I was aware of it taking place. I chose to distance myself so when it all goes tits up I cannot be blamed. Husbanding 101.
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That looks a lovely trip.
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Rome on Sunday. Looks to be mid 20âs. Be lovely that.
Gonna walk around and see some stuff, eat some food and drink some wine.
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Roma v Napoli the Sunday evening game if you fancy a walk up to the Olimpico.
Did the underground tour of the colleseum earlier. It was good.
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Just booked first long haul trip since October 2019.
Off for 14 days in Japan late Feb next year. Something like our 6th or 7th trip and canât wait.
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Have you had a lottery win to afford the flights?
Iâm off to Bangkok then Cambodia and North Thailand in December.
I booked in April with Austrian airlines, got a good fare and Iâm really looking forward to getting away from the gloom in London.
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Flights have certainly gone up a bit. Economy is manageable though and hotel rates are good if you avoid the US chains. Also 165 yen to the pound is as good as itâs been for many years. Going from one tanking economy to another is for once beneficial.
We are likely to spend at least 7 night in an apartment hotel with kitchen which provides options. The food halls in their department stores are extremely high quality and also excellent take away from restaurants. Will of course though enjoy plenty of meals out as well.
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Has anyone been on a Rhine cruise? Just looking at this one.
Thereâs 3 excursions included but were wondering about the other cities visited. Where the boat docked, relative to the city being visited , do they dock in the middle of nowhere?
If you want to visit Budapest, Vienna etc youâd better hope they donât dock on the Rhine.
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Thank you Graeme 
Short answer: no.
I quite fancied one until I saw one of the boats moored up. Probably in Köln if I had to guess. It wasnât in a great area and the vessel itself didnât look all that wonderful to me.
Obviously youâve got the inherent problems of a cruise in that a) youâre stuck with everybody else, no matter how annoying they are, and b) youâre a captive audience â relentless upsell.
That particular cruise might be interesting if youâre into your medieval history - the abbey at Melk is very famous, and Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned for ransom in DĂŒrnstein.
I went to a wedding in DĂŒrnstein - very chocolate-boxey. My main memories were that it was asparagus week when we were there, and I bumped into a young man who was absolutely battered on Chivas Regal at 11 in the morning. In general I think you have to make your own entertainment in DĂŒrnstein.
Oh yes, the Danube, the Wachau: lots of wine and wine tasting (selling).
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Thanks Guy. Sadly your only upselling point doesnât apply to as we are both tea total.
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Imma go ahead and assume thatâs a pun.
As mentioned, Cruise = rigidly locked to an artificial schedule and trapped in a confined space with hundreds of inescapable cunts. Imagine having to live and sleep on a giant National Express coach⊠And you canât even get pissed to numb the misery, but everyone else willâŠ
When I die and go to hell, it will be a lot like that.
Iâd find it frustrating as hell - thereâs so much to see in just Budapest alone, and so many fab restos [and bars, fwiw], &c, that you need days to start to scratch the surface.
Tick-list tourism suits some people, not sure thatâs you thoughâŠ
Visit these places by rail (European rail is WAY better than UK, even places like Hungary) - open-ended schedule - and do local river cruises if you wanna Pugwash it the fuck up for a bit 
ARRRRR!!!
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Absolutely this.
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Why not go Interrailing for a couple of weeks?
I would love to see you to convince my wife to even consider that, she thinks anything other than 5 *all inclusive is slumming it.