Danube Waltz

Welcome aboard Viking Bragi in Passau, one of Bavaria’s most beautiful baroque cities.
The confluence of the Inn, Ilz and Danube rivers at the city’s tip has shaped Passau’s fortunes for two thousand years, and the legacy of that prosperity is visible in every rococo facade and colonnaded arcade in the old town. St Stephen’s Cathedral, home to one of the largest church organs in Europe with 17,974 pipes, is a remarkable introduction to the musical culture that runs through this entire voyage. In late November the Passau Christmas market fills the cathedral square with lights and gluhwein as Viking Bragi prepares to sail east.

A second morning in Passau is an invitation to hear the cathedral organ in person.
St Stephen’s Cathedral’s five interconnected organs perform daily at midday and the sound, in a space that seems designed to amplify every note, is one of the most genuinely uplifting experiences in Bavaria. The Old Town’s narrow lanes, wine bars and coffee houses reward slow exploration before Viking Bragi sets sail east into Austria. The Black Forest hills and green pastures of rural Bavaria give way to the Danube’s wooded banks as the ship moves downstream.

Linz is Austria’s most underestimated city, and a day here consistently surprises visitors who expected a quiet provincial town.
The Hauptplatz, once the largest town square in Austria, is lined with elegant patrician houses and the 17th-century Town Hall, with the Christmas market filling the square from late November. The Pöstlingbergbahn, the steepest mountain railway in Europe, carries you up to a Baroque pilgrimage church with sweeping views over the city and the Danube. And the Ars Electronica Centre, one of Europe’s finest museums of digital art and technology, makes Linz one of the most creatively exciting stops on the entire voyage. Do not leave without trying the Linzer Torte in one of the old town cafes.

Krems marks the eastern gateway to the Wachau Valley, one of the most beautiful river landscapes in Europe and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The terraced vineyards above Krems produce some of the finest Riesling and Gruner Veltliner wines in Austria, and in late November the harvest has just finished, making the wine bars of the old town particularly well stocked. Krems was more important than Vienna in the 12th century, a fact that its magnificent medieval streetscape still confirms. Upstream, the Wachau unfolds through castle ruins, apricot orchards and ancient villages between cliff-top monasteries, and the sailing through it is one of the most beautiful river passages in Central Europe.

Vienna in late November is one of the great seasonal experiences in Europe, and arriving here by river makes it even better.
The Christmas market in front of the Rathaus opens in mid-November and the opening week is when the city feels most alive, the ornate Gothic facade of the town hall illuminated above hundreds of stalls. Your included shore excursion covers the Ringstrasse, the Hofburg Palace and the Vienna State Opera. And the Viking optional of learning the Viennese waltz at a local dance school is one of the most memorable evenings possible in a city that invented the form. A Sachertorte in a Kaffeehaus is non-negotiable.

Bratislava is one of Europe’s most compact and walkable capitals, and in late November its Christmas market fills the old town with a warmth that perfectly offsets the cold.
The hilltop castle above the Danube offers views across three countries, the Baroque palaces and pedestrian lanes of the old town are beautifully restored, and the market at the main square is intimate and genuinely local in a way that the larger German markets are not. Your included shore excursion covers the old town, and free time afterwards is best spent discovering why Bratislava’s wine bar scene has quietly become one of the best in Central Europe.

Budapest arrives with imperial grandeur as Viking Bragi rounds the final bend of the Danube and the illuminated Parliament building comes into view.
Hungary’s capital straddles the river with two very distinct personalities: Buda on the west bank rising steeply through castle districts and baroque palaces, and the grand Art Nouveau boulevards and ruin bars of Pest on the flat east. Your included shore excursion covers the highlights of both sides. And the thermal baths, specifically the Szechenyi baths in the Varosliget park or the cave-like Rudas baths on the Buda bank, are one of the great pleasures of Budapest in late November, when the outdoor pools steam in the cold air.

Your Danube Waltz draws to a close in Budapest today.
Transfer to the airport or extend your stay in one of the most rewarding cities in Europe. Seven nights from Passau to Budapest, through the Wachau Valley, Vienna and Bratislava, with Christmas lights reflecting off the Danube at every turn. It has been exactly what the name promised.