FIRST TRAVELBLOG FOR THE FALL OF 2022

The start of any extended trip can be stressful, with a myriad of last-minute preparations, airports to navigate, and a thousand and one little aggravations.  Nonetheless, things usually improve and the rewards of visiting new places keep us awaiting our next venture.

The start of this trip was no different.  As most of you know a robot gave Betty her second new knee in late July and we wondered if she would be ready to travel in September.  However, her surgeon gave approval, provided she flew business class (didn’t budget for that). 

The plan was to leave Halifax on Sunday, Sept. 25 and fly to Amsterdam as the first stop of a 43-day adventure.  That almost didn’t happen as Hurricane Fiona hit Nova Scotia on Friday night.  The eye of the storm passed directly over Antigonish, leading to the lowest barometric pressure ever recorded in Canada.  The winds peaked at 179 kph.  Lots of damage in Eastern Nova Scotia, but we escaped with minor damage to our yard and garden. 

So right on schedule we left Antigonish with downed trees and power lines and no expectation of having the lights on anytime soon (power did return to our house on Monday night).  After an uneventful flight to the world’s worst airport (Toronto) we sat on the tarmac for almost an hour as Toronto didn’t have enough ground crew to gate planes.  We almost missed our flight and were the last persons to board.  Our luggage, however, didn’t make it and we don’t know how we are going to manage without very many clothes or toiletries.

We stayed overnight in Amsterdam where it is very wet and cold.  In the evening we ventured out in the rain and walked to a “hole-in-the-wall” Italian restaurant where we had the comfort of great pastas washed down with copious but thin house wine.  Apparently, tipping is not common here.  I added a small tip (small enough to anger a Canadian waiter) to our bill.  Our server than asked us to stay and she then brought us two free glasses of limencello.  None of the other diners received this wonderful drink.

We made it to the ship Tuesday morning and it was a great feeling “to be home”.  The first thing was a lunch in the buffet.  Betty’s cane was immediately spotted and a server came to accompany her and carry her food.  The server remembered her from our last cruise on this ship (2019) and apologized that she couldn’t remember Betty’s name.

After lunch I made a dinner reservation at “Jacques”, the wonderful French restaurant.  Betty is hesitant to accompany because she is embarrassed that she will have to wear the same clothes that we she has been wearing for the past 3 days.   Assuming our luggage doesn’t miraculously arrive we may have a look for new clothes in the onboard shop.  We were told when we checked in that we had a special 25% discount because we arrived with no luggage.  For now the ship is providing toiletries.

Because this is our free cruise we don’t get the normal complementary wines.  Thus, I pre-ordered 14 bottles of wine for the next 14 nights.  I did this to get a discount.  Now I have the interesting challenge of matching my food order to the wine, rather than matching the wine to what I am eating.

Our washroom seems to be well equipped and the picture below suggests we won’t run out of toilet paper anytime soon.