On Thursday (17th) we started our way back down the Rhine, dropping into Andernach where we had an excursion to the walled town of Ahrweiler. Very pretty with a range of olden architectural styles. We had a German guide Toni who was very good. On the way we went through a village with loads of skulls and crossbones signs - evidently the villagers are demanding a bypass and capturing coaches in protest. They were happily taking a rest that day.

And so we came to Friday (18th) and time sadly to say goodbye to the people we had met. Vance our blue coach driver took us to the naff Maasmechelen shopping village. Hard to find anywhere to eat, and the kind of stores which pay the stars who advertise their wares more than the sweatshops making them. But it was a mandatory stop apparently. We stopped at another Novotel Hotel Novotel Valenciennes, a clone almost of the one at Lille. This time the gold coach with the late bookers fared much worse - the manager walked out apparently of their hotel because of having to deal with two coaches leaving a poor girl to do everything.

Saturday (19th) we had a relatively short trip to Calais after some frozen scrambled eggs for breakfast, took a long time to get through British passport control, then onto a big car ferry where one queued ages for food and then couldn’t find anywhere good to sit. Back to the Hythe interchanges and goodbye to Vance, I should have tipped him more or not at all, never judge these things well. Virginia and I found ourselves on a feeder coach with just six passengers on it! Absurd. The Satnav broke down and the driver had to get it exchanged at Birchanger services. He kindly dropped us within walking distance of our front door, meaning we didn’t need to get a taxi home!

Would we do this again? Not as it stands. The scenery was pretty, our fellow passengers agreeable, but I found it very hard to sleep (easier when the engines were going). The four days we spent getting to and from the cruise itself were tedious and arduous.