This was our first river cruise but we had done ocean cruises in large ships previously. We choose a river cruise to have some good conversations with other passengers and I wanted lots of walking, whereas my wife didn't want much.

Meals on the boat were excellent but outside of meal time to get good food on the ship was hard. I guess that we imagined that there would be something all day that we could help ourselves to. The coffee is out of a machine and is poor, or served in a pot at breakfast (which again is 2nd rate).

We enjoyed the excursions but after a few, we realised that they were all fairly similar ie cobblestoned streets with a church or castle. I guess that I wanted a three hour solid walk a couple of times on the trip, or a visit to a really good art gallery or museum. My wife one time did the apricots 'excursion' which ended up being 20 minutes in a tiny room sampling apricot liquors. Location after location I would end up just wondering around the shops of the various towns after the tour had finished. I guess if I did another river cruise I would ensure that I organised a couple of my own excursions in advance. Read more