Day 4

After a wonderful breakfast, with everything you could possible wish for spread out and available, though I stuck with a bowl of fruit with yoghurt and some gluten free bread and cheese, we all met for a safety briefing. Later in the morning there was a talk about the Czech Republic given by the Programme Director, Simon. Simon was a bouncy, cheerful, amusing chap who certainly enlivened things, though he was a little difficult to take first thing in the morning.

After lunch - again there was a choice of snack, cafe style lunch served in the Viking Lounge, or a three course lunch in the dining room; we opted for a snack - we were taken by a local guide for a walking tour of the town of Litomerice.

Litomerice is a really pretty town which was undamaged during World War II and has some wonderful buildings in the market square. The building you can see here is painted and has some sgraffito on the walls.

Can you see some quilt inspiration here?

Litomerice began my fascination with the ornate roof and window styles and the imaginative painting of the buildings that lasted throughout our trip, in the Czech Republic and in Eastern Germany. I took loads of photographs, but I'll only show you a few of them!

The tour ended with a visit to a micro-brewery, where we were able to taste three different types of beer. Unfortunately, I can't drink beer at all, though I love it and Christopher doesn't really like fizzy, lager type beer, so he barely touched his samples. As you can see, the 'sample' glasses were nearly as big as the half pint jugs we get in UK pubs. There were a few people who managed to finish their though!

Doesn't this flower shop look inviting. We went in and bought some packets of seeds. We had no idea what they were called, though they'll probably prove to be plants that we could have bought back at home.

Back on the boat we began our trawl through the cocktail list! We never drink cocktails at home, but it was fun to try them out during our holiday. Christopher usually had the alcoholic cocktail of the day and I had the non-alcoholic cocktail of the day.

After a wonderful three course dinner, there was a talk on the floods of 2002, when the Elbe and other local rivers rose about six feet and devastated the areas close to the river. Some towns were particularly hard hit as they had only recently finished rebuilding after the communist occupation.

We were more than ready for bed after our first full day on board the Viking Fontane, although we still hadn't set sail. Apparently they had had to change the tour a little due to refurbishment works being done on a lock further up the river.

Day 3

The day started with a very civilised Prague Hilton style breakfast and then the whole party met up for a tour of Prague. We started with a bus tour to Prague Castle, which isn't a castle in the way we understand it in the UK, more of a very upmarket stately home. Unfortunately, nothing was open so we couldn't go inside at all - a real shame since we were all absolutely freezing!

Have you heard of defenestration? Well this is where it happened. The Czechs used to hold their government meetings in this castle and if someone became unpopular they would throw them out of the window. Apparently one bishop survived the fall because he landed in a manure heap!

Prague is known as the city of a thousand spires, and you can see just a few of them in the photograph taken from the Charles Bridge.

There were huge crowds in the square waiting for this ancient clock to chime for the hour. It was the only time we were warm all day, squashed in the crowds like that. It wasn't particularly spectacular when the hour arrived, but the clock was beautiful.

After that we left the group and went in search of hot drinks, woolly hats and lunch.

In the afternoon we set off by coach to head to the ship, the Viking Fontane, which was to be our home for the next week.

We were shown into our cabin, small but it had everything that we needed. 

We then headed back to the Viking Lounge for tea and a welcome from Simon, our Programme Director, who told us a bit about the boat and the cruise.

That's Milan you can see playing the piano, our resident musician.

We then had time to unpack and change before heading down to the restaurant for dinner.

In the evening we were entertained by a group of Czech musicians and dancers. We were a bit sceptical about the idea of folk dancing and music, but they were magnificent.

Day 2

We didn't have to get going too early as our flight was at 12 noon, but since neither of us had slept terribly well we caught the shuttle bus at about 9 o'clock and were at the airport 15 minutes later, far too early as the check-in desks hadn't yet opened.

And I was feeling fine. 

After wandering around the airport shops and having a drink in one of the cafés, we boarded our plan, which left on time for the two hour trip to Prague.

We were met at the airport, along with other passengers for the same cruise, and driven to the Prague Hilton, where we were to spend our fist night. Very posh.

We just had time for a quick lunch (it was about 5.30pm, but all the airline had offered was drinks and a packet of crispy things which I couldn't eat as they weren't gluten free) and then joined our guide for a walk around Prague. It's a weird mixture of really old buildings and communist monstrosities. Quite grand and a bit dour looking I thought. And it was cold, much colder than we had left in England, so I was glad I'd packed gloves and scarf, though annoyed I'd forgotten to bring a hat. 

We saw a lot of trams around Eastern Europe.

There were some magnificent buildings that hadn't been damaged at all during World War II.

We had no idea what they were celebrating, but this band made a very loud and lively noise.

Wenceslas Square just as it was beginning to get dark. There were lots of craft stalls and stalls selling sausages and a sort of sugared pastry.

We didn't bother with any supper as we'd had such a late lunch so sat in the hotel bar for a while. At half past eight they switched most of the lights off and relied on candles as they were taking part in World Earth Hour. An early bed beckoned. 

Day 1

On the first day of our holiday we left Ruby, plus her own bags and baggage, with friends who so kindly offered to look after her whilst we were away. Then we drove up to an enormous hotel near Heathrow Airport, where we stayed the night. It was so near that we had a clear view of the airport from our window. 

We had a room service dinner as the restaurant was so crowded, which I thoroughly enjoyed as we lounged about on the bed and watched television whilst we ate! What a great start to a holiday. 

I slept barely a wink, which was about par for the course, since I never sleep well in strange beds.

Holiday? Why not!

Those of you who've been sharing my ramblings for some time now may remember that I wrote about panic attacks some time ago. For many years I've suffered from panic attacks and we haven't been abroad for our holidays since hotels, restaurants, aeroplanes, boats and being away from home often brought on very serious attacks. However, about eighteen months ago I spent a year having CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy) and have improved hugely.

So, when friends told us of some of their wonderful river cruise holidays, I suggested to Christopher that we should try one. He was really surprised and our sons were pretty amazed too, but I persisted. So we booked a trip from Prague to Berlin on the Elbe.

We arrived home yesterday and I have a huge grin on my face, as I was fine, really fine. The CBT must have carried on working in my brain over the last year or so.

Tomorrow, I'll start to tell you a little bit about our cruise - once I've had a bit more time to rest. It wasn't the most relaxing of holidays but it was great fun.

Document holders

I recently found a free pattern on StudioKat Designs for a travel documents holder. So I made a couple, which will be ideal for the holiday we're planning later this year.

New Toy number 2

Sadly, the camera which I was given as a retirement present nearly five years ago has not been behaving itself for some time and I finally made the decision that I just had to get a new one. I don't use it a huge amount, but I like to have it with me always just in case, and I really didn't want to manage without one. I have an ancient mobile phone which does take photographs but they're really dreadful quality. So I gritted my teeth and went out yesterday to buy a new one.

I didn't take long to make up my mind. I knew that I wanted the least delay time from pushing the button to the photograph being taken and I had a budget, so I just went for the best I could get for my money.

The photograph's a bit fuzzy but that's because I took it with my old camera, and that's what it's been doing with every shot.

Isn't the new one dinky?