Golubac Fortress The weather had been kind to us so far on this trip – blue skies and warm enough to take our coats off. That changed when we approached the Golubac Fortress. We finally had to put on our big red coats. The wind was brutal, strong enough to almost blow us off our…
Belgrade is the capital of Serbia and it has many buildings dating back to the late 18th-early 19th century, But I wouldn’t want to drive there. I thought the roundabout at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris was chaotic. Watching the drivers going through intersections in Belgrade was crazy. In fact, we had a very…
On our last day in Budapest we opted for a visit to the city’s central market. I love markets. They’re a great place to get an overview of what the city loves and what it eats. Having someone on hand to give us a commentary helped, too. The market is a large, very clean hall,…
Budapest is a beautiful city with some amazing architecture and a dark past. We’ve been here several times before so we opted out of the city tours that take you to Heroes Square and the heights of Buda and the castle overlooking the river. Here’s a look at that earlier trip. On a beautiful sunny…
The world is a scary place at the moment and it’s likely to get scarier. So this week I’m going to share some of the happier times, leafing through the photograph albums of our travels. I blog all our trips so I’ll put a link to the relevant page for each entry. Just click on…
SS Catherine moored overnight at the village of Viviers. As usual, we waited until the passengers had departed for their excursions – one of which was to the famous Châteauneuf-du-Pape vineyard. Oh well. Some more excellent wine missed. We walked up a long avenue lined with plane trees, which were common in many places. The…
Sunday dawned bright and sparkly and not too hot. We’d finished our Seine cruise and sixty-four of us were off the ship early for our transfer to the railway station to take a high-speed train to Lyon where we would board the SS Catherine on the Rhone River. The Tour de France would be finishing…
For our last day on the Seine River we were based in Paris – the City of Love, the City of Light. Peter had never been to Paris and it was something like thirty years ago that I was there. Of the options available, Peter and I decided we’d do the bus tour of the…
This morning the Amalotus was moored at a wharf in Phnom Penh. For the lucky folk on the starboard side, that meant sweeping views over the river. At this time of year the water is low, so for those of us in port side cabins we had a rather uninspiring view of the pylons and…
We were supposed to go to the highlight of our trip – as far as I was concerned – today. A walk in the Schwarzwald in the mountains away from the river. But Father Rhine was in no mood to accommodate travellers. Our delay at Mannheim was, of course, multiplied by the hundreds of ships…