View from the deck.
Come early evening, we slip into a happy routine of pre-dinner G-and-Ts in the lounge before moving to the restaurant for a three-course menu that always includes a choice of regional specialities — in Vienna that translates to the best wiener schnitzel of our lives. During the post-meal entertainment (the aforementioned singers, or the trivia night, where we come third in a team with some new British friends), the boat slips out of port. The gentle movement through the water lulls us into a peaceful sleep, only to wake each morning to a new fairytale medieval town just outside our cabin window.
Our aim is to embrace ship life while leaving enough time for impromptu, independent adventures. Both river cruise novices, but experienced travellers, the idea of seeing a city by air-conditioned coach is something we’re not too keen on.
That’s how we end up catching an Uber to a rowdy beer hall on the outskirts of downtown Bratislava for Friday night happy hour, as recommended by a Slovakian mum in my daughter’s class, or riding a rickety, yet richly historic tramway up a mountain through residential suburbs of Linz, Austria’s third-largest city.
A Trabant in Budapest.Credit: Getty
We do opt for the coach to get from the ship to the centre of Vienna, but after a highly entertaining walking tour led by Maria Mustapic, a guide who has authored a whole book about the sex lives of the Habsburgs, we slip away to join the crowds of Christmas shoppers on a busy Saturday afternoon and find a hip neighbourhood coffee shop before jumping on the U-Bahn (metro) back to the boat.
Yet, from that first evening onboard, when all 180 passengers gathered in the bar for George’s welcome talk, it’s clear that any pre-trip assumptions I had about river cruising are off the mark. Yes, there are plenty of older couples enthusiastically nodding away with the air of people who had obviously done this many times before. But there were also other pairings or groups: parents and their grown-up children (Viking has a strict 18-plus policy), young couples and the mother and daughters easily paired off by their matching Christmas jumpers.
Breakfast on board.
The latter, George tells me, is becoming increasingly common, especially on Christmas sailings. It’s a reflection of a growing trend: bonding, or one-on-one, travel to reconnect with a single family member or friend. Eloise and I fall into the category, although we are not too upset at having missed the matching jumper memo.
What is also clear is how cruise lines like Viking are making changes to reflect the shifting demographic of travellers. Ten years ago, George tells us in conversation, active excursions such as a hiking tour would be unheard of on a river cruise, yet we find ourselves excitedly tying up our laces, eager to climb Buda’s hills by foot on morning two.
The shore excursions are the source of some stand-out highlights that have us both bragging to our family WhatsApp group: driving in convoy on Budapest’s ring road in peak hour traffic in a pack of vintage two-stroke East German Trabant cars made from Duroplast (a relative of Formica), towards Memento Park, a moody, moving graveyard of Hungary’s toppled communist-era statues, and a rowdy Saturday night tasting in a traditional wine tavern high in the Viennese hills with the other Aussies on the ship.
Beyond the thrill that visiting these new countries brings, the festive backdrop is a constant reminder of how special it is that we are together during the Christmas season for the first time in over a decade. That’s a stretch far too long, and as we raise one final mug of sweetly spiced mulled wine in Passau’s charming Christmas market the night before our early morning flights home, we promise each other that we’ll do this again as soon as we can.
THE DETAILS
CRUISE
There are still spaces available on selected dates for Viking’s 2024 Danube Christmas Delights sailings, which depart from and arrive in either Budapest or Passau every few days between December 1 and 20. Prices start from $4595 a person; 2025 and 2026 are on sale. See vikingrivercruises.com.
FLY
Emirates operates daily flights from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to Dubai, with daily connecting flights to and from Budapest and Munich (a two hour coach transfer from Passau). See emirates.com.
STAY
To really treat yourself and get in the festive mood, the Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest is a glorious Art Nouveau masterpiece that lights up every Christmas overlooking Viking’s river berth. Rooms from $858. See fourseasons.com/budapest
MORE
visithungary.com
slovakia.com
austria.info
germany.travel
The writer travelled as a guest of Viking River Cruises.
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Publish date : 2024-12-20 09:30:00
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