I feel ecstatic to be back, after a month-long absence in Sydney!
My family of four had embarked on two cruises to Europe. We also visited a few countries before and in between the cruises from Venice and Savona, Italy. We visited various ports in around 10 countries. We thoroughly had a wonderful time despite the volcanic ash dramas getting our London and Paris trips cancelled.
As new threats of closures in European airports loom, this writer wants to share with you our family’s insights on Europe and how Filipinos have truly become GLOBAL CITIZENS of high calibre! This is of course based on our experiences and observations.
The length of my travelogue may have to be broken down into 2 or 3 parts, so sit back and enjoy our tales of woe, trials and triumphs during our Middle Eastern and European adventure. Alternatively, you can look for me in my Facebook page and join me there to see selected photos of our trips as organised by Costa Travel and Tours.
We got stranded, first in Abu Dhabi then in Dubai before the start of our cruises. As luck would have it, I booked with ETIHAD Airways and was extremely glad I did! The cost of internet/WIFI fees in the cruise ships was terribly expensive. Some were as high as 50 Euro cents so we got charged more than 50 Euros for just very short periods. Surprisingly, in smaller hotels in Celle Ligure (near Savona, Italy) we had FREE unlimited internet services!
For four glorious days, we were billeted in 4-star hotels and in a resort frequented by the Arab royalties. All these for free! Lunches and dinners were mostly gourmet buffets. They had the best facilities and even included a bus trip to the amazing modern sights of Dubai like the Al Jumeria Hotel, and The Burj, which is currently the tallest skyscraper in the world. We were also brought to the Atlantis, a humongous complex opened by Kylie Minogue only a few months ago. I heard they charge as much as $1 million dollars a night. We also saw the Mall of Emirates, and other notable Dubai attractions. The tour was provided free of charge!
When I booked the cruises a year ago, I thought that a visit to Dubai was far-fetched. My husband was adamant he didn’t want to visit the United Arab Emirates and wanted to concentrate on Europe. He has just recovered from skin cancer and wanted to avoid being exposed to extremely hot weather.
However, the joke was on my hubby Dave. As I said, we were stranded there for four days! At first, I thought my world has crumbled as my year-long plan seemingly was fading with the ashes that were covering much of Northern Europe at the commencement of our trip!
On April 16, around three in the morning, I woke up opening the Etihad website and discovering to my dismay that our Abu Dhabi to London flight was cancelled! I looked again and waited a few seconds to see if it was just technical error.
After a few more minutes of waiting, I checked again. Then I recalled what my old high school mate was warning me about the night before. She said Heathrow Airport in London was closed and that many flights in other airports had been cancelled.
I did check the flights that time. Everything seemed fine and only the Manchester flights were cancelled. I saw the flights from the United States were still going on as scheduled so, being generally an optimist (which hubby will dispute) I soldiered on and hoped for the best.
Alas, it wasn’t meant to be! The volcanic ash from the eruption of the
Icelandic volcano had truly spoiled our holiday plans! (Part 2 next issue)