if you love traveling and learning about a country's culture its history and also admiring its architecture and trying out its food then River cruising is a great option and I've put together two videos to cover my recent trip on the danu and it was called the Romantic danu itinerary with Viking this is part one where we will travel from Budapest to Vienna and then in part two shall link to below we continue on to rensburg Via crem the waca valley and Paso the itinery itself is seven nights and eight days and you travel through three countries so Hungary Austria and Germany and you visit two Capital Cities so Budapest and Vienna so in this video part one you'll visit Budapest Castle district will also pass by the iconic hungar Ian Parliament building and go through one of the many locks on the river in Vienna you'll visit both the winter and summer homes of the hapsburg Dynasty and we'll also pay a visit to one of the many beautiful vienes coffee houses plus I'll take you to a classical Mozart and stra concert then in part two we'll sail from crem in Austria through the stck waca valley and onto the medieval German cities of pathau and rensburg River cruising is a great way of seeing multiple destinations in a relatively short period of time and you only need to unpack once there's constantly changing scenery when you're sailing and because of the size of the ships they're able to usually dock in the center of towns and cities so you've got easy access to the location before we set off on this trip here's a little overview about Viking if you've not traveled with before it was founded in 1997 by Torsten Haren who is a Norwegian and you can see that reflected in the beautiful Interiors on board the ships over the years Viking has won multiple awards from magazines such as travel and Leisure and conai Nas traveler something which you might not know about Viking is that it only allows adults to travel on its ships so you have to be 18 or over now let's take a look at the ship which we sailed on it was the Viking GG and I have created a separate video giving you a walkth through of the ship but this is a little overview so the ship has four decks and it has a capacity of 190 passengers 53 crew and what I loved about it was because it's a smaller ship you get to know people not just the guests but also the staff and we made some really good friends the ship interior is elegant and light filled and you can very much see the Scandinavian influence with regards to the Interiors there are 95 State rooms ranging from Suites and Veranda State rooms to French balcony and standard State rooms with regards to the ship exterior there's a lovely Sund deck on top with ample seating to watch the world go by and another place outside that you can sit is the aqua Terrace where you can have your lunch and one of my favorite places on the ship I thought I'd also share with you some of the things which are inclusive when you buy a river cruise with Vikings so you get return flights from London and other Regional airports in the UK included in the price is one short Excursion at every port of cor led by a knowledgeable local guide and they also have optional excursions which you may want to book all your meals on board are included and at lunch and dinner you also have complimentary wine beer and soft drinks there's also a 24-hour tea and coffee station where you can also find biscuits and muffin talks and evening entertainment is also included as is free Wi-Fi so now let's move along to day one of our itinerary on Europe's second longest river we flew with British Airways from London Heath row and on arriving at Budapest Airport we were greeted by a viking representative who directed us to a waiting minibus which took us to the ship on Route we had our first sighting of the danu river Margo the Viking program director greeted us at the dock and led us onto the ship where we checked in and we're taken to our room here's a little look around it there's a double bed it's a queen size bed which is American sizing which can either be set up as a double bed or two twins and opposite the bed is a large flat screen television on either side of the bed are lamps and also power sockets us and European in the bathroom there's a very powerful hot shower and there are complimentary toiletries and also underfloor heating shortly after we arrive we were whisked off to discover the city with a guided welcome walk we visited the great Market Hall to our surprise we learned that goulash is actually a soup rather than a stew and there was ample opportunity to buy its key ingredient paprika which is hungary's National spice that night after dinner we took a Scenic walk around the city which was beautifully lit up the next day we took the panoramic Budapest tour which was an included tour tour we crossed over into Buddha in our coach and then had a guided walking tour through Budapest Castle district with free time afterwards we saw the gothic Matas church with its geometric patterns on its Roof near the church is the fisherman's Bastion which has seven White Stone turrets they Overlook the danu and the pesh side of the river [Music] we decided to take a coffee break and went to the Ros War Cafe and sat outside somehow we managed to resist the delicious looking cake the ship sailed whilst we were on our Excursion so we joined it afterwards in vizrad on the short Journey there we had a great view of the Hungarian Parliament building which dominates the Dan's Left Bank on boarding the ship we headed straight to the aquavite Terrace for lunch whilst the ship continued its Journey along the danu heading to Vienna you can see the aquavet Terrace just through the glass panes there we continued sailing towards Vienna and that evening before the port talk there was a toast from Captain zultan and hotel manager Christina to welcome us on board later that evening we went through our first look one of 14 we would go through on this 760 km Journey the next morning this was the beautiful view as we approach Austria's capital city Vienna that morning we went on the included panoramic Vienna tour we visited the Magnificent hoffberg Palace which was the winter residence of the influential Habsburg Dynasty it's a vast complex of buildings in the center of Vienna and of course we had to make a pit stop at a local cafe this is Cafe halela and we had coffee and saak which is a chocolate cake served with whipped cream horse dwn carriages were quite a common sight on our trip we admired the gothic St Stevens Cathedral with its colorful roof tiles and then it was back to the ship for lunch on the aqua Terrace before another Excursion after lunch we went on one of the optional excursions this was to the shern Brun Palace it was about a 40-minute coach ride out of the city center and it was the summer residence of the hapsburg dynasty built to rival the sprawling chatau to Versailles the Shan BR Palace is Vienna's most visited attraction originally a hunting lodge between 1740 and 1750 Empress Maria Teresa enlarged the palace to its present form with its distinctive yellow paint color on the outside of the building after the tour we had some free time to explore the formal Barack Gardens the ship stayed in Vienna overnight and the following day we explored the city on our own we took the easy tube journey into the center and went back to St stev's Cathedral to have a look inside and then we took a look around Julius minel which is Vienna's version of the harr's food Hall of course we couldn't resist going to one of the many beautiful vienes coffee houses and this one is called Cafe deal through the window you could watch someone making one of their specialities kiaan which is sweetened shredded pancakes with sultanas there were numerous traditional coffee styles on the menu and also so many delicious looking cakes to choose from I chose Esther hary Tor which consists of almond hazelnut merang layers filled with custard buttercream my husband chose apple strudel with vanilla sauce we then took another look around around hoffberg Palace before taking the tube back to the ship after an early dinner we then went on another of the optional excursions this was a classical concert by the fenna residence Orchestra featuring music by Strauss and Mozart here are a few highlights from the evening finishing off of course with the blue Daniel waltz by Johan Strauss [Music] spe [Music] I hope you've enjoyed this insight into traveling with Viking on the Romantic danu itinerary from Budapest to Vienna remember this is only part one of two videos and in part two which I'll put on the screen now we travel from crem in Austria through to reagens BG in Germany I'll also link below to the Viking website and the itinerary itself and also the walk through the ship [Music]