This cruise went to Rouen, Amsterdam and Hamburg. In each port we stayed overnight. It was lovely cruising up the Seine to Rouen and also the Elbe into Hamburg. Very interesting and enjoyable. It was our first time on the Black Watch and although there were some things we liked, she really is getting very shabby. There were holes in the teak decks, the varnished rails were in dire need of varnish and the windows throughout the ship were very dirty. As the weather was not very warm, we obviously spent some time inside apart from when we were ashore.

The food was fairly good, but having been on the Balmoral in January, the menus were exactly the same.

At 67 I felt young. the majority of passengers were older than me. although I like the smaller ships, Black Watch felt rather too small for me.