Premier Knight Crew  

Dusseldorf Boat Show

Well Pat and I braved the trip to Germany on Easyjet! We flew from Gatwick to Cologne/Bonn airport for the bargain price of £32 each. Then we took the hour and a half train ride to Dusseldorf where it was a very cold evening with ice on the ground. There short walk to Bob and Val's flat where we soon warmed up.

The following day we got up late and went for a walk along the River Rhine in a nearby town. We stopped for Cake and Coffee at a local shop where we replaced all lost calories.

On Friday evening we went to pub in the Old Town for a meal and then went to Doctor Jazz where the band played 70s rock music.

On Saturday we extracted ourselves as early as possible and got the tram to boat show. This was easier said than done, as the trams were full and we had to adopt the Japanese approach and jam ourselves on.

The boat show (http://www.boot.de) only cost €15 entrance which is cheaper than the UK. It was very large and impressive. I did take a look at the super yachts in the hope of winning the 100 million on the euro lottery but alas thet did not happen. We did see lots of boats that I had not seen before at other shows. Despite the crowds at the entrance the size of the show was so big that it was relatively easy to see the inside of many boats. There were ony short queues. My favorite was the Harmony 38.

When we got tired we sat down in some chair arranged for a lecture and found ourselves listing to a lecture on knots and splicing. But in German! My german was taxed to its limit as we tried the knots on the samples of rope handed out. Unter und Uber, Links und Rechts. The lecturer was promoting his book, which looked good and had nice diagrams, but I decide not to buy it because it was in German and I guess that was the only problem with the exhibition. My German was not up to it all.

We finally left at about 5pm and back to Val and Bobs for a nice meal.

Overall it was a very enjoyable trip. Thanks to Bob and Val for looking after us so well.