Yes, we had adventures from the first day to the last day of our vacation. We chose to keep a positive attitude and to call the events “adventures” instead of asking “What else can go wrong?”
The first leg of our journey was our flight from St. Louis to Atlanta (June 27). It’s summer, so afternoon thunderstorms are not unusual. Tennessee, northern Mississippi, and Alabama were getting hit hard, so we had to fly due south along the Mississippi River until we passed the storms, then turn east to reach Atlanta instead of taking the diagonal. This added 30-40 minutes to our flight time, but we had no problem catching our connecting flight to London.
Paris was a very “adventurous” city for us. On Bastille Day (July 14), security was so tight that we needed a police escort to return to our hotel. Twice we had to wait on the sidewalk before continuing on our sightseeing way. One time we had the “opportunity” to observe a march for racial equality in Paris; the other time we watched hundreds of Scandinavian bicyclists pass and exchanged conjectures about the riders with other bystanders (July 16). Then there was the scary cab ride from our hotel to Charles DeGaulle Airport (July 17). As we were in the process of checking in at the airport, we were informed that we had to evacuate that area of the terminal. Someone had left untended luggage in the area. No bombs exploded.
When we arrived in Stockholm (July 17), we went to our pick-up point and discovered our name was not on the transfer list to be taken to the ship. They took us anyway and said everything could be straightened out after we were onboard. No problem–our documents proved our name should have been included. The same thing happened when we were arranging the shuttle pickup from Bergen to Reykjavik. We showed our documents again and all worked out well. An adventure, not a calamity, right?
When we were in St. Petersburg, we temporarily lost our tour group in the morning of the first day (July 20). At the end of the second day (July 21), high winds delayed our hydrofoil boarding and our return to the ship. The result was a late departure from the port, but the ship waited for all of us. No big deal, right?
We had another late departure from Berlin (July 25) because the train arrived late and all but eleven passengers from the ship were onboard the train for the various excursions of the day. The “welcome back” event when we finally arrived at the ship was so heartwarming, it might nullify the “adventure” status of the late arrival.
In Flåm (July 29), we were unable to take our much-anticipated “Norway in a Nutshell” railway excursion because of mud slides from a storm the previous night. We saw one of the most beautiful fjords in the world instead.
Flying from Bergen to Stavanger (July 31), I had an attack of claustrophobia in my tiny little personal airplane space. We changed seats.
When it was time to come home (August 2), Ted’s boarding pass printed very nicely, but mine didn’t. For some reason, “government regulations” required that I print my boarding pass at the airport. It printed fine at the airport
After only a few hours of sleep, we were up at 4:30 am for the 5:00 am shuttle to catch our 10:30 am flight home (August 3). Just before boarding, eleven other passengers and I were informed that we were randomly selected for an additional deep security check. Our flight was already delayed for two hours, and there was another delay waiting for some passengers. The cabin doors on the plane were being closed before Ted–and about 100 other passengers–got on. Everyone was onboard before takeoff–at 1:00 pm.
The fuel pump on our car died on our way home from dinner. We had it replaced with a new one that works fine.
Everything always turned out well, but it seems to be true that you have to be prepared to go with the flow. I would do it all again and I know Ted would too–even with the “adventures.”