Aug 19 - 21 On our way

Aug 19 
The journey begins today with a trip to Vancouver, where we will overnight and board our flights tomorrow afternoon.  As usual summer traffic on the ferries was heavy, but luckily we did not have to do a ferry wait.  What was unusual about today was the atmosphere - there is so much smoke in the air from all the fires that it looks like it is mid November with fog, rather than mid August.  The sun was just a big orange red orb shining through it all.  It i a little bit disorientating as you think it should be colder than it actually is.

Aug 20
It is finally here, the trip truly starts.  Another smokey day, I think even more so than yesterday.  Nice leisurely morning as our flight was not scheduled to leave until 2:45, but we were bout 40 minutes later than that.  Interesting turn of event when we made a stop in Calgary to pick up more passengers.  Because the continuation flight was a different flight number, everyone had to deplane with their luggage, etc and re-board again when the plane was ready to go - this led to a further 45 delay.

Our winged chariot for the journey

Interesting looking clouds on the way to Calgary

this way our taxiway guide on the Calgary tarmac - he was quite happy, giving us a bit of a show doing some fancy footwork as he walked alongside us - anything to take the boredom out of what is probably pretty mundane job, and  entertaining us in the meantime.

We were still about 4 hours out of Amsterdam as the sun started to rise - this was a line of haze on the horizon, I am thinking it is smoke from the European fires causing as much havoc as the ones we have in North America.

Strange pink cloud  center

another interesting cloud layer on our approach to Amsterdam

We arrived in Amsterdam, negotiated the massive Schiphol Airport (why is it Murphy's law that you will always deplane at the gate the furthest from the baggage collection???).  Then it was on to the train for a quick 20 min run into the city.  Trains are really convenient and easy to find at Schiphol.  We were going to get a taxi from the station to our hotel, but the taxi driver said, you are better off to walk, it is only 10 minutes (I secretly think he was looking for a bigger fare).  Note to self:  always doubt people who say it is only a short walk - 10 minutes turned into 30, shleping baggage across cobbles streets, dodging other baggage carrying visitors, doing the same thing, looking for their accommodation, having a general idea where it is, but not having the details firmly etched in their travel weary brains.

Bill went on a scouting mission to find our hotel, while I "supervised the luggage" at the side of the road - Our first Amsterdam houses

We made it to our hotel finally, checked in, went to have something to eat, then crashed into bed after about 26 hours of being up.  It was 4PM  Amsterdam time 7AM Campbell River time!   Going to take a day or two to get the body clock turned around.

Decisions, decisions

Paperwork for the cruise has arrived, now it's time to get serious about packing.  What to take, how much to take, etc., etc.  But the first decision, is how much luggage do I want to schlep around airports and train stations.  I have a choice between a few options - seems we have accumulated/amassed quite an assortment of luggage over the years.

My choices, 2 carry-on sized, one to be checked, and a personal sized to carry 

medical equipment and electronics.

Now comes the harder part, deciding just what to pack.  Lots of mix and match items, light weight because it is still going to be in the 70s where we are travelling.  There is a laundromat on board the ship, so a little laundry on sea days will keep everything looking and smelling fresh. 

Time for a new adventure

June 2018 we started talking about where we want to travel next.  A search of potential destinations brought us to a 19 day cruise from Southampton  to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.  It is one of those bucket list trips where we would get to see some of the middle east like Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and get to see the Pyramids at Giza.   We placed a deposit and started to explore a bit more.  After an indepth look at what we could anticipate, the less comfortable we felt with our decision - it appears that there is no guarantee that we will visit the key ports we wanted to see, and as the trip was 9 months away, who knows what could be happening in the middle east.  Wisdom said to follow our heads, not our hearts and cancel this cruise.   But you know that saying, whenever a door closes a window opens somewhere.  

Our window opened with the same cruise company.  This time it was a 19 day cruise from Rotterdam visiting Southampton, UK; Valencia, Spain; Taormina, Sicily: Venice, Italy; Sibenik and Dubrovnik in Croatia; Cagliari, Sardinia; Gibraltar, UK ending in Southampton UK.  Bonus, we could transfer our deposit to this new cruise, it was half the price of the first cruise, we visit more ports (8 in total) and it is in August and not January.  Gotta love short notice sales and having the ability to respond quickly.

Next to arrange flights.  Again the timing was right for good prices.  We have arranged to fly into Amsterdam, spend 3 nights exploring Amsterdam, then move on to Rotterdam where we will spend 2 nights.  At the end of our cruise, in order to get good return flights, we have to spend 4 days post cruise in the UK and fly out of Gatwick Airport.  We have chosen to spend our time in Brighton, instead of staying in London.  It is a bit more affordable, we can get there directly by train from Southampton, and we can get to Gatwick Airport directly by train.  If we want to travel in to London it is only about an hour away, again by train.  There is lots to explore in the area.  Our last night we will move to a Gatwick Airport hotel so that we do not have to factor travel into arriving on time the day of our flight out.    

We have discovered that the premium economy seats that are more desirable when travelling long distances have now increased in price so that they are about 3 times the cost of an economy seat, too much for this budget conscious booker.   But, not to be thwarted, I took a page from Air New Zealand - they have something called "Skycouch" seating, which is essentially 3 seats for 2 people.  So when booking I asked the question "can I do that on your airline?".  Why yes you can and it is reasonable to do.  You just pay the airfare portion for that 3rd seat, not the taxes, airport, and security charges.  So for our roundtrip, adding this extra seat came to $415 total as opposed to the $1077 we are each paying for our seats.   


By June 25 all is booked and we are set to leave in 8 weeks.