We woke up to the worst weather of the trip. A heavy rain had set in and the weather forecast said it would be with us until the suspiciously exact time of 11.15.

We finished our packing and went for the last meal of the cruise, breakfast. The meals have been delicious - and huge. We had to vacate our cabin by 8.30 but we could stay in the lounge until our airport shuttle arrived at 12. Given the rain, that was looking like an attractive option.

But we were getting bored so we put our raincoats on and headed out to explore the canals and lane ways of the city.

The rain came and went a few times, finally disappearing completely about 11.15 as promised.

An hour and a half of wandering around Amsterdam had left us very foot weary so we returned to the ship one last time. And took one last selfie.

We rested in the lounge for an hour before our shuttle to the airport arrived, chatting with a few of the incoming passengers who were looking forward to their trip to Budapest and had no concept of the water levels in both the Rhine and the Danube.

We were dropped off at Schipol airport three hours before our flight. We took the opportunity to have a lunch of Dutch pancakes and do a bit of last minute souvenir hunting. Three hours seemed to drag, particularly as the incoming flight was late and then there was a "minor engineering" issue to be dealt with. We also had the least professional flight attendant we've ever seen who chatted to the woman in the row in front of us for the entire time the flight was boarding.

But it is only a 45 minute flight and then we had to deal with the madness that is Heathrow. In retrospect, we should have taken the train rather than flown and I offer that as a suggestion to anyone trying to get from Amsterdam to London.

We had booked a night in The George Inn in the little village of Lower Brailes in the north Cotswolds, just an hour and a half from Heathrow by car. We passed some lovely little villages and thatched roof cottages on the way.

The Inn, which dates back to 1350 is picture postcard perfect and the Chicken and Mushroom Pie they served us for dinner was absolutely delicious. However, our room is a bit dodgy in many ways - it appears they may have forgotten we had booked and when they realised this after I emailed them yesterday, we think they hurriedly put an extra room into service. Also, St George's Church across the road, also dating back to 1350, rings the bells for two minutes at 9pm, midnight, 4am and 6am, as well as the hourly chimes. The 9pm performance was a rendition of four verses of "Abide with me", arranged for slow church bells that don't quite have the right tone. We do not have great hopes for a good night's sleep.