We also spent a lovely day at the Frankfurt Botanical Garden (one of the oldest in Europe) looking at animatronic dinosaurs and the magical palm houses and the red squirrel who found us, and the grotto with a fountain and this bit - the Goethe Garten . . . After telling the man who ran the hotel that we plain weren't going to pay £100 for two loads of washing the maids did for us as a favour, we all headed off to the airport in a taxi. It was driven by a homeopathic doctor from Pakistan (daddy said he thought he might have meant homicidal because he drove a bit quickly) to catch our Royal Brunei flight to Bandar Seri Begawan. Which was a bit weird as well, because the Germans clearly thought that we were all suspects to be getting on a Muslim airline going to a Muslim country so they x-rayed everything and everybody very, very slowly. Except for the luggage of the poor man who dropped his carry-on bottle of schnapps just before checking in. He knew the flight was teetotal and wasn't very happy, even though mummy put a band-aid on his cut finger for him to stop him dripping all over the departure lounge. But once we were all on the plane and settling-in in business class it all seemed like a funny story once again . . .

Click here for what happened next:

Although mummy seemed to be particularly fond of the beds too . . .

Before singing in the rain with Daddy on the way to the pizzeria round the corner . . .

And decided on a kip first . . .

It was just as well I was in a good mood . . .

Then after a mad day where the cruise boat just chucked all the old people on to a bus and mummy and daddy had to carry all their stuff as well as mine around Dusseldorf Hauptbahnhof looking for our train to Frankfurt . . . followed by lugging it up all four floors of the West End Hotel . . .there it was - the financial capital of Europe at my mercy!

Some days we were in France and some days we were in Germany - often depending on which side of the river we moored! This is a French girl I buddied up with a for a minute or two - she wore cute sunnies as well . . .

. . we even got to strech our legs regularly - like here at Koln cathedral . . . 

And I even got given pressies by rich old ladies who took a shine to me. Which, since there was no-one else under 300 on board (except M & D of course) made perfect sense.

and the sunsets as we tied up for the night . . . 

and a glass of wine grown right there on the riverbanks . .  

. . . the sights . . . 

and we all enjoyed the company . . . 

Daddy liked not having to move or get up or carry bags . . . 

Mummy liked the locks . . . 

Pasha preferred the modern sights . . . 

. . or to have dinner with our new friends Eleanor and Winifred . . . Both of whom were proud Scots, and one had been in the diplomatic service by marriage and at Bletchley Park with Daddy's mummy!  

. . . or washing line . . . 

or flooded channel . . . 

. . . or groovy castle . . . 

or another picture postcard village to float past . . 

. . . or morning tea . .  

And waiting for breakfast . . . 

And here we are after a night's rest and re-bruising, rattling down with the flood and flying a red flag of warning to oncoming traffic . . .

And this is me checking out the fold-down bunks for suitability and comfort . . . 

And this is me making a starring appearance in my first cruise cabin . . . 

This is the staff lined up and waiting to welcome us on board at the purser's office (funny - they weren't so friendly at the end of the trip after their tips had been collected).  

There it is! And our boat too . . . 

So, here we are in the coach hammering down the autobahn wondering where the river got to . . .