Last day in London

For our last day in London, we had tickets for Buckingham Palace at 9.30 so had an early start in mind, what we didn't bargain on was the fire alarm in the hotel going off at 6.40. Also big problems on the SouthWest train line so with Tan's exceptional knowledge of London public transport she came up with a bus across to Wimbledon and then the District line to Victoria and shank's pony from there.we arrived with ten minutes to spare.

Buckingham Palace was fantastic. Beautiful opulent rooms and one of the best audio guides I have used. We couldn't take pictures inside but here are a couple of the back of the Palace as we walked through the gardens.

Then off to see the Emirates cable car which gave us fantastic views of the Thames barrage, Greenwich and the cityscape including the Gherkin :)

O2 stadium

The Gherkin 

Prague

Well we are almost at the end of our trip and have reached Prague. We bussed across from Nuremberg, a four hour trip made longer by the fact that the tour guide was not interested in providing much commentary :(

Prague is a fantastic city, lots of old buildings and a word of warning very busy during peak tourist season! 

First stop was Prague castle

View from the castle 

Sculptures near the river 

Old town and river 

Charles Bridge 

Nuremberg

On the way to Prague we stopped at Nuremberg. First visit was the Zeppelin Grounds which were constructed for Hitler's propaganda parades. They were huge!

We also saw the colosseum style Congress building that was supposed to hold a million people when it was finished. It is part of the Documenation Centre complex where the Third Reich kept their records.

Gorgeous  warm day in the city, we did a lot of walking through the old town...

Bamberg - last stop on the cruise

Today we finally reached Bamberg which is the end of the cruising part of the trip. Tomorrow we will be off by bus to Prague via Nuremberg. We have really enjoyed the cruise! By the way if anyone from work is reading this, we are not coming back to reality lol.

Bamberg is a very pretty town and is known as the Venice of the East because of its waterways ...

The inevitable cathedral

Some other pikkies of the buildings

We took an optional excursion this afternoon which involved beer tasting including a smoky beer - not my cup of tea but each to their own...

Rothenburg

Yesterday we went up the "Romantic Road" to Rothenberg, another walled city.

There was a lovely Christmas Shop....

Some of the towers and walls of the city 

We walked around part of the wall

Koblenz to Rudesheim on the Rhine

Today was a lazy day for us. We have reached the Rhine and have seen most of the major tourism spots at least once, so we had a sleep in and spent the day on board watching the world go by.  This statue is a victory statue erected after the Germans beat the French in 1871 and stands in Koblenz at the junction of the Moselle and Rhine rivers. 

 In truly magnanimous style, the German statue was erected so that the horse's bum faces France. :)

Once we reached the Rhine we sat up on the sundeck and watched the vineyards and castles roll by...

An enjoyable afternoon :)

Moselle scenery

Some of the many pictures that I took along the Moselle:

This was the last lock  that we went through- it was very windy and there was a lot of water going over the spillway next to us