. Since the time change was going to occur one weekend we were away, we
turned them back just before leaving so we come home to accurate times.
The list also mentions to adjust the camera time. One year when we left, the next day the clocks adjusted, so this was an
imoortant note. However, this year it was eleven or so days into our trip. HOWEVER, the camera time should have been adjusted
for the time zones. But it wasn't. So I have ot try to synchronize the cell phone pictures (that get automatically updated
from the local cell networkds), real time, and the camera time that is off by five hourse.
Trip statistics:
- 5,845 [approximate] miles traveled not including all the walking or location / local shuttle / buses
- 153,059 steps or 57.98 [approximate] miles walked by Linda
- 182,190 steps or 86.26 [approximate] miles walked by Steve
- 3,453 photos retained (yes, that's more than 260 pics per day... and "retained" because some images were
deleted immediately after taking due to blurriness [probably] or a missed opportunity or whatever [but that
doesn't include those that were deleted during review and writing this chronical]).
This summary does not include all of them either, also because all phone pictures were taken twice due to the lack of easy preview, and some images were combined to create "stitches", or panaramic, shots. - 14 videos (though most were clips of the same event, then pieced together)
- 5 countries visited, 1 new one for us
- [at least] 12 exotic cars spotted: 3 Rolls-Royces, 4 Ferraris, 2 Lamborghinis, 3 Porsche Carrera Cabriolets, 1 Astin Martin (while on, say, the Autobahn, there was an orange blur that went by in the other direction that was unidentifyable - twice)
As with our previous Viking cruises, this trip was great. The weather was pretty good and there was only one day with some
brief drizzle. Temps were generally in the mid to upper 50's F, with a couple days in the beginning in the 60s.
Day 1: Travel
Day 2: Paris, France
including a sightseeing dinner cruise
Day 3: Paris, France
including a bus tour, the Louvre, and Sacré CÅ“ur
Day 4: Trier, Germany
including Reims Cathedral, and Luxembourg American Cemetery
Day 5: Trier, Germany
including a bus tour, and a wine tasting
Day 6: Cochem, Germany
including a walking tour, Reichsburg Castle, and scenic sailing
Day 7: Koblenz, Germany
including Marksburg Castle, and scenic sailing
Day 8: Heidelberg, Germany
including a bus tour, lunch with a university student, and scenic sailing
Day 9: Wurzburg, Germany
including a bus and walking tour and Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Day 10: Bamberg, Germany
including a walking tour, and scenic sailing
Day 11: Nuremberg, Germany
including a bus tour, and a walking tour, and Nuremberg
Day 12: Prague, Czech Republic
including Strahov Monastary
Day 13: Travel
