Viking Cruises has introduced a boat designed to ply not the oceans and seas of the world, but the Mississippi River. The Viking Mississippi will go from St. Paul to New Orleans on 15-day excursions. Decorah News reports that hundreds of cruise-takers have signed up for a “side trip” to the Iowa town in September and October with a stop at the Vesterheim Museum.
According to the Norwegian American, “America’s only Norwegian newspaper”:
While larger than Viking River Cruises’ European river ships, the Viking Mississippi vessel feature “clean Scandinavian design.” The ship’s designers chose to display artwork in the staterooms of drawings done by Decorah, Iowa, area children and oil-on-canvas works by Lois Tønnessen Andersen, a Norwegian-American artist featured in our Sept. 18, 2020, issue.
(So it’s a floating IKEA? Which is Swedish, but obviously also Scandinavian?)
The article also details the traditional Norwegian craft classes one can take in Decorah. There is much more about the Upper Midwest and Decorah offerings in the river cruise at the link.
All of that sounds quite nice, but I prefer to do my cruising with a windshield in front of me.