This was never going to the best time of year weather wise to cruise down the Rhine & Danube, having had to jump ship in Vienna due to COVID a couple of years back, when heading upstream from the Black Sea. Sure enough it’s pretty dismal out there and the sun deck is not getting much attention!!

The drive up to Heathrow from Devon was relatively problem free and the sun shone most of the way. British Airways came through for a change and I stayed overnight in Amsterdam before transferring to Scenic Crystal which will be “home” for the next couple of weeks.

I have decided to leave my clunky & trusty old Canon & lenses behind in attempt to “travel light”. After a spot of retail therapy last week I now have the latest iPhone and will be relying on that for photographic evidence of my adventures. Let’s see how we get on …. At least they now have a camera button on the side which should reduce the number of photos of my thumbs !

Set off from Amsterdam after a short & soggy canal cruise around the city centre. Back on board for lunch before setting off down the serious canals that will get us across country and through to the Rhine and onto the Danube and eventually to Budapest. We arrived in Cologne and disembarked for a walking tour of the city centre, the highlight of which was the Cathedral that I had admired from a distance for decades but never actually made it into.

One of largest gothic cathedrals in the world which managed to survive the virtually total destruction of Cologne during WW2. The allied bombing raids apparently used it as a landmark and managed to leave it standing, or it was a case of divine intervention depending on which version you believe !! Surprised to find that it is Catholic and I had always thought the Germans were protestants – so much for my knowledge of German history !!

A basement full of religious bling which was pretty awesome and totally priceless but then that’s Catholicism for you !!

Back to the ship. Most of the passengers were out for a fancy dinner in a palace somewhere – dressed up to the nines. I opted to stay on board for dinner with a handful of others. One excursion per day is my limit at the moment ! The Rhine gorge next ……..