Cruising with Un-Cruise What is it like to cruise with Un-Cruise Adventures? It's unrushed, uncrowded and unbelievable. Oh wait, that's their tagline. But it's true. (Unlike Coca-Cola who, despite their best intentions, never actually taught the world to sing.) We went on the 7 night Legacy of Discovery cruise from Portland, Oregon and traced some of the foot/canoe … [Read more...]
How to maintain your fitness while on a European River Cruise
The popularity of European River Cruises European River Cruises have enjoyed a consistent upward demand curve for quite a few years now and many of the dominant players have high numbers of repeat travelers. Blonde and Brunette are enthusiastic river cruise advocates. We have done 4 in a little over a year and have already booked 2 for 2016. Why are European River Cruises … [Read more...]
2015: Where we traveled, what we liked and what we didn’t
2015 Travel Looking back on where we traveled in 2015 we (meaning at least one of us) went to 12 countries; 4 for the first time. Now we can see why our friends think we travel all the time. We, oh so cleverly, tend not to travel to places we don't expect to enjoy so when we do our year-end review sometimes it can be hard to come up with a lot of things we … [Read more...]
Porto with (and without) Viking River Cruises
Porto Porto was where we first boarded the Viking Torgil to begin our cruise of the Douro “River of Gold” in Portugal. It’s also where the cruise ended. This post is a combination of places Viking River took us and a few we found bumbling around on our own when we stayed for an extra day after the cruise ended. Porto is an ideal location to begin a Douro River cruise … [Read more...]
Out of the mouths of (cruise) babes
First timers on a Viking River cruise On our Viking River cruise on Portugal's River of Gold we were lucky enough to have two friends joining us. (Yes, we actually have friends.) Neither friend had ever taken a river cruise before so we wanted to get their impressions of the Viking River experience. After you’ve done several cruises it’s all too easy to get spoiled and only … [Read more...]
A brisk, blustery buzz around Bratislavia
History of Bratislava and Slovakia On our Emerald Waterways river cruise it was hard not to feel sorry for Bratislava. As one of the newer capital cities along the Danube in Europe it might easily have an inferiority complex compared to Vienna or Budapest. But it does have a certain gritty determination to it that we discovered on a very quick, due to river traffic delays, … [Read more...]
Socializing with Viking River Cruises
Several months ago when checking our email for the usual deluge of fabulous offers of free first-class trips around the world (and instead finding male "enhancement" options) we spotted an email from Viking River Cruises. Would we like to be their guest on their second "social cruise" with other "influencers". Are these other people good or bad influences? Which … [Read more...]
Why we want to go on an eight-day Emerald Waterways river cruise through Europe
Our girlish hearts yearn to go on Emerald Waterways’ Classic Prague and Danube Delights cruise. Why this yearning, this passion, this desire? Well, why not? Have you heard about Emerald Waterways? Have you dreamt of being on a “starship?” Well they have some! Emerald Waterways is a daring new entrant in the river cruise market and they are here to provide, as their Managing … [Read more...]