The SAS once tailed me in Bratislava – now it’s Americans: TV presenter John Craven drifts down the Danube – and memory lane 

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It’s safe to say that as I wandered the sunlit streets of Bratislava I wasn’t being stalked by the SAS – unlike the last time I was there. 

When I did glance over my shoulder (just in case!) on my recent visit to the handsome capital of Slovakia, the only people following me were American members of our tour group.

Not that I had any inkling, back in the early 1990s, that men from the elite special forces unit were lurking in the shadows. 

Capital trip: Bratislava (pictured) was one of the stops on John's cruise down the Danube

That was revealed only years later during a chance encounter in an English pub. I was enjoying a pint when a stranger approached with an intriguing story. 

‘I was with the SAS on a training exercise in Slovakia when our captain said he’d spotted you in the Forum Hotel,’ he said. ‘Our orders were to tail you for a couple of days and report back on your movements as part of the exercise.’

Had he been tailing me this time, he would have discovered that I arrived in Bratislava from Budapest along the Danube on the river boat AmaSonata.

I joined a tour of the old city, whose winding streets and 18th Century houses contrast sharply with brutal Soviet-era buildings, in particular the ghastly National Gallery.

John with the AmaSonata, which has a sun deck running from stern to bow, 82 staterooms, an elegant restaurant and the reservation-only Chef’s Table at the stern

Then my wife and I did a bit of shopping and bought ice creams. How about that, spymasters?

The AmaSonata was our floating luxury hotel for two weeks as we progressed at a stately pace from Budapest to Amsterdam across Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands, along three rivers, the Danube, Main and Rhine, with stops in Vienna, Cologne and many romantic little towns along the way.

Apart from a Welsh couple, we were the only British passengers – almost everyone else was American, which produced the uncanny feeling at times that we could be on the Mississippi. 

I even had steak for breakfast one morning – how American can you get?

Our spacious stateroom had a comfy bed, shower room and balcony where we could sit and watch the world sail by. 

St Stephen’s in Passau has the world’s biggest church organ with 11,774 pipes and a bishop who looks like George Clooney

The Swiss-registered AmaSonata is new and big, with a sun deck running from stern to bow, 82 staterooms, an elegant restaurant and the reservation-only Chef’s Table at the stern.

I never expected to be sipping apricot brandy in a vineyard along Austria’s stunning Wachau Valley at 9.30 in the morning, but it happened during one of the many ‘culinary delights’ tours. 

In the 19th Century, the vines along the valley were devastated by disease, so farmers planted apricots. Now there are 100,000 trees. As well as the brandy we sampled apricot liqueur, jam and chutney.

Another culinary stop was Nuremberg in Germany, the country’s gingerbread capital. 

Locals call it lebkuchen and 70 million cakes are baked there every year, covered in chocolate or sugar. I had one in a shop that sells only gingerbread and it was scrumptious.

The gingerbread (right) and apricot brandy (left) John sampled during his trip on the AmaSonata

We learned a great deal about central European history but it’s the unusual discoveries that stay in the mind. 

In the Wurzburg Residence palace, Tiepolo painted a ceiling fresco which includes a spaniel that somehow gets older and fatter as you walk past. 

St Stephen’s Cathedral in Passau has the world’s biggest church organ with 11,774 pipes and a bishop who looks like George Clooney.

I can’t imagine a more informative, peaceful holiday. After two weeks we sailed majestically across the flatlands of the Netherlands and into Amsterdam. Now I’d like to do the whole trip again, in the opposite direction.