I’ve visited a number of countries on business over the years and, since retiring, my wife and I have visited a number more. Our visits to Europe in recent years have been on Viking river cruises, an activity we enjoy immensely. It’s like staying in a hotel that changes locations overnight. There are visits to major cities in a country, but there are also stops in a wide variety of smaller, very interesting towns. With guided tours, organized excursions, and ample opportunity for exploring a community on your own, the cruises provide a relaxing way to learn about an area and, for me, a nice chance to get photographs of different sites and sights.
My wife and I visited Germany in 2022, the second half of a Viking River Cruise that started in the Czech Republic and ended in Berlin. We followed the Elbe River, with stops in communities in Germany like Rathen (where we went into the mountains to see the impressive rock formations of the Bastei), Dresden, Meissen (where we toured the famed Meissen porcelain manufacturing plant), Torgau, Wittenberg, and Potsdam, before ending in Berlin.
Each stop was a history lesson, with many facts and sites related to World War I or World War II. But we also learned much about how or why each city or town came into existence, perhaps because of natural resources in the area that supported the development of industry or maybe land that supported farming to provide food for the country.
One thing I’ve learned to expect during visits to any area in Europe is a tour of a church that’s been standing since the 1400s or earlier. They are always fun to photograph, but I admit they all start running together in my memory after a while. The interior architecture — no matter the country — often looks similar, with vaulted ceilings, columns, and stained glass windows. It’s almost as if they were all part of a franchise with set specifications for design.
Something I’ll always remember about this Viking cruise was the safety presentation at the start. As always, we were reminded how to find the life jackets in our cabins, how to put them on, and where to gather if the alarm sounds. But after the safety director completed his presentation, the cruise director stepped up and added: “Remember all of that, but the Elbe is different from most other rivers you’ve been on. If the alarm sounds, go to the top deck, wait for the boat to settle to the bottom, then step off and wade to shore. The water’s only about waist deep outside the narrow channel.”