….. Though it started in July, and there was nothing very ‘noble’ about it, in case anyone thought there might be a pun intended in that title!

So, on Friday morning, 27th July (2018), Harry and I set off from 141 Hall Cross Road and headed south.

And Dippy came, too!

Well, a chap needs someone to talk to! But she didn’t say much. She spent most of the time looking out of the window ….

First port of call was Porton Court (do you like that? alliteration and assonance!) – apart from the service areas on the way of course.

Christine, the Nieces (Carol and Judi) and I had a good meal together at one of the restaurants in Surbiton where we had been in previous times. As usual, a waiter obliged by taking a tolerably good photo of the whole party:

(No! that is not an attempt to achieve the Southgate look! I was wearing waistcoats long before he came along …)

My / our crosing the next day wasn’t till 4pm, but I left in good time and was at the top of the hill overlooking Dover by 2 o’clock. The remaining 5 miles took 3 and a half hours! (This was the weekend when the tunnel was experiencing difficulties due to overheating, and many folk were trying for a ferry instead.) But there was no problem at check-in – the man just said ‘you can go at 6’ – ‘OK’.

Of course, that made it 9.00pm (Euro-time) by the time we docked at Dunkirk, so I spent the night on a service area in Belgium …. it was OK, though the facilities were totally inadequate for the demand once the restaurant had closed at 10pm; I was glad to have my own. There was a nice café-croissant at the restaurant in the morning, and wifi too, BUT – the litter! Worse than anything I’ve seen on a service area in England, and it wasn’t only because the bins were full and overflowing. Other services and lay-bys along the route were little or no better …. shame on those responsible, both the litterers and the authorities!

It was easy enough to get across to Cologne:

But finding the caravan park where I was going to spend the night before leaving Harry for a week was challenging, largely due to roadworks. The people at the site had sent instructions, but they referred to leaving the motorway at Engelskirchen, NOT Untereschbach, but these places weren’t on the signs, so I was left guessing and took a wrong decision.

The black line is (more or less) what I should have done. What I actually did is anybody’s guess! But in the end I found a pleasant site with good facilities (though I don’t care for automatic lighting in the loos, which switches off and leaves you in the dark!) and very nice people, so that when I was worried about leaving Harry in that seemingly endless heatwave, the lady said it was OK to leave the electricity connected and the fridge on – I was going to try to give away some of the perishables.

Monday morning 30th July:

Bye, Dippy – Look after Harry for me! Bye, Harry, look after Dippy for me …. (You’d better close the window!)

I was surprised how far the site was from public transport! I could have gone to Engleskirchen, but they advised me to take a taxi to Bensberg for a better link to Cologne, so it was a long taxi ride and a short bus ride to the Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) in Köln. I was very early. But I had a nice lunch in one of the restaurants in the shopping centre under the station – it may seem an odd thing to do, but when I emerged and was hit by that wall of heat, I think staying inside with air conditoning had been the right decision. So with suit carrier over the shoulder, and trundling Rachel’s wheeled suitcase on the other side, I set off to find the ship, the Rex Rheni. Based on previous experience, heading for where Regina Rheni had moored at the end of my Christmas Markets cruise, when I got to the river I turned downstream – wrong! After about half a mile and passing several hotel ships, and asking the crew of one of them, who thought I might be looking for them, I turned back. I sat on wall at the edge of the promenade and got out the cruise paperwork. Phoned Saga in the UK. Did they know where Rex Rheni was – exactly? No, but a nice man gave me two phone numbers – the ship’s and Denisa’s, the Tour Leader’s. First one didn’t work. Second one did, and that was luckier than I could have known as it turned out.

Rex Rheni, Denisa told me, was moored right beneath the chocolate factory. And where’s that, coming from the station? I not only had to retrace my steps already taken, but go about as far again beyond the railway bridge. Not all the ground was smooth for the wheeling of the case …. and it was HOT. I stopped and bought a drink which may have been a shandy, but it was cold! Never have I been so pleased to see the back end of a boat!:

In the end, I was first to embark! As I made my way down the gangway, a number of crew members were converging at the foot of it. I said ‘There’s only me – I don’t need the whole crew!’ What I didn’t know – but they did, was that I was just seconds ahead of the first coachload, who were now already queueing up behind me! I was invited to leave the luggage on the deck and was escorted to my cabin – 111 (Just like the old health insurance certificate before it became EHIC).

So began my special cruise “Gilbert and Sullivan on the Rhine” .

What can I say? How shall I do this? The catastrophic failure of my computer soon after the cruise meant that I was unable to load the photos and do the diary immediately afterwards. It’s a month ago now, and a lot has happened since. So I’ll not narrate the cruise day by day, but I’ll group the best of the photos (imo) in sections and try to keep the commentary brief.

This cruise may have put me off cruising for a long time! No – it wasn’t bad; it was just too good. I was simply so lucky in so many ways. The weather helped, obviously, but there were other variables such as one’s companions at meal times. The conversation flowed easily (though this may have caused a delay in progressing the meal on occasion, since the waiters were strictly instructed not to clear any plate till all six diners had finished ….)

