Nippy Sweetie

We've done Cunard dressy cruises and are finished with that sort of thing. However, on Viking cruises , ocean and river, we do change for dinner. I feel the staff has gone to a lot of trouble to present a nice dinner for us and that we should respect their efforts. We're not very dressed up, just showered and changed into a nicer outfit than the one we've worn all day. People can, of course, wear what they'd like and we can draw our own conclusions about them.

@Canal archiveand of course you'd need pocket squares to match your ties. Important to maintain standards!

My DGSs wore ties to school from age 5. Compulsory and smart.

Neither of us even possess any jeans. OH likes to wear a jacket at dinner. Just a linen one and with a collared shirt. I've recently weaned him off the tie habit.

@pontac I remember eating off the ship in a variety of places. They were fine by me and certainly better than on the ship. Just remembered a revolting dish of black pudding mixed through rice. Yuk.

I do love a menu! Thanks for posting. The food on our Douro cruise years ago was so dire that I actually complained. I got a sort of, 'There, there, pat on the head' from head office. I didn't expect much but thought it right to complain. I still remember some of the dishes. Yuk! Subsequent cruises have been fine.

Easy direct travel between Edinburgh and Kings Cross. No need to change. Quite quick too. Probably works out the same as flying by the time you add in getting to the airport in Edinburgh and getting to London from Heathrow.

Also in Europe just plain heavy relentless rain! It happens.

Drought can be a very big problem too!

We'd all like to know that!

It's hard to believe anyone could support the Russian offensive. I know Poland is very worried about the situation. Donald Tusk was talking about this in TV this week.

@CDNPolar I'm glad you were OK. We certainly won't be doing that particular cruise until the Russians have withdrawn completely from Ukraine. That won't be soon I sadly suspect.

Travel via Eurostar would be a nightmare for this UK based poster. We don't all live in London! Paris is a very convenient flight for us here. We were glad of our balcony cabin on the French river cruises and somewhat dreading the basement one for the first part of our next one. It was all that was available at time of booking

6 months out from our next river cruise and I've already booked all our excursions.

I was interested in the Passage to Eastern Europe cruise but didn't go ahead as it seemed to be entering a pretty nasty war zone. We have a lot of Ukrainians refugees here so it's a very point. Otherwise I've been to Budapest a few times. I'm surprised that nobody so far seems to have visited the famous Gellert baths. That is a fabulous experience. So beautiful and so unusual. Highly recommended.