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A little sightseeing & sailing down the Rhine with 'Dame' Nikki French!

Yesterday we decided to give the dress rehearsals a miss as we knew our colleagues at www.esckaz.com would be blogging them and we also wanted to see the final tonight 'untarnished', as it were! Plus, we had a very important sailing date with a certain previous UK entrant and had to be at the boat by a certain time.

During the afternoon we wondered about the old town, ending up in MarktPlatz and by the River Rhine where we had lunch in one of the many riverside restaurants lining the promenade....

From Drew & Tam, MarktPlatz & Eurovision Boat Trip
From Drew & Tam, MarktPlatz & Eurovision Boat Trip
From Drew & Tam, MarktPlatz & Eurovision Boat Trip
From Drew & Tam, MarktPlatz & Eurovision Boat Trip
From Drew & Tam, MarktPlatz & Eurovision Boat Trip

After some pleasant sight seeing and a leisurely late lunch, we returned to the hotel to get ready for our Eurovision boat party starring Nikki French (UK 2000), Igor Cukrov (Croatia 2009) and Gruppe WIND (Germany 1985, 1987 and 1992).

On arrival at the quayside there was a long queue but it wasn't too long before it started moving.

From Drew & Tam, MarktPlatz & Eurovision Boat Trip

As we were walking down the steep gang plank, we spotted Nikki French on the top deck watching, so Drew waved maniacally at her and she waved excitedly back and took a photo of Drew waving!! Thinking no more of this, we made our way up the stairs to the upper deck only to find Nikki French running towards Drew, arms open and screaming .."it's been ages since I saw you" ... and gave a somewhat bemused Drew a huge hug and kiss... Drew decided to play along and hugged her back and said to her that she was so robbed in 2000 (she came 16th) to which she agreed and then she spied Tam and he got the same treatment of hugs and kisses. It was like greeting a long lost friend ... lord knows who she thought we were but we weren't complaining and we put it down to one of those quirky eurovision moments! We both thought though that she was such a lovely lady which became more apparent as the evening progressed as she mingled and spoke to guests and later sang to the audience as you will see later.

we settled down on the upper deck with some drinks with some fellow OGAE UK'ers and watched the Molvanians perform....

From Drew & Tam, MarktPlatz & Eurovision Boat Trip

The above performers are from the little fictional republic of molvania, somewhere in eastern europe, and they are desperate to enter Eurovision and turn up every year. Find out more info here http://www.molvania.com/eurovision.html but needless to say they were appalling, in a nice way of course!

After the Molvanians performed their seemingly never ending repertoire, it was with much relief that Igor Cukrov took to the stage. He was the Croatian entrant in 2009 with the song Lijepa Tena.

From Drew & Tam, MarktPlatz & Eurovision Boat Trip

Igor sang a medley of songs including his eurovision entry. As you can see, Igor was eagerly watched by the eurovision fan crowd as the boat pulled away to sail up and down the Dusseldorf part of the Rhine.

From Drew & Tam, MarktPlatz & Eurovision Boat Trip
From Drew & Tam, MarktPlatz & Eurovision Boat Trip
From Drew & Tam, MarktPlatz & Eurovision Boat Trip
From Drew & Tam, MarktPlatz & Eurovision Boat Trip

For some bizarre reason, every time the boat passed under one of the many bridges on the Rhine, the assembled crowd on the upper deck screamed whoops and waved frantically at anyone on the bridge! The whoops became more loud the more the drinks flowed and the evening went on!!

From Drew & Tam, MarktPlatz & Eurovision Boat Trip

As darkness fell, the crowds danced wildly to eurovision songs on the upper deck and screamed and waved at any passing boat or passers by on the river bank!

From Drew & Tam, MarktPlatz & Eurovision Boat Trip

The dancing got crazier and more up beat as the DJ played lots of eurovision entries and favourites, though seemingly loads from Greece, Turkey and Sweden, which left one wondering when they were going to play Blue? Also, weaving through the crowd looking for fans to interview were WDR TV crew (German TV) and at one point they interviewed some lads all bedecked in union jacks from head to toe who were standing right in front of us. Drew & Tam wished they had worn their kilts!

After lots of dancing, a tanoy announcement said that Nikki French would be performing on the lower deck main stage and people eagerly made their way down to watch the Grande Dame of Eurovision.

Nikki came on stage to whoops of delight from the crowd and she started by singing songs from her non eurovision repertoire including Total Eclipse of The Heart which she said had launched her Eurovision career! She really warmed the crowd up and it was obvious by their squeals of delight as she got us all singing along with her.... Nikki then went on to sing a fantastic medley of various past eurovision songs mainly from the UK to the obvious delightful screams from the large UK contingent. She also sang a medley of past winners including the english version of Apres Toi, Take Me To Your Heaven, Hallelujah and many others. The crowd went wild as she really knows how to work an audience! Not surprisingly she finished off by singing her own eurovision entry Don't Play That Song Again.... the crowd loved it.

From Drew & Tam, MarktPlatz & Eurovision Boat Trip
From Drew & Tam, MarktPlatz & Eurovision Boat Trip
From Drew & Tam, MarktPlatz & Eurovision Boat Trip

It was very clear that Nikki is a total eurovision fan and had a good knowledge of eurovision history! She wouldn't commit herself to one favourite for this year but she did mention she really liked Romania and wished Blue the best of luck! The crowd demanded an encore and she duly came on stage and gave a fabulous hi-nrg rendition of Bardo's 1982 UK entry 'One Step Further'.....

There was more dancing and then the German Gruppe Wind came on and, like Nicki, sang their eurovision entries and a medley of German eurovision songs which whipped the Germans and everyone else into a further frenzy.

At some point we noticed the boat had docked and so, somewhat danced out by now we headed for dry land and to the hotel as we didn't want too much of a hangover for the Eurovision final the next day.