The ship did not ever reach its first destination so we were bussed to various sites each day and back to the ship at night. After five nights on the ship we were bussed to a hotel in Frankfurt for two nights and then on to Paris for the final two nights. The bus trips were up to twelve-hour days—mostly on the bus except for restroom stops, lunch and brief tours.
*This was a make-up trip for us as we were on the June 2013 Viking Grand Bus Tour from Amsterdam to Budapest.
Incredibly, in 26 days under Viking’s loving care (15 days in June 2013 and 11 days in May 2015) at a combined cost of $53,698 we have enjoyed one full day of cruising on the rivers of Europe. The rest of the time has been spent on busses. On this trip after two nights in Basel the ship moved some 20 miles after dinner and then tied to shore or rafted to a fuel barge for the next three nights where we could not even get off the ship to take a walk in town. In 2013 at least we were bussed from ship to ship (four in total) to hotels (four in total) along the way and didn’t back track as much.