It was two years in the making: get a group of 4 couples scheduled on a cruise on the Rhine and Main rivers from Basel, Switzerland to Nuremberg, Germany. The reason for the trip: to celebrate 8 close friends who had reached a new milestone in their lives — retiring from our jobs.

When we first started talking about the trip, the idea of a cruise came up quickly. Some of us have been on many cruises and we all liked the idea that we could individually schedule excursions for the day and meet in the evening for dinner. We also liked the idea of a river cruise for several reasons:

1. Smaller number of guests on the riverboat.
2. No formal seating assignments — you had the opportunity to mingle with other guests.
3. More stops along the river.
4. Travel by night — go to sleep in one city, wake up in another.
5. The Viking cruise line includes a lot of things that ocean-going cruises don’t, like morning excursions into the city for free.
6. Closer access and a closer relationship with the crew on the riverboat.

Oh, and we learned just before we made our booking that our daughter and son-in-law were expecting their first child, who would be born sometime in early to mid March. Nona and Poppi — the names we would use with the new baby — were not going to miss that life-changing event for anything.

The planning

We started our planning on a group call with Dean, our travel advisor, from Viking. We shared the list of things we liked and didn’t like about our experiences with ocean-going cruises, and he was able to help us refine our expectations and requirements for the cruise. We all recognized that this would be a cruise of a lifetime, so we were amenable to a longer duration — 11 days, with the option for an additional 3 days on our own.

Next came the time of year. Dean explained that the best times for a river cruise are earlier in the year, after a period with lots of rain. In the heat of the summer, water levels drop and you run the risk of having to travel by motor coach from port to port. We settled on early April based on our calendars and the projected weather. We knew that it would be cool, and there might still be rainy days, but this seemed to make the most sense for us. And it worked perfectly.

The itinerary

Travel to Europe from the United States almost always requires departure later in the day and arrival at your destination in the morning. Flights from the East Coast of the US to central Europe are usually 5-6 hours in actual flight time, but you are crossing 5 or 6 time zones along the way. Our flight departed on March 31 and arrived in Basel on April 1.

Viking also offered us the opportunity to extend our stay by 3 days. My wife and I decided to take advantage of that and spend those three days in Munich, then leave Munich on April 14 for our return flight home.

This was our itinerary:

Date	Departure	Arrival
March 31	Columbus	Chicago
March 31	Chicago	Frankfurt
April 1	Frankfurt	Basel
April 2	Basel	Freiburg
April 3	Freiburg	Strasbourg
April 4	Strasbourg	Karlsruhe
April 5	Karlsruhe	Frankfurt
April 6	Frankfurt	Lohr am Main
April 7	Lohr am Main	Würzburg
April 8	Würzburg	Baden Baden
April 9	Baden Baden	Nuremberg
April 10	Nuremberg
April 11	Nuremberg	Munich
April 12	Munich	Dachau
April 13	Munich	Neuschwanstein
April 14	Munich	Columbus

The series

Over the course of the next 12 weeks, I will be posting an entry about each of the cities we visited, along with some of the key images that I captured.

This series is designed for both photographers and non-photographers. I talk about what I experienced in those different cities and the images that I liked the best. And I have a couple of sections that speak to people interested in photography — the technical details about the images: what worked, what didn’t, what I considered the best photo of the day. Each article is scheduled to be posted on Monday morning (Eastern Daylight / Standard Time). There is a comments section at the bottom of each article. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the images and the story, good or bad. What did you like, what kind of stories or images would you like to see in the future?

And if you are interested in a print of an image, you can click on the photo to go to a place where you can purchase your own copy.

The images

Here’s a little teaser of the images you’ll be seeing in this series. Think of it as an amuse bouche for the eyes.

The gear

I took two cameras on the trip. I brought my Nikon Z6 with three lenses (Nikon Z 28-70 f/2.8, Nikon 85mm f/1.8, and a Sigma 56mm f/2.8), and my Fujifilm X100T. We all had mobile phones with cameras, but I needed my other cameras to give me more control over the technical elements of the photo. I also had my phone camera for times when I wanted to focus on being in the moment.

The shot that came out

Europe is a beautiful place: the mountains, the rivers, the cities, the history, and most importantly, the people.

With three cameras, you can imagine that I took a lot of photos. Working through all of those images to whittle them down to a few really amazing ones takes time (but hey, I’m retired — what else do I have to do? Oh, and there’s the grandbaby!).

I think that this is my absolute favorite image of the trip.

What went wrong

Viking does a fantastic job of helping you prepare for the trip: information on how to obtain a passport; forms of personal information needed by the various national governments and for the cruise staff; airline reservations; travel to and from the riverboat in the destination cities; and any accommodations for mobility or diet.

The one challenge that we had was with our airline flights. Travel from Columbus internationally is always complex, because it’s a smaller airport — we have to make connecting flights domestically and then get the international flight from a larger airport.

Our flight from Columbus to Chicago was held for over an hour due to bad weather in Chicago. We made it to our connecting flight, boarded, then had another ground hold in Chicago due to weather in Frankfurt. Due to both delays, we missed our flight from Frankfurt to Basel.

At that point, we recorded our 10,000 steps for the day going back and forth through Frankfurt airport to get to the Lufthansa customer service area. The Lufthansa team did a great job getting us sorted out, and we were back on our way to Basel.

It was a little stressful, but we eventually got to the riverboat and on with our journey.

What I learned

It’s easy to fall into the trap of shotgunning your images by clicking away without putting any real thought into what you are seeing and how best to capture it. What I learned (and have continued to work on) is to slow down, take a breath, and really look at the scene. How does the light fall? Where is the best point to focus? What is the frame? Can you move to a spot that gives you a chance to have layers in the photo?

When you are shooting street photography, you often don’t have a lot of time to think of all that in the moment. But for street photography, your preparation before any shot is the most important — is the zone of focus deep enough to capture the important details? How is the light changing as time goes on? Am I in an area where a guy with a camera stands out like a clown at a funeral (unless the dearly deceased was a clown himself)?

1. Be patient. Unless you are shooting the running of the bulls in Pamplona, take your time. Let the image develop.
2. Preparation is key. Before you shoot, do you have the right lens for the shots you will be taking? Have you spotted a place where capturing good images can happen?

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Coming next: Basel, Switzerland

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Camera: Nikon Z6, Fujifilm X100T
Lens: Nikon Z 28-70 f/2.8, 85mm f/1.8, Sigma 56mm f/2.8; Fuji 23mm fixed
Exposure: Various
Tracker:
Location: Basel, Switzerland to Nuremberg, Germany — the Rhine and Main rivers
Captured: April 1–13, 2026