Danube Delights

Just returned from an 8 day cruise on the Danube aboard the Viking Egil. We flew from Manchester to Frankfurt with a 3.5 hour wait at Frankfurt before our flight to Budapest, where we boarded the Egil. Frankfurt airport was one of the best we’ve ever been to. It was modern, spacious, very well appointed with a large range of shops, bars and restaurants. The staff were very efficient and extremely warm and friendly – put Manchester to shame. The Egil is a vey well appointed ship with comfortable staterooms (we had a veranda on the middle deck – well worth the extra ). We experienced the usual very high Viking standards of staff, cleanliness, attention to detail, superbly organised included tours with top class guides and, generally speaking, good food. The lunches were superb but we found the evening meals somewhat pretentious, with small portions, elaborately described but poor quality meat. The Americans on board ( about 95% ) seemed to be impressed by the food. They made wonderful travelling passengers and we made a lot of friends. Highlights for us included the first evening cruise of Budapest by night, tours of Vienna, Passau, Regensberg and an amazing optional concert of the music of Stauss and Mozart in Vienna. There were 25 locks on the Danube and some of them made for a boring time, sometimes waiting one hour to enter the lock then more than half an hour stuck inside with concrete walls as our view. We enjoyed the Danubu but, for scenic cruising, preferred the Rhine.