Follow our journey on this map.

Day 47 signaled the start of our 6th and final phase of this journey. It was marked by the early departure of David and Lynn as they headed to the airport. The remaining four of us headed to “our spot” at the café for breakfast; we left 2 seats open in memory😊

Brad and Ashlea left for the airport at about 11AM and we headed down the street dragging our bags (yep, we still only have one rollaboard apiece) to the Viking River Cruise dock. It only took about 15 minutes to get there; our condo could not have been better located.

We have not been on a river cruise before and were really excited to see what they are all about. Our first impressions were fabulous. We walked up to the ship and introduced ourselves to the first person we saw. She welcomed us onboard (check-in time was at 3 so we were quite early). We had planned to drop our luggage and head over to the Marais District to kill time. But, she said, “your stateroom is ready.” So off we went down a hall and unpacked.

Having been on many ocean-going cruise ships, we were accustomed to high security, baggage scanning, final paperwork to be signed, and credit cards to be scanned. We experienced none of that on Viking. All we had to do was show our passports and we were done!

Everything about this ship is different. In a good way. It’s a much smaller format but with all the same elements. It’s just a more intimate setting. Dinner was al fresco on the top deck. The ship brought 3 opera singers onboard to perform and they were so much fun. It was legit opera they were performing but in a very funny, approachable way. As they wound down their performance, they invited us to go out to the bow area where they continued to sing as the lights on the Eiffel Tower started sparkling. You can see a video excerpt here. It was a great way to start this final phase.

Today’s pictures are a little different. Lynn put together a series of mashup photos that had each of us (somehow she, Brad and Ashlea escaped this) superimposed from one photo to a separate scene. They had us in hysterics!