Day 1
Amsterdam
Seventeenth-century canal houses leaning over the water, the Rijksmuseum a short walk away, and more bicycles than residents.
Embark
Day 2
Cologne
The twin spires of the cathedral stand over the Rhine, as they have since the Middle Ages, beside a lively old town.
Ashore
Day 3
Rudesheim
A wine town on the Rhine, its narrow Drosselgasse lined with taverns and the vineyards rising steeply behind.
Ashore
Day 4
Frankfurt (Heidelberg)
Germany's financial capital on the Main, its towers rising behind a rebuilt old town square.
Ashore
Day 5
Wertheim
A small town at the meeting of the Main and the Tauber, below the ruins of its red sandstone castle.
Ashore
Day 6
Wurzburg
A baroque city on the Main, home to the Residenz palace and the Marienberg fortress above the vineyards.
Ashore
Day 7
Kitzingen (Rothenburg)
A small Franconian town on the Main among the vineyards near Wurzburg.
Ashore
Day 8
Bamberg
A UNESCO-listed old town built across seven hills, with its town hall standing in the middle of the river.
Ashore
Day 9
Nuremberg
A walled medieval city of half-timbered houses below its imperial castle, and home to one of Germany's best-known Christmas markets.
Ashore
Day 10
Regensburg
A medieval city that never lost its centre. The Stone Bridge is nine hundred years old and still the way you walk into town.
Ashore
Day 11
Passau
Where the Inn and the Ilz meet the Danube, under an Italianate baroque cathedral and the largest church organ in Europe.
Ashore
Day 12
Weissenkirchen (Melk), Tulln
A small Austrian town on the Danube upstream of Vienna, birthplace of Egon Schiele.
Ashore
Day 13
Vienna
The Ringstrasse, the Hofburg and the old coffee houses, all within an easy walk of one another. A city that rewards an unhurried afternoon.
Ashore
Day 14–16
Budapest
Buda on its hill, Pest on the flat, and the Chain Bridge lit between them. The finest arrival on any European river.
Ashore
Day 17
Batina (Osijek), Vukovar
A Croatian town on the Danube, its water tower kept as a memorial to the 1991 siege.
Ashore
Day 18
Belgrade
Serbia's capital at the meeting of the Sava and the Danube, watched over by the Kalemegdan fortress.
Ashore
Day 19
Golubac
Where the Danube enters the Iron Gates, guarded by the towers of Golubac fortress on the Serbian bank.
Ashore
Day 20
Vidin
A Bulgarian town on the Danube with Baba Vida, one of the best-preserved medieval fortresses in the region.
Ashore
Day 21
Ruse
Bulgaria's Danube port, with neo-baroque buildings around its central square that earned it the name Little Vienna.
Ashore
Day 22
Giurgiu, Transfer to Bucharest
The Romanian Danube port facing Ruse across the Friendship Bridge, and the usual gateway to Bucharest.
Ashore
Day 23–24
Bucharest
Romania's capital, with broad boulevards, Belle Epoque buildings and the vast Palace of the Parliament.
Disembark
