Day 7

The boat left its moorings at 6.30 this morning, but I didn't bother to get out of bed to watch it this time. It arrived in Meissen at 8.30 and at nine o'clock we set off on an excursion to Meissen. First we went to the Meissen factory. It's really well organised and has a fantastic museum, and the demonstrations are fascinating.

There was a shop too, but there wasn't really anything that took our fancy, and it was very expensive, so no souvenirs from the Meissen factory for us.

This advert made us laugh, though it's dreadfully sexist.

After we left the factory the coach took us up to the Meissen hill, where the oldest part of the town was built. Yet more lovely buildings and some wonderful views.

This is a specialty of Meissen, a completely hollow cake, though it's more of a pastry consistency.

I went into one of the shops in the town and bought myself a woolly hat. At last, warm ears!

Whilst we were eating lunch on the boat, it left its moorings and carried on up river to Torgau, arriving in the early evening. We went for a walking tour before it got dark. We saw the monument to the meeting of Russian and US troops on 25th April 1945.

It's a pretty town with lots of lovely buildings.

Day 6

After breakfast we set off with a local guide for a Dresden city walking tour. This was a real highlight of our holiday. Dresden was almost flattened by allied bombing towards the end of the second World War, and then the main building during the communist era was soulless blocks of flats. Since the Wall came down in 1989 the citizens of Dresden have worked miracles, much with money from America and Great Britain. Now, there is very little damage left. Some of the buildings have been rebuilt in a modern style, some in a more traditional style, so that it really looks as if it has evolved over time. 

Unfortunately, my camera battery ran out after taking a few shots and I'd forgotten to take the spare battery with me. What a twerp!

Sadly, I don't have photographs of the Church of our Lady, but it was beautiful. It was almost completely flattened and the rebuilding was finished only a few years ago. I was really interested to see a cross of nails on the altar. When I was thirteen we moved to Coventry and I was lucky enough to attend the consecration of the new Cathedral and to be among the first group of youngsters to be confirmed there. Coventry was bombed during WWII and the old Cathedral was completely lost. A powerful symbol was created by a cross being made from nails found in the ruins. Similar crosses of nails were sent from Coventry to Kiel, Dresden and Berlin in the early years after the war as a symbol of peace and reconciliation.

In the afternoon I had a rest and then watched a lace walking demonstration late afternoon. Our evening event was really special. Three musicians from the Semper Opera House came to give us a recital, a mix of classical and light classical music. This was a real treat.

Day 5

We got up really early so that we could watch the ship set off for our first morning on the River Elbe. By six o'clock we were huddled against the cold and watching from the sun deck as the ship cast off and went through the first of two locks we would negotiate that day. We declined to join in a Qi Gong exercise class at seven o'clock and went down for breakfast. Then we were able to sit in the lounge for a while and watch the world go by.

Later in the morning Simon, our PD and Jana, his assistant gave us a German lesson, which was great fun since Simon spoke not a word of German and Jana was Hungarian!

At last, the sun came out and we were able to sit up on the sun deck, huddled up in coats, gloves, scarves and hats and relax. That's what we had been waiting for. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the only occasion when it was possible, as the rest of the time it was too wet and cold and windy. Hey ho!

By lunchtime we had crossed into Germany - there was a battered red buoy in the middle of the river which denoted the frontier. The crew went all out to entertain us with a Taste of Germany lunch. They decorated the reception area and the lounge and served up sausages, pork, sauerkraut, potato salad and other German goodies. And Milan banged out some very loud oompah oompah tunes on the piano.

By the end of lunch we had arrived in Bad Schandau, in Saxon Switzerland, and went on a visit to the Bastei rock formation, a fascinating National Park preserving what had been a fortified area in times gone by.

Can you imagine climbing up these steps?

We drank our cocktails whilst listening to the daily briefing and then went down to the dining room for another lovely dinner. During dinner the ship set off again, landing at Dresden in the early evening.

In the evening Simon had organised a music quiz, which had some really difficult questions. I was quite pleased with myself as I was the only person who knew the name of the baddies in The Yellow Submarine film - the Blue Meanies of course.

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.