MAINZ & RUDESHEIM

Continuing northward up the Rhine then turning left on the Mosel. Mainz, a peaceful, smallish city with a lovely market with beautiful fruit, veg & flowers. Walked to the cathedral, then up the hill to the Catholic Saint Stephan's church that boasted a full set of Marc Chagall stained glass windows. Interesting when Chagall was a Russian Jew. Went cycling along the Rhine to see some new dockland modern developments & older boat club communities. Couldn't face the climb up the stairs to cross the bridge to the other bank.

Wine tasting at Rudesheim at the Johannisberg winery. Too much tasting for me, but Lin loved it. They had a lockup where they kept their best vintages, some back to the 1700's. Nice cruise through the Rhine gorge - many castles & little reverside towns. Won the movie quiz - not down to me, we had some good team members. More Johannisberg bubbly.

COLMAR STRASBOURG

Started our cruise northward up the Rhine. We have visited Colmar & Strasbourg, two cities that have yo-yo's between France & Germany, depending on who was winning the war at the time. Currently in France, there still seems a little enmity between the people. Colmar we had a German guide who was quite critical of French people, in Strasbourg we had a French guide who explained the meaning of the shop sign where a French monk is lecturing a pig, symbolic of the Germans & the second part of the scene, the pig is slaughtered & on it's way to be eaten. Very Catholic down here with massive cathedrals. 

Boat nice, weather's so-so, thunder & lightning yesterday. Eating, drinking too much.

FRAGERSWERLAND

Early flight, silly-o-clock up. Taxi to London Heathrow went with no hitches. We had pre-ordered duty free that got us additional money off. The discount also applied to anything we added to the bill before paying. Linda added to the bill! It's a good deal to pre-order as you pay on collection, if you are delayed, or cancel, no pay.

We had fast track security & BA Lounge, which is all very nice. It's 6:30, had breakfast & now chilling watching the aircraft landing.

Flight was great, very smooth & on time. Basel airport not so good, board said go to carousel 2. Suddenly board went blank & our flight appeared on carousel 3. Stampede to carousel 3, everyone waits expectantly... 10 minutes later.... the bags appear on 2. Swiss precision? Swiss roll? no.... Swiss shambles. Now on boat, all lovely, had lunch & drinks and it's only 1:15. We are docked on an interesting bit of shore, it's the point where France, Germany & Switzerland all meet. Interesting border control.

Some poor sausages flew Wolverhampton, Frankfurt, Basel. Nice flight, they said but the luggage didn't make it

BLOG IN THE DOLDRUMS

Not much action in the blog lately but about to set off on a river cruise, Basel to Amsterdam on the Rhine with a detour on the Model to the vineyards. Being doing other things.

Western dramas in middle England;  lunch at oldest Indian restaurant in London; short break in a motor museum in the Cotswolds; In vintage aircraft, vintage buses, vintage teams & yes, Caribbean islands.

SALISBURY

Lin & I spent a lovely weekend in Salisbury in the midst of the turmoil that is rail worker strikes, bad weather (they say there is no bad weather, just wrong clothing - try telling that to someone in a category 5 tornado that is just about to drop a cow on his head!)

The strike was not too bad, we had to change trains, overcrowding and incorrect destinations announced on the train intercom but it was compounded by an embankment slip at Woking and further compounded by bridge damage, I think was caused by the embankment repair heavy equipment crashing into it.

Salisbury is a beautiful, small town situated on the Hampshire Avon, one of the few chalk streams in the world. Not many can afford to fish some of the exclusive stretches. Salisbury dates back to the 1100's, which the walking tour guide showed us. Cathedral is very imposing and was the tallest building in the UK until the Post Office tower built in the 1960's.

Enjoyed a lively Mexican tapas meal with mezcal & tequila cocktails. Heaven for melted cheese lovers. Bit blowy at times, too much for Lin's hair. Visited the Xmas market & St Thomas Becket's church where there was a festival of Christmas Trees and the local primary schools singing carols.

Will visit Salisbury again in the summer, more to see, you see.

A CORUÑA, LISBON, PORTA DELGADA

Journey proceeding, but not completely smoothly. Persistent rain in A Coruña, which we managed to dodge OK. Nice little port town with decent promenades to walk around the harbour. A town that has seen conflict with English, first Francis Drake who attacked the town with his fleet - that statue celebrates a Spanish heroine who killed some of the attackers, second the British army who fought with the Spanish against Napoleon. The English general Sir John Moore is buried in a local cemetery.

Lisbon, always a nice place to visit, we took a bus down to the Aquarium which is purported to be the best in the World. I don't know about that - Monterey in California was better for me, but it is up there with massive 3 storey tanks that give great views. Their version of Christ the Redeemer on the way out of the harbour is impressive.

Weather has taken a turn for the worse, big storm (Babet?) took us on a southerly diversion on the way to the Azores that caused us to arrive at 8pm instead of 9am. Sea pretty bumpy & high winds across the deck was spinning up mini waterspouts in the swimming pool. We went ashore in Porta Delgada but the Wally walking tour wasn't as good in the dark. Left around 1:30am and now have to make up lost time to arrive in Fort Lauderdale on schedule - weather permitting.

wallylin.blogspot.com

Le HAVRE & BILBAO

I have organised some tours by WallyTours. The ship's tours are sooo expensive now. Le Havre, St Joseph's Church was spectacular - over 100m spire with hand blown antique glass squares that had been designed in a colour palette to show off seasonal shades & mixtures at different times of day & season. It compared favourable with Sagrada Familia. It is built of concrete in a brutalist style. It commorates all the dead at allied hands in preparation for D-day.

Went In to Bilbao for a WallyTour. Not the greatest of days as it's a Spanish national holiday & all shops, cafés etc closed. The Guggenheim gallery is  a stunning place on the river bank. Picasso sculpture exhibition, large steel structures, a Japanese interactive mirror room & Gilbert & George also on display. Bilbao looks a nice place to return for a short break.

WallyLin.blogspot.com