We were on the beautiful new long ship Magni on the Grand European Tour from Amsterdam to Budapest. This was our second Viking cruise so we had some expectations as to how fabulous our trip would be. We were traveling with friends who had not been on a cruise before.

We were met at the airport by the Viking staff as promised. They told us that the ship had electrical problems discovered during the previous cruise that were repaired but that the ship was not in Amsterdam. We were taken to a very nice Amsterdam hotel from which we were easily able to tour around the city. The next morning we were greeted by two buses (half the Viking guests were in another hotel) to go off to the Kinderdijk Windmills tour. The bus trip, tour, lunch and bus ride lasted all day and we arrived at the ship in time for dinner that night. Our bags had been delivered from the hotel and we were ready to start our cruise.

About midnight, on our way to Cologne, as we were leaving a lock (there are 66 on the trip), the first mate made a miscalculation and we ran aground. After much revving of the side thrusters the boat was able to break free. We had to dock immediately and apparently authorities had to be informed. The next day buses again arrived, this time to drive us to Cologne for the day's tour. Since the boat was not in Cologne, and probably because they wanted us all out of the way while they took care of business, the half day tour turned into a full day, half of it on the tour, half on our own. Because the weather was cold and rainy, the second half of the day was long and tiring. You couldn't sit in the outside areas and we didn't want to eat again since our tour had included an ample lunch. If the boat had been in Cologne we would have been able to walk back to the ship and relaxed for part of the afternoon. Read more