The last few days have been busy. First, Sunday 10/6, we started with an excursion into Rudesheim and went on a tour of the Music Museum. A building full of music boxes ranging from one that is built into a Cigar Box, to ones that are the size of a small room. This was followed by a cable car ride to look out over the start of the Rhine Valley then a leisurely walk back to the ship for and interesting afternoon’s cruise along the Rhine Valley. For about 2 hours, we cruised, and about every 5 to 10 minutes there was yet another castle. This ended when we arrived in Braubach. Here we were taken by coaches to Marksburg Castle where we had a guided tour of the only Medieval Castle that was never invaded or damaged and of which many parts are still as built hundreds of years ago. During the dinner here, we were entertained by minstrels, jugglers and acrobats. Later we travelled by coach back to meet the ship which had cruised on to Coblence.

Monday 11/6, there was a slight change in schedule. After sailing from Coblence to Cologne in the wee small hours of the morning, we headed off on a walking tour of Cologne. More amazing churches and cathedrals, and an even more amazing Roman Mosaic floor which was uncovered in pristine condition buried 6 metres below the current ground level. There are a couple of other archaeological digs of the Roman times, right near the centre of the old town. A quick lunch today and then we were onto a couple of coaches. This was the change of itinerary. Many of the passengers were planning on doing an extension after the cruise to the Floriade near Venlo. (We were planning to do this as well but on our own.) For the passengers, this would be a 2 ½ hour trip each way from Amsterdam to Venlo and return. Our Cruise Director had arranged for the trip to Floriade to be done from Cologne and then meeting up with the ship in Duisburg. Cologne to Venlo is only 1 ¼ hours and Venlo to Duisburg about ¾ hours, so doing it this way saves 3 hours of coach travel time. When this change was made, all other passengers were given the option to do this trip at an additional cost. Jean and I decided to do this and are happy that we did. The Floriade visit was only 3 ½ hours but was enough for us. It was not what we were expecting (the Cruise Director had told everyone this). The International Floriade is not like the Canberra Floriade as we had thought it was, but more like a small Expo based on Agriculture and Horticulture. It was, never the less interesting, we saw what we wanted, liked what we saw, and now have 2 extra days for our touring as we had allowed 2 days for Floriade. After arriving back on board the ship, it was time for a quick shower and change and then off to the Captain’s Gala Farewell Dinner. It was close to midnight last night when we got back to our cabins.

Tuesday 12/6, we docked in Amsterdam this morning and we had chosen to do a canal boat trip of the city. The boat trip was for 1 hour and this was preceded and followed by one hour each of bus trips around the city. We certainly had a good tour of Amsterdam. This afternoon, we are packing our cases as they need to be outside our cabin doors before 7AM tomorrow. Tonight is our last dinner with our new friends, tomorrow at 9AM we all depart, some to return to Oz, other to continue, like us, on more holidays. Where we will go depends largely on where our hire-car takes us and the route chosen by Annie (our GPS guide voice). All we know is that we will be in Maastrich on 26/6, Frankfurt on 29/6 and Brisbane on 1/7. Stay tuned, we will attempt to keep you updated.