Canal archive

From June 2024 Eurostar will not be travelling to Amsterdam for at least 6 months partly due to work being carried out at the central station in Amsterdam. A few years ago when Eurostar ventured into travelling as far as Marsalis we used it for our South of France cruise, wonderful start but the return was spoilt somewhat by having to stop at Lille for the passport check.

It conjures up a wonderful picture of butlers all dressed exactly correctly and captain's being exquisitely polite. Just before the punch up for the lead position. 😆

After you, no after you!

Arosa has usually been one of the safest lines so very unusual for one of their ships to fall fowl of the river challenges.

Westerngardner you will love it Azure is a small (all ships on the Douro are) but beautiful ship crewed by an all Portuguese crew who are lovely, it is special. Enjoy.

Franski absolutely agree for us in the U.K. it’s a hop skip & a jump into Europe and if only they could get their act together and join up Eurostar better oh wow. Before Covid it was possible to at certain times of the year to Eurostar from Euston, okay really early to Marseille for lunch then return to Euston station in time to travel home. What an experience! I love train travel second only to the rivers of Europe.

I suppose because of my age and verging on my really rebellious period I joined (I’m proud to say) the very last Ban the Bomb march much to my mum’s horror, she had wanted to join ( how did I know!). How I got my future security clearance is debatable.

I suspect that Emerald as a sister company to Scenic are now employing their own staff as Scenic are and not using a contracting company (apart from CDs). Finding the quality of staff anywhere in Europe and the U.K. is evidently very difficult at the moment. Many found other employment which suited them better i.e. closer to home. Having friends in the hospitality industry they are tearing their hair out finding quality (underlined) staff. As one friend said making one wrong choice blights the whole ship, meaning his very upmarket hotels. The crème del a crème will rise to the top and hopefully inspire others but at the moment there’s just not enough of them. Time will tell in your case maybe the ship was undersubscribed so they crewed it with less staff and then suddenly it was filled and no time left to re staff who knows. Loosing three restaurant staff due to one having to tooth troubles one Sunday evening on the Douro led to this everyone where so worried for the waiter, we were as far away from Porto the nearest available dentist as possible. We still had a new glass for each drink our table of six imbibed.

Notamermaid you must try to go loads of mechanical music machines but especially the bird music boxes exquisite.

I suspect most Captains would allow both to pass them. Thanks.

Bingo great your all set.

I was at our brand new Youth Club we were all convinced WW3 was about to start.

I suspect this reply will depend on the company your cruising with but why not ask if they could possibly get a supply on board for you, of course offering to pay and you still might get it for free. Good luck.

At one time here pleasure craft had to give way to working as in cargo craft I cannot remember is this the case on the European mainland?

Bet he felt just a little outnumbered.

Hope there’s no one attempting to queue jump, patience patience and patience again.

Ohhh another one ‘basement’ - name for bottom deck cabin. Yes flying from Heathrow or any U.K. airport to Paris is fine but a warning not during the business time, fighting the guy in the next seat with a newspaper is not pleasant. It’s a bit like Singapore to Langkawi a hop, skip and back down again. Yes Eurostar is the best.

ural guy what an exciting way to start the next stage of your life and on your own. Enjoy, my DH and many friends actually consider that now the hard work starts. Evidently it can be very tiring to make the most out of retirement, enjoy.

Scenic has just posted a few BF deals through.

Actually for anyone from outside of Europe I can understand that Franski but I would suspect from the U.K. it’s not worth it especially just to Paris.

There is no way DH would even consider a Christmas Market cruise so I am living vicariously through all of our CC members.

This might help. No one I’ve seen goes OTT the only drawback is that the music is such that to get up and waltz in those surroundings would be divine. All I’d say is you don’t have to dress to impress but the Viennese are second only to Parisians dress wise.

Congrats Australia great first hour of cricket to win the WC cricket.

Your right steamboats I got my recipe many years ago when just married. Our version is Mulled Wine although a tasting session between the two could leave you just a little over the top. I do like the sound of your fruit cup so will definitely try it. Thank you. It’s in my recipe book already.

Plus your above reminded me about a completely lost afternoon, on the outskirts of Vienna due to some excellent gluhwein some years ago. I still have an excellent recipe from a German customer when I was in a part time job in my youth. It’s a pretty basic recipe and although it includes water but does say replace with more red wine if required, what!