Last Week - in Auxerre

One week tomorrow we will be off the boat and on a convoluted journey home. I've spent the last 2 days on the internet trying to organise trains and hotels. All are booked now - let's just hope that when we turn up at the station/hotel lobby everything goes smoothly. Things have not been made easier by the fact that Visa (CBA) cancelled our credit cards not long after we left home claiming that they had been 'compromised'. According to them 'someone' had tried to make a $1 dollar purchase over the internet using our cards, so hard luck to us. Who on earth would attempt a measly $1 puchase? I was particularly annoyed as I had made a point of personally visiting the bank before we left and had told them where we were going and for how long. Their emergency card replacement service (based in a call centre in a far off universe) was useless as they couldn't understand we were travelling on a boat, wouldn't deliver to a post office and if we wanted new cards we'd have to stay in a hotel. Try booking a hotel without a credit card. Is this a ruse to get us onto the expensive travel cards I wonder. They are Visa debit cards but they give you a rotten rate of exchange. Bank is a 4 letter word.

At the risk of sounding even more grumpy the weather has suddenly turned cold and wet. Nothing to be done about that. It most definitely is autumn now. For the first time in 5 months we didn't even go off the boat today. Still, despite the cold we have a million dollar view from the window - the river on one side and the  medieval town of Auxerre on the other. The river is flowing fast and the ducks pass downstream at amazing speed. How they manage to paddle upsteam beats me. Which brings me to a slight problem we have developed. Our bow thruster has died. This means that the boat is much less manoeuvrable. So far so good - the captain is being cautious and the crew has become super good at throwing ropes in locks. There's nothing like downgrading the technology to make you upgrade your skills. Only 8 locks to go......