It was a really wonderful experience. The Viking staff were always attentive and courteous. The food and service were also excellent. It was great to travel with 188 people rather than 2,000 plus on a cruise liner. The bus ride portions of the trip were pleasant but not that enjoyable, apparently nobody in Europe believes in ice water! The excursions went to interesting places, the guides were great but a little too much walking for the older set! We had a glitch in Luxembourg, the newly minted guide seemed to abandon those that did not take the walking tour! Viking did get an earful on that one. It would have been nice to spend more time prior to the cruise in Paris but we did not think of that at the time we made the reservation. There never were any language issues as just about everyone spoke English. Lots of photo opportunities, I took only one lens, a 35mm equivalent to a 27mm to 300mm zoom. A few times a wider lens would have been useful. You can view ALL the photos taken at: http://www.jiffywebdev.com/rrbrakeman/Europe2013/index.html

There was nothing more relaxing than sailing down the river watching the scenery go by as compared to the shore excursions that were a bit hectic.

Again I must salute the Viking staff for handling all of the inevitable glitches in an excellent manner. They took excellent care of all of the passengers all of the time. We are trying to decide which Viking cruise to take next.