Today we went on a 12 hour tour to Berlin. It was a 3 hour bus ride each way but well worth it. The ride to Berlin was the 1st we have had on the autobahn. It was fascinating to watch the BMWs and Mercedes fly by at well over 100 mph. Drivers here are well disciplined – they stay to the right except to pass and then return to the right immediately. Once in Berlin we broke into small groups and our group of 14 had the bus to ourselves. Our guide, Preston, ha...

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we went for a walk in Koblenz after dinner. As were heading out, we ran into our wonderful cabin attendant Michaela and her buddy down the hall, Daniela. They said they were going out to a nearby bar and asked us to go with them. Surprisingly, we made the right decision and told them to have fun but declined their offer. Right decision, Daniela got back at 1:00AM and Michaela got back at 3:30. We got into Cologne this morning ...

This morning we left the Main River and entered the Rhine. The Rhine is much busier than the other rivers we have been on. There is a great deal of both commercial and tourist traffic. We spent the morning cruising through the Middle Rhine Valley which has castles dotted above each side of the river. They are in various states of repair, some barely still sanding and some in very good shape. We docked in Koblenz around noon. After lunch went toured Marksburg Cast...

Today was a much appreciated restful day. We docked in Wertheim around breakfast time. We decided to skip the walking tour that Viking provided and just stroll around town on our own. It is a fairly small town of about 20,000 and easily walkable. We could not resist walking several hundred steps up to the castle that overlooks the town. The views from there were wonderful. We walked back to the ship in time for lunch on the terrace and then spent the afternoon on...

We had a full, beautiful and tiring day in Wurzburg and Rothenburg. We arrived in Wurzburg around breakfast time. We took the optional tour to Rothenburg. The 1st part was about an hour drive along the "Romantic Road" dotted with small villages along the way. The town of Rothenburg itself is the most "German-looking" town we have been to - full of half-timbered housed and surround by an imposing wall. Lunch was included: potato soup, bratwurst, sauerkraut, mashed...