Festive Fairy Tale, Christmas Eve

Day 4, Mannheim and Heidelberg

I don't know what was particularly German about last night's dinner! It was OK, I suppose; one of those "tasting menus" with tiny bits of this and that, some extremely delicious soup, mussels, which I didn't take (don't like them much), Then a choice of chicken something or a pancake stuffed with mushrooms, which I chose, but didn't really like, so left half of it. Then a chocolatey set of puddings, and we thought there would be cheese, but there wasn't. Pity, I wanted something savoury! But not particularly German, I didn't think, and not really to my taste except the soup! 

Then there was a violinist, who was very talented, but it was billed as classical and carols, but mostly he played music from films. But extremely well, and I enjoyed it. No carols, though. 

This morning, we had booked on the tour of Heidelberg, which left horrendously early - well, 08:45, which is horrendously early when you're on holiday. The coach took us up to Heidelberg Castle,

where our guide, while knowledgeable and enthusiastic, told us far too many anecdotes about it, and couldn't walk more than 3 steps without stopping to say something else. I don't think he realised we could hear him on our vox boxes even if he turned round and walked on.

There was a lot of interesting stuff, though, like one of the Kings being married to the daughter of James I/VI, and being in love with her. And that the castle was destroyed by the French in the 30 years' war, but the ruins have been carefully curated since Victorian times!

The coach took us back down into Heidelberg, to the drop-off point for the Altstadt, and our guide led us into the main square and then abandoned us to look round on our own, as he was not coming back with us.  We have been before, years ago, but walked along a bit and then went down to the river - the Necker - and went under the old bridge

back to the meeting-point, where there were benches we could wait on until our coach arrived.

There were hamburgers for lunch, and then both of us had a long nap! Afternoon tea was being served today, but neither of us was hungry, so we just had a cup of tea in our room. And now we are listening to the service from King's, which is a Christmas "must" for us. Sadly, there is no service on the ship tomorrow, and we will be out when our own service is live-streamed, but never mind. Third year running we haven't been able to go to Church on Christmas Day.

Photos on Facebook, as per. 

Festive Fairy Tale, 23 December 2022

Day 3, Mainz

My bluetooth keyboard has run out of charge so this may have even more typos than usual. Should have turned it off or at least disconnected the bluetooth!

We slept better last night, although we did wake up at one stage and discovered we were going through heavy fog and couldn't see anything! After breakfast, I went back to sleep for awhile, and the Swan Whisperer went into Mainz. We had made a nonsense of the tours and booked into the Christmas Market tour rather than the plain tour, and left it too late to cancel the one and rebook on the other.

However, the tour was very good, despite the weather, which was not! We walked round the Altstadt - my new headphones worked very well and I could hear the guide, who was knowledgeable, although his English deserted him on occasions!

We stopped in one of the Christmas markets for Glühwein, which was included in the price of the tour, and very welcome it was, too! Some people abandoned after this, but we walked on down to the bigger market and the Cathedral, which is amazing - it is a Cathedral at one end

and a parish church at the other.

It was built over a thousand years ago, as the Archbishops of Mainz wanted a place of worship worthy of crowning the Holy Roman Emperor. Unfortunately, on the day of its consecration it burnt down, and although they rebuilt it, the moment had passed and the Holy Roman Emperors were crowned in Aachen instead. 

We said goodbye to our guide just then, and after sitting quietly for a few minutes, walked back to the ship via a friendly neighbourhood ReWe as the Swan Whisperer wanted milk. I got some vegetable seasoning that I'm almost out of. We walked to the far end of the mall that the ReWe was in, and there was the ship, much nearer than we thought!

I have had a shower and changed as I was wet to the skin - my coat is very good but today's rain defeated it. And oh, sadliness - my favourite shoes are no longer waterproof. I have another pair with me, and my tai chi shoes which I wear around the ship, but even still - they can't have been more than about 8 years old. Oh well.

