After a delightful 4-day pre-cruise visit in Vienna, we boarded an inter-city express train to Nuremberg where we were to meet the Viking Pride for a 7-day Danube river cruise. The 5-hour train ride was a treat. Traveling in First Class comfort, we dined onboard, as we passed through lush green Bavarian countryside. It was gray and had been raining, quite heavily at times, throughout the last few days.

After a very relaxing train trip, my anticipation was peaked at the thought of boarding our recently built riverboat and exploring quaint medieval towns along the Danube. The rain had let up, as our luggage was loaded into a taxi at the train station. However, the sky was still gray and held the threat of more rain to come.

The taxi driver, obviously happy to welcome Americans to Nuremberg, asked us why the American government was adamant about war with Iraq on its own without an allied coalition. We told him we wondered the same thing and that even members of the president's own party had expressed concern. He told us he really liked Americans, but it was hard to like the current administration, especially when the world community looks to America for leadership. After this rather politically enlightening 10-minute taxi ride, in a Mercedes of course, we crossed over the Danube and approached the assigned landing.

I looked up and down the river and there was no boat! I felt a sense of panic, as my first thought was I had gotten us here on the wrong day! I just don't do things like that... but I supposed there was a first time for everything. The driver took us back across the river to the opposite landing and there we saw a blue van with a sign in the windshield that said "Viking Pride".

In broken English, the van driver explained the rivers were flooded and too high for the boat to get under the river's bridges. He was waiting for about twenty people who had not been notified and we would be busing to the riverboat... a mere 3 hour drive in the direction we had just come from. Well, at least I hadn't gotten the day wrong!.

We spent the next several hours on the auto ban in driving rain to catch up with the Viking Pride. It turned out we had timed this Danube river cruise to coincide with Eastern Europe's worst flooding in over 150 years. But, as we arrived late that night at the Viking Pride, we were still hopeful we would be cruising along the Danube.

The staff was warm, welcoming and accommodating, although they had no way of predicting how the swollen Danube would affect our week onboard. They assured us we were safe, docked at the small Bavarian village of Vilshofen. Over the next several days, we watched as the river rose 15 feet and covered the pier, the road and crept up the levee. The local towns people assisted in building a new gangway that led from the boat to the top of the levee, where we disembarked directly onto the highway at the top.

Each day, the Captain gave an update, which reemphasized that our safety was paramount and we were not going anywhere on the river, except up! Viking Cruises, having several riverboats in the flooded areas, scrambled to come up with impromptu bus tours to places of interest in the area. The longest, involved a three-hour drive each way to Munich with a visit to the concentration camp at Dachau. Since I had been there before, I opted to stay on the boat along with several other passengers. I slept in, wandered around the village and got to know the two bakeries in town very well. The size of those freshly baked Bavarian pretzels was impressive! At lunch, we had the dining room to ourselves and in the late afternoon, the purser set up a video of " The Lord of the Rings," which I was able to watch on my in-cabin television.

After several days, it was clear we were not going to cruise anywhere and the Captain finally indicated we would have to be bused to Vienna for an overnight and then finally to Budapest where the cruise was scheduled to terminate. Considering it was a full-blown natural disaster, we were all pretty lucky. We were safe, dry, well fed and the cruise staff made every attempt to keep us occupied. They did an amazing job.

It was clear, however, the staff was disappointed that we missed the true "Viking River experience." It was not the fault of the cruise line, nor was it what we expected. However, it was unique and will most likely be the cruise that everyone remembers. Travel and part of its appeal, is the unexpected and how one handles it. Sometimes, you just have to roll with the punches.

Bon Voyage and Bon Appetit!

Arie Boris

The CruiseGourmet