Canal archive

Well I found this and thought of us, the great wine unwashed. If your anything like me (and I’m most probably in the minority) choosing a wine is more - ohh that’s nice - regardless of cost, where it comes from and does it suite my ‘palate’ what! Can I drink it? In my case Merlot no way but thats a real minority thing. Cheers! Can AI help drinkers buy a better bottle of wine? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65959815 All, enjoy your wine on board and remember regardless of your cruise after the first sip and if you don’t like it tell the waiter and get it changed to something you enjoy, that’s what a wine is for, enjoyment.

Notamermaid thank you so much for the tip, we will definitely go. My dad was a Navy man and I spent many of my early years in Portsmouth (Pompey) I did my early training in a Royal Navy facility. If you ever get the chance the dockyard is home to HMS Victory, Nelson’s flagship and still technically the flagship of the Royal Navy, HMS Warrior the first ironclad warship in the British Fleet and the Mary Rose Henry V111s flagship the one that was raised from the Solent plus loads of other things it’s an interesting place. When you’ve done that go through the shopping centre and up the Spinnaker tower. We have several friends who still live in the area, home from home.

Will be thinking of you whilst on our way to our Seine river cruise on Saturday, have a great weekend.

They say ships have not a soul but something akin.

Yeh there’s not much room even for a trundle bed in a river cruise cabin. Because thinking about it my grandson would love it especially with his - brother in trouble - I.e. grandfather.

Oh wow looking at where the damage is I hope the kitchen crew are okay. Please hope it’s not the Emerald’s crews fault and all are okay, what a shake up.

On one of our cruises for the first at least four days we were up and out by just after 8am you can imagine the moaning and groaning although we all went along with it and in any case we’re all ‘ha ha’ in the same boat at the next port talk our next start wasn’t until 10.30 I’ve never heard a boatload of - paying quite a lot passengers - cheer quite so much. Evidently it just happened that the majority of us wanted to take part in all of the excursions that meant starting early, an absolute headache for our very competent Cruise Director. Our only lengthier coach journey was to Salamanca- worth every mile, the most beautiful city, I’d go again just for this experience.

Looks like they’re trying and I think still a woman at the helm, with a bit of effort and good will could be a happy merger. There seem to be some doubts about the British passport side of things well all I can say is about 2022 when we took the car and still had to prove Covid credentials, we sailed through no problem. It is the way to travel between Europe and the U.K. I think the only time I would quibble with is Avignon to St Pancras - no passport control (pre covid) at Avignon so we had to stop at Lille get off go through control and return to our seats don’t know what’s happening now. I do know we could get on the first Eurostar from St Pancras travel to Marseille have a superb French lunch back on board and return to the U.K. in one day, I’ll let you know when we do it, any recommendations for the meal.

You’ll need to head for a city that links with the Eurostar, Paris Gare du Nord or Brussels or Amsterdam. It’s that old chestnut sorry from the Eurostar you really cannot see the fish. 🧜

Or should I say old rock but still cutting the mustard.

I’ve never heard of one but then I’ve yet to hear of water level challenges with the Douro.

I didn’t notice any lengthier bus excursions don’t forget Portugal is a fairly small country. A lot smaller than the U.K. and about 4 times smaller than California.

We’re actually having our luggage couriered this year and that makes you think. It’s already gone and would you believe it my case weighs less than it ever has.

Bit of real rock tonight Guns & Roses

Relax and enjoy, the vessels are not large more compact and bijou than a sea cruise vessel, easy to find your way around, you’ll soon get to recognise your fellow travellers and the crew. If you have a question about anything ask at reception, usually the font of all knowledge. I usually end up with a chart listing days a note of anything going on, on those days and then I work out what is required clothing wise. We’re off on the Seine for 11 days four pairs of trousers suitable for evening and five tops so mix and match plus a couple of wraps invaluable for chilly air con restaurants and that evening drink on the sun deck. I’ve done similar with daytime stuff and I can get through without wearing the same outfit twice. Have a great time.

You’ll love it maybe a slightly gentler pace than most river cruises and I’m pretty sure this is the Portuguese way of doing things. One Sunday we couldn’t work out why dinner service was a little off kilter it turned out one of our waiters had a raging tooth ache the only dentist open was in Porto and we were nearly as far away as we could be, so a taxi was called to take him there. Service was a tad slow but hey ho - it was slightly worrying (or was it) the number of glasses on our table. So we as a table said to the serving team don’t worry about just keep the wine flowing and sort everyone else out. Super crew so worried about the guy and his tooth who returned to work the next afternoon slightly the worse for wear.

Glastonbury weekend anyone going, anyone been? I’m a bit past it now and it’s so huge but at least some of the music is still good.

Understand what you mean I do exactly the same on Scenic as I’m usually up and about before our butler and it saves a knock on the door to wake up DH. I can then sit on the sun deck, weather permitting, with my camera, you get to talk to the crew as well.

Jazz I’m pretty sure you won’t be bored you may decide to take a day out to catch yourself up which we did and even on board they brought in experts to give a taste of various crafts and a delve into Portuguese history etc now that was fascinating, well it was for me. One of our Port (as in drink not mooring up) tastings, they are very inventive with their national drink by the way, we were amongst the first to try Pink Port absolutely excellent straight from the fridge - you’ve guessed it - on the sun deck. They do have some very tasty interesting sweet cakes as well.

I agree driving okay you may see more and I only live a hop skip and jump away and have driven several times through Portugal and Spain but don’t knock a Douro cruise we had a wonderful time. The Portuguese are really friendly and eager to show off their rather nice country. The food is interesting and different the Port is devine and the wine superb. Their architecture is different and woodwork and tiles magnificent. Enjoy its a country well worth visiting.

Yup I realised there was something drastically wrong and forgot to sort it when daughter rang. My aged brain still thinks in imperial then the conversions don’t go well. So a huge thank you.

Have just heard from my eldest daughter a couple of days ago they had a storm 35cms in 20 minutes now we need a few of them across Europe.

Okay just woken up the tags are just very small and less technical versions of what is on board each vessel so we can use - Marine Traffic - Vessel Finder etc other companies are available, bingo!

You hear tales similar to yours many times so it begs the question why - is there logic - in the name. Although in my admittedly younger (a long time ago) days I used to wonder what on earth a logistics company was all about.

Hope not what Notamermaid needs it for is a future superdooper river cruise on an unknown river, what a super learning curve.