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Somehow or another we have managed to be married for 30 years (despite being barely over 30 ourselves). Not to mention dating for another 5 before that. Suffice it to say we’ve known each other our entire adult lives and then some. So when our anniversary rolled around, it seemed appropriate that we should celebrate it with a grand gesture. We like to celebrate big events by taking major trips (e.g. going to Africa for our 50th birthdays). We couldn’t think of any reason not to do that for our 30th as well.
We had talked about going to Thailand or Vietnam (and still want to) but my back has been giving me some trouble for a number of years now and I was worried about taking a trip that ambitious in case it flared up. So, what to do? Marion found the solution. We could take a boat cruise on the rivers of Europe. Apparently that’s a ‘thing’ (I had no idea). And there are all sorts of places you can go on rivers and canals. The idea being, we get on the boat, and it takes us where we need to go. We only have to unpack once (so no schlepping of suitcases to risk back injury). And worst case, if I can’t walk comfortably, I can at least lie on the bed and watch the scenery go by the window.
There were many to choose from but the one we settled on was the “Grand Tour of Europe” from Viking Cruises. That sounded pretty exciting. We’d catch a ship in Amsterdam, sail up the Rhine into Germany, take a canal to the Danube, and sail down the Danube through Austria, Slovakia and Hungary. Most days there’s a stop to get out and tour an ancient city or a castle or other point of interest. It all sounded quite magical and in fact, it really didn’t seem ‘real’ until we were packing the suitcases.
We handed over a giant pile of money, then promptly forgot about it for a while. At least I did. We had booked a year early (much cheaper). There was always this vague sense in my mind that we were going and at some point we’d need to get ourselves organized. But it was far enough away and enough other things were going on, that I didn’t think about it much.
And so, the rest of 2013 passed into history as did the first 5 months of 2014. About a month or so before we were going to go, it finally hit me. This was really going to happen and whether I was prepared or not, we were going to get on a plane and go. So maybe it was time to get prepared.
The biggest issue (as always) was finding someone to take care of the cats. We had a couple of failed solutions and were starting to get worried but Daniel’s friends Megan and Jeremy came through for us and that problem was solved.
The next big problem was dealing with credit cards and money. We were warned that these days our usual ATM and credit cards would not work since Europe now requires a chip in the card. Our bank doesn’t have them for ATM cards. My visa card has the chip since it was replaced recently. Marion’s (same card and number) doesn’t. So I called to see if we could get new cards. They said they would send them but time passed and passed and nothing happened. So I tried our other credit cards. Well they supported chips, but not unless you had ‘premium’ cards. And for some amount of money that I don’t remember, we could upgrade. Thanks but no.
Finally the cards we were waiting for showed up about 2 days before we were going to leave. So ok, great. I call to activate them and it fails. The support lady tells me that there’s been some kind of potential security breach and they are going to issue us new cards. Well, that’s great except we’re leaving the country in a few days. Well, don’t worry, your old cards will still work until July 8th (which happens to be the day we get back). But you can’t use them at ATM machines or online. That sounded a bit dicey but we didn’t have a lot of choice.
Finally, Marion found a service where you can put cash on a debit card (with a chip) and use it as a credit card or ATM card with a PIN. So we put a pile of money on it and that should be that. (As it turned out, it worked, but they charged an *outrageous* amount of money to get the money back off of it.)
The next problem was packing. We tried to keep the quantities down and were moderately successful. But the process was funny. We each staged in a separate room. I started with all the electronics – PC, camera gear, SD card readers and the like. Marion started with food. Priorities.
The bags ended up being heavy (no surprise) but under weight (barely). My backpack carry on (of course) weighed a ton as usual. But I won’t have to carry it far.
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