My sister-in-law Susan and I enjoyed our first day on board our Avalon Christmas Market Danube River cruise this past November. We visited the Schonbrunn Palace and then after a most delicious dinner (I had pork Wellington!) we were whisked away to a concert of Viennese music, dance, and opera. Delightful.

The next day we visited Krems, a town that looks like it did in the mid-1800s, and then sailed a bit further upriver to visit the stunning Melk Abbey which sits on a cliff overlooking the Wachau Valley and the Danube.

The Abbey has been there since 1089 and is now a Benedictine abbey as well as a school. Our hour-long visit was hardly enough time to experience all its treasures and Austrian history.

The Library and Church are incredibly ornate examples of Baroque architecture, and the amount of gilded ornamentation is breathtaking. Somehow the Abbey survived the Turkish invasion (1683), the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) and the Anschluss (1938).

Our next day brought us downstream to Bratislava, Slovakia. This city is now the capital of Slovakia and was part of the Soviet bloc until 1989 when Czechoslovakia became the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Our tour guide gave us the Cliff’s Notes history of this city, including its repression under Soviet rule.  Its most famous sculpture is Cumil the Sewer Worker, by artist Viktor Hulik. This whimsical work was a response to the repression of the Communist years.

Our final stop on our cruise was beautiful Budapest. Though we only had one day there, Budapest, Hungary, is a city we would love to visit again. We took a walking tour through its huge Christmas market, wandered through its famous food hall, and took a bus tour on both sides of the river.

Now, on to an assessment of our trip. Our first days in Vienna on our own were magical. Situated in the Inner City as we were, we found it easy to get around and were able to see lots of things (the Spanish Riding School, the Sisi Museum and the various Christmas markets), and eat in interesting places (The Black Camel and Lugeck). We loved our first two days there.

We also had loads of fun on our river cruise. We met some lovely folks and had a lot of laughs with them. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s nice to unpack once and see new places every day, and a river cruise allows you to do that. I’ve no interest in cruising on one of the monstrous ships in the open water, but river cruising is just my speed. Small groups, good food, attentive staff and something new to see every day. What’s not to like?

I would also recommend Avalon Cruises. My first river cruise was with Viking on the Rhine, from Amsterdam to Basel in 2018. That was great as well, but it carried 190 passengers, as compared with just 128 passengers on our Avalon cruise.

Seeing the Christmas markets in Vienna was the highlight of the trip for me, with the Sisi Museum a close second. Vienna is a city I could visit again. 

Susan and I had a wonderful, delicious, delightful, amazing time. What a nice holiday gift to ourselves!