Most of us had advanced our clocks so we made breakfast before reboarding our blue coach. The plates for breakfast were rectangular with 3 sections, the scrambled eggs didn’t taste quite right to me. We crossed from France into Belgium, an event marked by a sign with 12 stars and mobile phones receiving welcome texts as they changed to cells in a new country. I did manage to doze on the coach making up some sleep, despite the roads in Belgium being less well maintained. Stopped at a smelly and child infested services in Belgium (toilets free anyway) before resuming our odyssey to Germany. We stopped again to allow the gold coach to get to the boat first, and by now the sun was in evidence!

This second stop near Cologne allowed the Zoll (German road tax officers) to pounce and check we were legal. Apparently an accountant of National Holidays bungled paying the tax, and the German Zoll impounded a coach leaving drivers and passengers high and dry!

We boarded the MV Virginia safely, not being given the cabin we had booked. Cabin not very wide, twin beds. At lunchtime had to make a big decision - what table should we sit at? Where we choose to sit would be where we sat for all the meals which followed. A decision I felt reluctant to make! We sat with Mary and Raymond and Brenda and Dennis who were nice and friendly people, in fact everyone on the cruise was pleasant. Everyone apart from Virginia and I seemed to be retired. I knocked over my water that lunchtime but managed to avoid a repeat performance. The restaurant was on the lowest deck and weirdly the bottom of the windows was at the ship’s waterline. It would have freaked me out to have a cabin on that deck!

After lunch we wandered to see the Dom (cathedral) in Cologne, a Catholic church with stylish modern looking stained glass and arrays of hard to photograph flickering candles. The outside of the Dom looks dark and gothic and massive. We also saw a curious artificial stream with stepping stones in concrete, and some of old style Cologne where the outside cafes were putting blankets on chairs so patrons could wrap up if they felt cold!

Dinner was four courses, the main having chicory smothered in cheese sauce, I guessed leek and others aubergine. Again to my surprise at certain times beer and wine and soft drinks were free on the ship, including dinner time. Entertainment in the lounge bar area was a well-built guy playing an electronic keyboard - a medley of Sinatra and other similar tunes. He was Eastern European as were a lot of the staff on the boat.