[yso191]

The real advantage to the river cruise though is that one unpacks once.  Your motel (and restaurant if you don't want to eat ashore) goes with you.  I am very attracted to doing a cruise on the Danube.  Lots of wonderful places to see and things to do.  No it is probably not the best *beer* tour venue but still very attractive to me.  It is on my bucket list.

[hopfenundmalz]

The real advantage to the river cruise though is that one unpacks once.  Your motel (and restaurant if you don't want to eat ashore) goes with you.  I am very attracted to doing a cruise on the Danube.  Lots of wonderful places to see and things to do.  No it is probably not the best *beer* tour venue but still very attractive to me.  It is on my bucket list.

One can get on the Rhein around Koeln, go through the Altmuehltal that connects the Main to the Danube, and proceed down to Budapast or farther.

[klickitat jim]

Talked to a guy whose been, and his response was that tge Viking river cruises are ambient age ~80. So id feel young again, sounds like.

On second glance it looks like some of the traveling is done at night. Personally id enjoy drinking a beer on deck and watching Germany go by. But cant see much at night.

[homoeccentricus]

Viking river cruises are ambient age ~80.

Then come to Belgium. We have legal euthanasia here. You won't suffer so much.

[yso191]

Talked to a guy whose been, and his response was that tge Viking river cruises are ambient age ~80.

Yike.  Nothing like partying in a geriatric ward.  I hope to be 80 some day, but right now we are on totally different wave-lengths.  This little tidbit of info may end up scratching it from my bucket list.

We were in Europe 5 or 6 years ago.  I definitely want to go back.  We rented a car with a GPS and had no trouble at all getting around.  That was in Switzerland, Austria, Hungary and Germany.

[narcout]

My preference is backpacking and staying in hostels.  I went to Amsterdam and Antwerp over what was basically a long weekend back in 2006 (maybe 3 days in each city).  I probably spent less than $75 a day not including airfare. 

The hostel in Antwerp had a bar on the first floor.  We met some awesome locals there who took us out to some of their favorite spots.  It was a blast.

If hostels aren't your thing, you can often rent people's apartments for a few days if you're in a decent sized  city.  My wife and I did it in Barcelona a few years ago.  It was less than half the price of staying in a hotel, and we had our own kitchen (another good way to save money) and patio.

[curtism1234]

As far as age goes, yeah, a lot of cruises are 70 and up. You can time it with Holidays and get a few more passengers who still work...

[klickitat jim]

Hmmm, maybe I'll fit right in by the time I can afford to go