This is a trip I've wanted to take for a long time. I taught about the Rhine in my German classes and even cruised a bit of the Middle Rhine with students and also with my husband K on the Luther tour. I was quite insistent that it had to be from where it is navigable to the Netherlands. Go with the flow, you know.
On that Luther tour, we met Donn C, who travels a lot. We became Facebook friends and when I saw him on a river cruise, I messaged him to ask what line. AmaWaterways came the reply. He really liked the company.
This trip was to have happened in 2021, but when Covid messed up our 2020 Holland America cruise,we had to keep moving things to succeeding years. We finally got to take the Holland America cruise last year.
I attended a couple of virtual travel shows from AAA and went to an in-person one for AmaWaterways. Most people think of Viking, when they hear river cruise. However, Viking stated that their average age for passengers was 50. I felt that I could not do that to our favorite traveling companion, our older daughter J, who would turn 37 on this trip. So, Ama it was. I later found out that several women in my water aerobics class had sailed with Ama and loved it.
When choosing which cruise to take, we knew that we wanted the land extension. The cruise we finally settled on was called "Rhine and Moselle Delights". (That's the last time you'll see me spell Mosel that way. I write it the German way and have trouble remembering not to put Rhein.) We went with the four-day Switzerland pre-cruise extension and added two days after the cruise in Amsterdam. We wanted to go to Zaanse Schans, which was offered as an extension in Amsterdam on a lot of other cruises. We had Ama book our flights, so that they would handle any problems that arose. That turned out to be good, when J's flight home was canceled and Delta booked her on a flight that would get into Dulles way too late for the subway to take her home. Ama got her a new flight home that went through Detroit.
Today, we were to fly out. However, the first flight was booked for mid afternoon. So, to keep a bit calmer, I went to water aerobics at 8:30. Some of them were surprised to see me, but understood the need to loosened up before sitting so long. I was showered and more than ready, when our ride to the airport arrived at 11:50.
Kevin G dropped us at OIA at 12:30. We had done most of the check in work at home. So, checking in and dropping the bags took only 10 minutes.
We went to Firehouse Subs for lunch. I got a Hook and Ladder sandwich ($9.99), chips ($1.99), and a Coke Zero ($3.29). For some reason, I did not write down what my husband K had.
We headed for the TSA pre-check line at 1:35. We were finished with that at 1:41. As always, we were grateful for that.
When we got out to Gate 73, we found that all of the seats were taken. So, at 1:55, we seated ourselves near the movie screen at Gate 71 and settled in to read.
3:22 pm found us seated in 21 D and E on Delta flight DL1620 to JFK. We had been in one of the last groups to board. So, the plane pushed back from the gate just 10 minutes later. We took off at 3:57.
Before the plane even left the gate, I started watching 80 for Brady. It's not that I'm a fan of his, but I am a fan of the women in that movie and I think we should support women of a certain age who are still acting. No one cares if a guy gets older; he continues to be a box office draw. Women, however, are often shut out, when they reach a certain age. I enjoyed the movie.
I noticed that the seat-back entertainment had a movie I'd wanted to see, Everything Everywhere All at Once. I started watching it, even though I knew that I could not finish it on this flight. We landed at 6:07 with 38 minutes to go on the movie.
It took seven minutes for the plane to reach Gate B55. It took another 14 minutes for us to get off the plane. We then began out search for the next gate. At 6:45, we were seated at Gate B28. Three minutes later, they changed the gate to B26. So, we moved there. K decided to eat, because he wanted to go to sleep right away on the plane.
It was 7:07, when J arrived. She decided we needed a snack. So, we went and found PopCorners, which are really good.
We'd discovered recently that they'd changed the planned plane for this trip. We'd picked seats on the left with J in front of us. They were still configured that way, but now, my seat was right next to the restroom. I knew I couldn't sleep with people coming and going all night. J figured she wouldn't sleep anyway and she really likes legroom. So, she decided to stick with her assigned seat. I changed mine and K's to be farther away from the restroom.
As we boarded the plane, I noticed a nice sunset over the plane next to ours.
At 7:50, K and I were seated in 47 F and G on DL52 to Zürich. At 8:21, when I was able to resume Everything Everywhere All at Once, we were still at the gate. The plane finally pushed back at 8:28, but then it paused for a while. Around 8:35, we finally began to taxi and we took off at 8:55.
At 9:40, they came around with dinner, but K had already closed up shop for the night. So, I ate honey chicken with curry rice alone. For the life of me, I don't know why this photo is so red.
My movie was finished at 10:45 and I tried for sleep. I did manage to fall asleep, which surprised me. I slept until 2, and then just dozed. When I went back to the restroom, a flight attendant was seated along the path and told me there were snacks in the back. I picked up what I thought was another of the desert squares, but it turned out to be a granola with nuts and coconut. I saved it for K.
My phone claimed that I'd walked 2 miles today and took 6,020 steps. And our adventure has begun!
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