On Sunday August 10 2014 we flew from Heathrow Terminal 1 to Munich Airport. As we came in to land I could see the 25 mile traffic jam on the autobahn. Passing through Munich Airport was much faster than getting through Heathrow on our return. Our flight had been 20 minutes late getting away and our Viking River Cruise representative was waiting at the gate for us with the rest of the party. I don’t know how long they had been waiting for us, but we were soon in the coach ready to set off for Nuremburg. It was here that we were told that the traffic jam I had seen from the plane was the way we were supposed to go and due to a bad accident it had been blocked for hours. On the strength of this the driver would take us the pretty route which is further and slower, but still faster than an Autobahn that’s not moving,
It was an interesting drive taking over two hours, on the way passing through a town that had hosted a beer festival that weekend. We passed between large fields of hops, much bigger than any of the corn fields.
Arriving at the boat, The Viking Idun, our cabins were ready for us, and after registering we were shown to cabin 309 which is on the top deck, near the centre of the boat with a balcony. 
They call them “State Rooms” not cabins and ours was very comfortable with an on suit toilet and shower.
One of the things that had been bothering me was the noise level in the cabin as we would be travelling at night, but I can honestly say this is the smoothest, quietest boat I have ever sailed on and it was almost impossible to tell if you were travelling or not.
The Idun is diesel-electric with rotating thruster propulsion which is the main reason its so smooth. it has 95 cabins on three decks, ranging from the lower deck with just a high level window looking out just above the water level. Ones like ours with Verandas, some with what are called French Balconies which is a full length sliding window with a handrail just outside it. Veranda suites, which consisted of a bedroom with a French Balcony and a sitting room with a Veranda and finally two Explorer suites right on the stern with large balcony out the back and a French balcony to the side, separate bedroom and bathroom.
After settling in it was off down to the dining room for a 3 course dinner with drinks included. The food was in my opinion first class.There was no seating plan so we were free to sit where we liked on tables that seated 6 to 8 people, this gave the opportunity to meet and chat to lots of people. I would guess that 80% of the passengers were from the USA and 18% from the UK .
We remained at our moorings over night as tomorrow our first excursion would be round Nuremburg.
To view our route in a larger map please click Danube
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