Our On-Again, Off-Again, On-Again, Off-Again, On-Again European River Cruise

As I explained in an earlier post, we had to cancel our anniversary trip to Europe when Dan had his heart attack, back in April. The good news is that he is doing great, although his doctors are still prescribing a lot of medications, which sometimes give him some grief.

Dan was determined that we take this trip at some point during our anniversary year, and his doctor gave him the all-clear to do so. Our travel agent, Doniece, worked her tail off to get us onto another cruise, and was able to book us for a September 9 sailing, going the same route we had originally scheduled - Amsterdam to Budapest. With our airline tickets from Austin to London and on to Amsterdam in hand for September 8, we were feeling pretty confident that all was in order, for the second time.

Then came Friday, August 23, sixteen days prior to our departure. We were notified by British Airlines that our flight had been canceled, due to a pilot's strike. The strike was slated for only three days in September -- the 9th, 10th and 27th. Although our flight was departing on the 8th, it flew over-night, so it would be the 9th before we arrived in London. Since it was late on Friday when we learned this, Doniece wasn't able to start trying to re-book us until Monday. It was a long and uneasy weekend for us, but on Monday Doniece called to tell us she could book us to leave two days earlier, on the 6th. That would give us a couple extra days in Amsterdam before the Scenic Ruby sailed. We snapped that up.

So, on Friday, September 6, our good friends, Kay and Andy, picked us up from our house at noon and drove us to Austin, where we had lunch together at Hyde Park restaurant. There was still a lot of time, so we made another stop at Amy's Ice Cream, where Dan and Andy enjoyed dessert. Kay and I browsed through a near-by home decor shop.

Once we made it to the Austin airport, getting through security was pretty easy. Because we were flying business class, we were able to use the "Admiral's Lounge" to wait for boarding.

Once we boarded, we sat on the runway for longer than normal. Finally an announcement came that said there was a mechanical problem, but that it should be remedied soon. But it wasn't. Later we learned that there was a problem with one of the brakes, and that they were trying to fix it. After two hours, another announcement came ... "This plane has 16 brakes, and only one of them is having a problem. A decision has been made to disable that brake, and proceed with take-off, since 15 brakes are more than adequate." And so we flew to London with 15 brakes. The two hour delay would leave us scrambling at Heathrow, but we were happy to be on our way, at last, with or without the 16th brake!

Heathrow was a mad-house. Because our arrival terminal and departure terminal were not the same, we had to go through security screening again. We finally got to our gate after everyone else had boarded, but we made it on.

Sadly, our luggage did not make it, so when we got to Amsterdam, we had to file some paperwork about missing luggage. They told us the luggage would be delivered to us at our hotel soon, since it was coming on a flight just a half-hour behind ours. But it was midnight before it arrived, and we were very tired and ready for bed by that time.

I will be posting photos and narrative about our different ports of call, as time allows, starting with Amsterdam.

CLICK HERE NEXT (AMSTERDAM)