We saw this cruise a long while ago and Sue said it would be a great break for her birthday so we booked. The first time we’d been with Viking and the first time down to Bordeaux.
The cabins on River cruise ships are mostly smaller than on ocean going ships but they didn’t waste any space when they designed them – a place for everything. We had a couple of days in one cabin then were upgraded because our old cabin was in need of some work. We ended up with a lovely cabin with balcony.
We had been looking forward to Bordeaux – an f4 Photographic friend, Dave Robson, had shown me pictures of the Place de la Bourse with water reflections (Google it) but, because of the current actions of the Gilets Jaunes, they had drained all the water out so it was pretty unspectacular. However, to make up for it, we were berthed near a skateboard park and I managed to get a couple of decent action shots there, plus, there were a lot of attractive young ladies dressed in tutus in protest at the Gilets Jaunes so they were worth pressing my shutter for!
The Rivers Garonne and Dordogne were much much wider than I had expected, with quite strong tides and a lot of wildlife. I saw a great number of what I believe were Red Kites, up and down the river but they were a long way away and I didn’t have a long enough lens for them. Most of the small towns we visited were also quite unspectacular but pleasant enough to walk around. Our visit to a vineyard, Chateau Rayne Vigneau, was interesting – there were wall to wall vineyards in every area you could see – very pretty.
The best evening without a doubt was in Chateau Kirwan where we went for dinner, served by the ship’s crew – who were excellent – Viking looked after us very well.
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