Cruising the European Christmas Markets of the Danube River

A dream we had for years was to visit some of the Christmas markets of Europe.  While cruising may not be everyone’s top travel choice, a European river cruise along the Danube River is the perfect way to see many of Europe’s Christmas markets without having to fly or drive long distances and stay at multiple hotels.  During our European Christmas market cruise with Viking River Cruises, we were able to visit the Christmas markets of Budapest (Hungary), Vienna (Austria), and Passau, Regensburg, and Nuremberg (Germany).

An Awesome Long Layover at the Munich Airport

Long airport layover and an awesome time are not usually two concepts that go together.  However, you can have a pretty awesome time at the Munich International Airport, even with a layover that’s over five hours long.  On our way to the country of Georgia, we were able to get out of the airport and see Munich during a long layover.   On our way back home our layover in Munich was shorter and earlier in the day, which didn’t allow us to leave and explore more of the city.  However, the Munich International Airport, the seventh biggest airport in Europe, offered us plenty of things to do during our long layover.

Munich in a Day: Things to See on a Long Layover

We’ve heard of people having long layovers and taking advantage of that time to see a new city, but we’d never had that opportunity for ourselves.  Our longest layover previously had probably been five hours at the most, and I am much too nervous of a traveler to try to leave the airport and see something with that amount of time.  However, when booking our airfare to Georgia, we had the unique opportunity to either take a three-segment flight or take a two-segment flight, with the same departure and arrival times and with a seven-plus-hour layover in Munich.  While such a long layover sounds like a potential nightmare, we were incredibly excited as we knew this would allow us enough time to actually leave the airport and experience some of the things to see in Munich in a day, a city we had never visited before, and not have to worry about missing our flight.

Essigbrätlein: Nuremberg’s Two Michelin Star Restaurant

We love a good Michelin-starred restaurant.  We’re starting to tick Michelin-starred restaurants off our list like some do countries, UNESCO sites, and national parks.  I promise we’re not complete food snobs who only eat at expensive restaurants, and we enjoyed our fair share of sausages and langos from the European Christmas Markets before eating lunch at Nuremberg’s two Michelin star restaurant Essigbrätlein.  But after dining at Michelin-starred restaurants in Copenhagen, Denmark and Gothenburg in Sweden, we’ve really developed a taste for being culinarily spoiled by the world’s top chefs, and we were excited to have the opportunity to dine at Essigbrätlein, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Germany and the only restaurant with two Michelin stars in Nuremberg.

Review: What It’s Like to Cruise with Viking River Cruises

When we announced we were going to be taking our very first cruise, and that it would be with Viking River Cruises, we learned there are quite a few of you who are really interested in taking a river cruise with Viking River Cruises but haven’t pulled the trigger yet.  A lot of you had questions about the rooms, the excursions, the food, and if non-ocean cruisers would enjoy river cruising.  After our eight-day European river cruise with Viking River Cruises, during which we cruised along the blue Danube and visited European Christmas markets, we are ready to answer all your questions and provide our review of Viking River Cruises.