Then, there was the foursome which formed on the first evening. I approached a table where Sandy and Patsy were sitting and asked if I could join them. Soon afterwards, Sandy went away and came back with Joan. This ‘quartet’ spent every evening together from then on. I don’t quite know what happened there, what instinct Sandy was gifted with, but the companionship of these three people enhanced what was going to be a magical trip anyway:

Then, the entertainment! First class, professional performances, on six of the seven evenings, from four singers and their pianist (who also performed a condensed ‘Trial By Jury’ on four saxophones!) Not exclusively G & S, but, of course, predominantly, since that’s what most of us had come for! But there was also Mozart, Rossini, ….. and Flanders and Swann!

The scenery! Castles:

Villages:

Excursions

The first was at Königswinter where the option was to take Germany’s oldest rack and pinion railway to the foot of the Drachenfels Castle:

This is where, according to legend, Siegfried slew the dragon. (By George!) The truly panoramic view from the top station of the railway, showed how really low the level of the river was:

This was going to affect our speed of travel while cruising the Rhine – but not the Mosel, which has locks which control the flow and keep the level more or less constant.

Next day was Koblenz …. hmmm …. not the best of memories and nearly a disaster. I chose not to join the group walk from our mooring to the foot of the cable car and so up to the fortress (overlooking the Deutsches Eck, where the Rhine and the Mosel conflow). Instead I decided to take my time then pop ashore for a bit of shopping ….. Trouble is, I couldn’t find any suitable shops. I happened to meet our Assistant Tour Guide, Sarah, who pointed me in the right direction (and said I had plenty of time). Eventually I found a supermarket, but turned the wrong way when I came out. Instructions are very clear about being back on board in time for the next sailing. That was to be at noon; it was now about 11.15. Trouble is, my sense of direction, such as it is, had completely deserted me, and I hadn’t picked up one of the town plans which had been put out for us. (After all, I was only popping over the road for a bit of shopping.) I quickened my pace, I asked three people for help, two of whom were helpful. I was trying to find the river – can’t miss, surely. 11.45: I’m near the river, but there’s a tangle of railway lines and flyovers and gardens preventing me from getting to it. 11.55, I’m on the river bank, I’m very hot, but it’s starting to drizzle. I can’t see our ship, nor any others come to that. I remembered I had Denisa’s number in my phone from two days before. ‘I’m lost!’ She put Sarah on: ‘Where are you, what can you see?’ It became clear from the position of the fortress and the cable car that I had made my way to the WRONG RIVER! We were moored on the Mosel, and I was stood beside the Rhine. ‘Get to the cable car station – I’ll come and find you’. ‘Are you ready for a brisk walk?’ – ‘Not now, I’m not’ – ‘There’s no choice’. ‘Can’t we find a taxi?’ ‘Not unless there’s one just here’. There wasn’t.

Everyone was at lunch when we got to the ship. My companions were very kind. The ship hadn’t moved. Nor did it for another hour and a half. The on board air conditioning was struggling with the heat, and a replacement part was on its way. Denisa and Sarah told me they remonstrated with the Captain that he hadn’t told them there would be a delay, regardless of my belated return.

The next excursion I did was in Cochem  on the Mosel. A chair lift took us up one of the hills, then a fairly short, but rough, walk to the viewpoint where there’s a cross. I’m pleased to say I did the walk with* using my stick, as I did all walking for the whole month.

[*See first comment below; of course it should be “without”, but I’m not correcting the original, because it would make the comment look silly, which it isn’t!]

The only excursion which was included in the price of the cruise was to the Mechanical Music Museum in Rűdesheim. Interesting, well presented, well worth a visit. (Most of what I filmed in there was on video, so we can hear the music playing.) This was the only still:

Before Rűdesheim, of course, we’d sailed back down the Mosel to K*bl*nz, passing, we were told, the steepest vineyards in the world, and then up the Rhine through the Lorelei Gorge. Because of the low water, this had to be navigated in convoy, and very slowly:

It had to end, of course. Spontaneous games of table tennis (Joan beat me!), and an organised session of quoits, a quiz every day, ‘free’ time ashore in places I haven’t mentioned, and lots of wine and a few cocktails. For about twice the price one could sail on a more luxurious vessel:

But what more does one need than a comfortable cabin, a pleasant sun deck, and a nice lounge in case of less favourable weather? (The answer is a swimming pool!):

However, at 9am on Monday morning, 6th August, after the various coach parties had left, my luggage was brought to the foot of the gangway, and it was time to leave and make my own way back to the bus / train station. (They would have sent for a taxi for me, but I saw no need.) By 10, I was back at the caravan park in Oberbuschem (the taxi driver didn’t know the way round the roadworks, either – he drove along a ‘closed’ road!). Harry and Dippy seem to have been OK, and to my great relief, a new debit card was waiting for me from ‘Britline’, the branch of Credit Agricole where I still have some Euros which I was relying on using, but I hadn’t been able to find the card before leaving home!

One more picture:

Next time: Salzburg in the rain and Tegernsee in sunshine!