Through the Heart of Europe: the second time around
Fourteen years ago we took our first Viking River Cruise to celebrate a special birthday. Our journey along the Danube, the Rhine, and the canal that connects them was one of our best trips ever, something so many of our fellow passengers said, as well. Would the Grand European Tour from Budapest to Amsterdam be as much fun the second time around?
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The Fairmont Le Château Frontenac’s Le Champlain Restaurant
Although you may want to reserve a window table, it is likely that you will be so absorbed with this culinary extravaganza and the restaurant’s contemporary glamor and the Old World charm that you forget about the view of the majestic St. Lawrence.
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The Faroe Islands: The Sheep Islands
These 18 volcanic islands between Scotland and Iceland were formed millions of years ago have remained much undisturbed by the outside world. Residents are descendents of Vikings who arrived in longships over a thousand years ago in search of new uninhabited land. Today, the Faroe Islands are a self-governing part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
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Marché du Vieux-Port, Quebec City Market
Marché du Vieux-Port, the public food market, is by the Old Port in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Whether you would like to gather the makings of a picnic or shop for souvenirs or flavorful gifts, it is an ideal place to find local vendors and products like fruits, vegetable, cheeses, maple products, cider, baked treats, wine, and ice wine.
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The Château Frontenac: the heart of the flavors of Québec City
The Château Frontenac is one of the elegant luxury hotels built by the railway in the late 19th century to ensure luxurious nightly accommodations and dining when traveling by train across Canada. Designed by the father of Emily Post, it is the epitome of refinement and is one of the most photographed and recognized hotels in the world.
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Through the Heart of Europe in a Viking Longship: The Romantic Danube
Viking River Cruises’ longship Njord is named for the Norse god of the wind and sea. The voyage, called The Romantic Danube, was along some of the river’s most scenic stretches.
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A day in port in Costa Rica
Costa Rica is Spanish for “rich coast”, an appropriate name for a country with such biodiversity.
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A cruise to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia aboard the new Nova Star
We recently cruised round trip between Portland, Maine and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia aboard the new Nova Star, which began service on May 15, 2014.
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Nicaragua: Land of Lakes and Volcanos
This Land of Lakes and Volcanoes has fourteen crater lakes, more than any other country, and seventeen volcanos, all in a row, eight of which are active.
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New Orleans, Louisiana: Laissez les bons temps rouler!
We were eager to explore the eclectic city known by so many names–Crescent City, the Big Easy, Birthplace of Jazz–a city attracting 7+ million visitors annually for its bon vivant atmosphere.
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Joie de vivre without crossing the pond: Montréal, Canada
A warm “Bonjour!” as we entered the auberge reminded us that we needn’t cross the pond
to experience European ambience. A flower-bedecked horse-drawn calèche clip-clopped on
the cobblestone street, passengers rapt with the romance of the moment.
Viking River Cruise’s European Adventure
Our European Adventure, as it was then named, cruised the Danube, Main Canal, and Rhine from Vienna to Amsterdam on the Viking Europe.
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Greenland
We glided past floating sculptures shaped by wind and weather, frozen reminders of ages past, shimmering shapes in a sparkling sea, the sky a clear cerulean. On both sides, dramatic peaks soared nearly 5000 feet above, dwarfing us as we sailed past icebergs and waterfalls in a pristine wilderness. This was the rarest of days in Ikerasassuag, “The Long Channel”, Prince Christian Sound.
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St. John’s, Newfoundland: City of Legends
St. John’s is a blend of old and new, city and nature. There are elegant historic homes, colorful wooden houses, brick and stone church and government buildings, colonial shops, and innovative modern museums. Should you want to tour by sea, regaled by songs and stories, accompanied by a Newfoundland dog, the Scademia sails past lighthouses and rugged cliffs to Cape Spear.
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North America’s first Europeans: evidence of Vikings in Newfoundland
St. Anthony is the gateway to L’Anse Aux Meadows, the first and only authenticated Norse settlement in North America. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in recognition of its significance in the history of worldwide exploration and the movement of peoples. In 2000, it attracted attention and large crowds when the landing of the Vikings 1000 years earlier was celebrated.
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Voyage of the Vikings aboard Holland America’s Amsterdam: Iceland
It is said that when the Vikings first saw Iceland–with volcanoes, black lava fields, sulfurous steam, and bubbling mud pools– they thought they had discovered the entrance to the Netherworld.
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Cruise ports in Norway: Holland America’s Voyage of the Vikings
The oldest of the Scandinavian capitals, founded over a thousand years ago, Oslo was an important center of wood trade. In the 1600s, after yet another devastating fire, King Christian IV, ruler of Denmark and Norway, rebuilt the city in brick and stone closer to Akershus Fortress and named it Christiania after himself. The original name was not restored until 1925.
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Quebec City: French culture without the transatlantic flight
The flight from Boston was just an hour—and voila! We were sipping café au lait on Grand Allée, this continent’s Champs Elysées, in the capital of the province of Quebec, the cradle of French civilization in the Americas, swept up in the city’s romance and Old World charm.
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Quebec City’s 400th Anniversary Celebration
We were there for the largest celebration of military music in North America, the 10th Annual edition of the Quebec City International Festival of Military Bands. The world’s best military bands captivated the crowds in a series of special events, concerts, and a military tattoo held throughout the city.
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From Normandy to Paris: a river cruise along the Seine
The longest inland waterway in France winds in serpentine loops between the coast in Normandy and one of the most fashionable and romantic cities in the world–Paris. Named Seine from the Latin sequana, meaning snake, the 110 mile distance by air between Paris and the coast meanders by river for 240 miles.
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