So, day one on my sojourn to the Rhine, and an interesting day it has been.
Early start at 5 this morning and a run through to the airport from Jamie.
Flight on time as it wasn’t Easy Jet. That company is a nightmare. KLM is a totally different experience and all went like clockwork.
Short flight, met at the airport by the Avalon staff and conveyed streight to the ship.
Ship very different from what I am used to and will take a bit of getting used to. These river cruise ships are kind of like barges with living accommodation. Quite high end living accommodation but basicly a barge.
First wee issue was the toilet not flushing and I had to report it three times. On the third time the guy at the desk kindly suggested that he would send someone to “ show me how to work it”. You can imagine how well that went down!
I explained that I had been on, in the region of, 70 cruises and except for the sailing ships, every single one of them had exactly the same press button flushing system as the one in my cabin, therefore it is reasonable to assume that I know how to flush the bloody thing.
Eventually they sent a maintenance guy to fix it.
In the afternoon I had a longish walk into the city centre and around the canal system. Which included some window shopping at the variety of wares on display, including, cannabis and quite a variety of interesting and imaginative sex toys.
I, of course was very careful to avoid the the naughty area where scantily clad young lady’s display their more than ample attributes in Shop windows.
I then had the long walk back to the ship and a chance to cool down somewhat after quite a strenuous walk around Amsterdam.
Back at the ship there was perhaps one of the strangest safety talks I have ever had on a ship ( apart from the Concordia which safety talk didn’t exist).
This talk consisted of directing every one to the sun deck in the event of an emergency whereby you are issued with a life jacket and told what to do!!
Now the one thing you will definitely not be told to do is get into a lifeboat, for the simple reason that there is no lifeboats. So I am still wondering what the options will be in the event of an emergency. Perhaps the river is shallow and the ship will sit on the bottom with the Sun deck still protruding from the surface.
God only knows what will happen if the emergency is a fire.
Ok so after a shower and fresh up I had dinner which was very good and happened to be sitting next to a couple, the lady of which worked for the Labour Party in a public policy capacity. We got on to the question of independence and indeed the pending by-election in Rutherglen. She was delighted to hear my views on why the SNP would loose but when I got on to the subject of why I thought Kier Starmer was shit and wouldn’t last long , she decided that as she was on holiday she would prefer not to talk politics.
So sitting in a very quiet lounge with no entertainment wondering what tomorrow will bring.
Day 2 on my wee trip and a very quiet day as I chose not to go on the offered trip and instead do some work on a project my granddaughter Rosa is doing at school Believe it or not it is whether Scotland should be independent or not and she has to prove her conclusion. Absolutely wonderful that this is now being talked about at school.
We did stop briefly at Utrich ( not sure if I have spelled that correctly) but we were not allowed ashore in case anyone made a break for the airport.
When I went to school we were taught that Wallace and Bruce were traitors. The times they are a changing as Bob Dylan would say. I honestly think the future of Scotland is in safe young hands.
So, apart from that, it has been somewhat of a slow day between watching old ladies taking photos of their knitting to excite the folks back home and having a buffet lunch for 150 people which would have fed about half a dozen people on a good day. The portions are not exactly huge.
However, dinner was pretty good and that couple I mentioned yesterday came and sat at the table next to me. The lady ( who has a position in the Labour Party in London) asked what I had been doing all day and I mentioned that I had been helping Rosa with her project. She immediately offered to put the case against independence and I said I would be delighted to pass it on to Rosa and asked where she would start. She didn’t know , oh dear so I gave her a few days to make something up.
So, I am sitting at the highlight of the day which is the trivia event, I could hardly contain myself waiting for it to start. The compare has just asked how many different nationalities are on board. How in heavens name is anyone to know that , unless they are a crew member?
So, looking forward to getting off the ship tomorrow in Cologne but we don’t get there until two in the afternoon and I sincerely hope we are there overnight so that I can get ashore for a pint and possibly some entertainment to save me slitting my wrists.
So a couple of pints while every one calms down after the euphoria of the trivia evening.
Have a good evening folks
Bob Costello 