Tonight there is a special meal of German specialities, which we have booked in for. I don't know how much choice there will be - usually there seems to be 3 choices for each course - soup, salad or other starter; meat, fish or veggie main course; pudding, cheese or fruit. All very good! 

Festive Fairy Tale, 22 December 2022

Day 2: Koblenz 

I don't know how they expected you to sleep when the night contained such excitements as going through locks on the Main (with two sleepy geese as lock-keepers' assistants), and going along the Rhine past towns and villages, factories and wooded hills. What, we could have closed the curtains? That would be too dull! Anyway, I didn't sleep that well! 

So this morning we arrived in Koblenz while we were getting up, and by the time we went to breakfast, we were moored. Breakfast runs 07:30-09:00 or thereabouts - huge buffet with lots of different choices. 

After breakfast we got our acts together and reported, as scheduled, at 09:45 for our trip up to the Ehrenbreitstein fort

and then a walking tour of the old town. The first part was in a coach, up to the fortress, with extremely knowledgeable local tour guides who told us about the history of the town, how it was primarily a bunch of fort to stop the French invading up the Moselle... And we had a lovely walk round the fort with our guide explaining all the defensive mechanisms that were in use. Not that they were ever needed, but they might have been! 

When the tour was over, we got the bus back down to the Altstadt, going through the Neustadt en route. There we left the coach and walked round a bit, with the guide pointing out things we might otherwise have missed.

We did get to peep inside the Jesuit church (no longer run by Jesuit, but by another Order) that we hadn't gone into last time. Then the tour guide left us by the road that ran down to the river, and 5 minutes later we were back on board. 

Lunch came next; we opted for the buffet rather than another 3-course meal (that's for tonight!), and it was lovely. Only there was rare roast beef, and I didn't notice until I was on my way out, and didn't quite like to grab a slice to eat with my fingersI Oh well, there is always tomorrow! 

A nap was then very necessary, and I had hoped to go out again later, but wasn't going to happen, so the SW went out for a much longer walk than he would have done with me, and bought me a pair of headphones while he was at it - the "Vox Boxes" are not Bluetooth enabled, and I can't wear the earbuds provided. They gave me a different kind, which I also couldn't wear, but was able to attach to the leg of my specs with a twist of wire. Not ideal, though, so proper headphones will work much better. 

In a bit, we will go and listen to the "Port talk" on Mainz, tomorrow's destination, and then it will be dinner time. I don't fancy any of the evening entertainment, so we'll probably have an early night! 

A Festive Fairy Tale, 21 December 2022

This holiday is something a little different. For some years now, we have gone on a trip in the motorhome  to the various European Christmas markets, and but this year, because we can, we have taken a TUI river cruise on the Main and Rhine over Christmas. 

We left home at 09:00 this morning, taking a bus into Brixton and the Victoria Line to King's Cross St Pancras. The Tube was remarkably empty, but the same cannot be said for the international station! The queue stretched, if not quite the length and breadth of England, a good kilometre before you could get into the actual queuing area. I sat on a bench and waited for the Swan Whisperer, who had gone right to the back of the queue, and then joined him when he eventually appeared. Even then we were snaked round the departure area for a long way! But we got through eventually and got on our train, armed with a sandwich lunch. 

The train was a good 10 minutes late, but we still made our connection in Brussels with time to spare - well enough time to find a seat, anyway. Then a nearly 4 hour run to Frankfurt; the ICE3 not as comfortable as I had thought. We were moored quite near the station, so decided to walk down to the ship, which was easy to find. We just had time to the unpack before the welcome drink and introductory talk, and then it was dinner time. 

After a delicious dinner, we are now back in our cabin

and in a bit will go back to the lounge to see the ship set sail, hear a talk on Koblenz, where we will be tomorrow, and a quiz, which may or may not be fun. More photos on Facebook. 

