Rhine Getaway 2018: April 4

Day 1: Travel / Amsterdam

After a busy and amazing Florida Derby weekend with fifteen family and friends (click HERE to see the pics) we had one day, Monday to get our packing completed and have everything ready to go for our "Rhine Getaway" with Viking River Cruises. This will make the fifth time we've cruise with Viking...we have two more booked & paid for, and a deposit on an eighth. A big shout-out to the best travel agent in the universe, Nancy Nelson of Dream Vacations who has made so many of our dream adventures come true and continues to do so (as we now have "dream vacations" booked through late spring 2019!).

We left the house about 8 am and I have to comment that I've used Uber in many of my adventures and THE most worrisome are those in our own home town! Three times now we've used Uber to go Fort Lauderdale International Airport. It's literally three turns from out house to the terminal, but each time we have gone three DIFFERENT routes, NONE of which are direct and I've learned to allow plenty of time. One (at 4 in the morning asked if it would be ok to stop for gas...no...and today twice we were the cause of horn-honking "why'd you cut me off" driving). WOW. But knowing the history locally we were at the airport and through security with an hour and a half until we were scheduled to board. Smooth flight to Chicago where we had a four hour layover before our international flight.

The Seats!

Close family & friends know the story so I'll be brief, but it's worth posting for all time here on our website. When we booked our trip I told Nancy that I wanted to upgrade to the premium/economy plus flights. It's policy of Viking that you can't do this until your tickets are booked. This occured on January 5th, so I immediately booked eight "Economy Plus" seats. In early March I paid the bills, and was caught off guard when our credit card balance, which I'd just paid off had a HUGE credit balance. I can't be that bad in math, I am quite good in fact in math. There was a series of refunds from United Airlines. I called and gave them my reservation number to be greeted with the reply, "Yes, Mr. Love, we've refunded your seats and that should show up on your credit card in the next 24 hours." No, I said, I DO see the refund and I did NOT ask for a refund. I want my seats. "Yes, sir" she replied, "that refund will be completed within 24 hours." NO, I insisted, I did NOT want a refund I want my seats. She checks into it, "...there must have been a change in your reservation...." I said, "You don't know me but I save everything and the flights and times have NOT changed..." Would you like to re-book them? Yes. So I did. That weekend I noticed on my Viking booking page that the seats were not showing....maybe I'm not remembering it right but I thought the seat assignments DID show. Went to United....seats gone again. I called, again, and was told that on the international flight only non-reclining seats were available. NO. Insisted that I had reclining seats, not once but twice! Supervisor gets involved, I have my seats again. So for the last two weeks I've been checking literally every other day and as you can see.....we had them!

While in Chicago I was asking a question of the ticketing agent when one of the co-pilots comes up to the agent and says, "Hey, have you heard anything about the entire European Air Control system being down?" WHAT? He tells the agent that he heard it on a national radio news report. That can't be good! But that was not, fortunately the case and we landed an hour early.

We arrived an hour early and then the most amazing thing happened which "made the trip complete!" My adorable wife is a huge Pokemon fan and hunts them everywhere, all the time. I am not a participant but I've come to understand that there are unique Pokemon characters that can only be captured if you are in certain locations...some unique to Europe. Well, in order to hunt them your data plan must be on so we purchased a special international data plan so she could play and immediately off the plane after we got our bags she captured the premier Euro-only character! WHOOOO HOOOO!

After getting on the provided transportation luxury bus to take us to the ship the Viking rep gave us the "bad news".....our ship arrived this morning, empty and ALL our rooms were immediately ready for us upon our arrival! As we pulled away from the terminal our driver told us our drive would be a little longer than usual because authorities had discovered, just this week, an un-exploded World War II mine underneath the major highway connecting the airport to the city! After all these years? Oh my. We got to the ship without incident and our Viking Program Director, Diana, boarded at the dock to welcome us and SHE gave us the "further bad news" that not only were our rooms ready but that was because WE are the first cruise of the season! EVERYTHING on board all polished up to greet the first wave of tourists!

The Viking Idi - our home away from home for our adventure

After a light lunch on board we unpacked and went on a brief walking tour - which was a nice introduction to the city (we'd been here for three days when we were here at the end of our summer 2015 "Grand European" cruise on Viking). Highlights were the really amazing canals, and the narrowest house in Amsterdam (houses are built so narrow and have been since the 1600s) because taxes were based on the frontage facing the water....so they are narrow in front and expand to the back. Also, the leaning houses....because for over 400 years the houses sat on wooden pilings and as they rot the houses sink and lean one way or the other. But the two most interesting stories were......the "Observation Tower" behind the ship has three swings that are the highest swings in Europe where for those brave enough you can swing out over the open water! And the name of the city....came from when there was a dam built on the Amstel River. A village and then town grew around it and it became know as the Amstel Dam....which eventually was merged together to "Amsterdam!"