More new railway adventures

So today I had arranged to go Christmas shopping with the Daughter at Westfield, Stratford.  Now, I have commented before on the myriad ways of getting between Brixton and Stratford, but now there is yet another way, which is to get the Northern Line to Tottenham Court Road and then the Elizabeth Line to Stratford.

Which is exactly what I did, although to my irritation I didn't see the lift and found myself going up far too many stairs to get to the very long passage between the lines; I dislike too many steps as I get breathless going up, and with my varifocals, don't see too well going down!  But I survived.

Of course, the new link isn't very interesting as it's all in a tunnel, but I hadn't done it before, so....

After our shopping and a coffee, I decided to go home the "sensible" way on the Central Line, changing to the Northern Line at Bank.  This is a totally different experience these days, as there is the new moving walkway between the lines

and with escalators either end, it is totally step-free, which is lovely.  Plus, of course, the Southbound Northern Line platform is now twice as wide as it was, which makes waiting for a train a whole lot nicer!  And I didn't have to wait very long, either, for a Northern Line train!

The new Bond Street and other stories

 Although the Elizabeth Line has been open for some months, Bond Street station didn't open until today.  And while we were on holiday, the new link between the DLR and the Northern Line at Bank opened, as did Battersea Power Station (which every Jodi Taylor fan knows is the Time Police HQ) and, I believe, a knew entrance to Knightsbridge station.

We do plan to go to Battersea Power Station very soon - it's a direct bus ride from here - but today was about the first two of these.  We started off by getting a bus to King's College Hospital where a friend is currently incarcerated after a fall.  After visiting her, we took another bus up to Elephant and Castle, and caught the Northern Line (neither of us has used this station before, as far as we are aware) to Bank, where we eventually found the rather shiny new escalators down to the DLR.  As we wanted to go on the Elizabeth Line, we took the DLR as far as Canary Wharf, and enjoyed seeing the Elizabeth Line station there, which apparently has roof gardens, which I decided not to bother visiting.  

The Elizabeth Line duly took us to Bond Street, where we admired the huge new station,

and then came out and had a snack in Prets.  I had their Chocolate Moose (sic) which I don't think I've had for nearly 20 years and every bit as delicious as I remember it!  And then just a short walk to Oxford Circus, where we got a Victoria Line train home.  At least, I did a bit of shopping, and the Swan Whisperer went off to do something else.  And so home.  

The last dregs of summer, 19 October 2022

 So we are home.  We got up at sparrowfart this morning and were ready to leave the campsite by 09:00 - we couldn't leave before as we hadn't paid and reception doesn't open until 9.  It was only just over half an hour to Eurotunnel, so we were early and went to the service station in Cité Europe to buy us much diesel as we were allowed.  It is still a great deal cheaper than in the UK, despite price rises caused by the shortage.  Petrol, however, is dearer than here.

When we got to the check-in, they offered us a crossing half an hour earlier than our booked time.  So we accepted for 11:20, and went to the car park to wait. They called us to go through in what would have been good time for a 10:50 crossing, so we were hopeful, but then when we got to the holding area the signs said it would be 21 minutes before boarding! So we were not very impressed, as by that stage we had to have the gas off and thus the fridge off (it will run off 12 volts when the engine is running, but if it isn't it needs gas or to be plugged into electricity). Still, it gave us a chance to finish packing up the clothes and bedding, etc, so we could just sit and read during the crossing itself.

An uneventful drive to No 6, and a very nice lunch with my mother and sister (cold trout with smoked trout and quail's eggs; salad; boiled potatoes), and then we had to sort out the rest of the van - we have still succeeded in leaving behind my stock cubes and such clean clothes as I had left, and forgot that we planned to take the covers off the front seats and wash them!  Oh well, we can go down in a week or so to rescue them.

Horrible drive back to London - very heavy traffic - and then of course hard work unpacking and putting away.  All that is now done, as is the first load of washing.  Much washing.  Many loads....

No photos today, although the autumn colours were lovely. So here is a photo of the Channel which, after all, we have just been under!