Well I guess the title was a little premature! The plan was to leave Ottawa Sunday evening to fly to Toronto, then catch a flight to Hong Kong at 2AM the next morning. We’d arrive in Hong Kong around 4AM (local time) the next day then catch an 8AM flight to Tokyo and spend the night in a hotel before boarding the cruise at 3PM.

Reality: We got to Toronto, went to the lounge then down to board the flight, departure time came and went. We then suffered through a number of announcements that basically said we don’t know whats going on, we’ll make another announcement in 30 minutes. Finally at 530AM they canceled the flight! We had to then go to baggage, pickup our bags and trek through most of Toronto airport to get vouchers for hotels and food. I tried in vain to make changes over the phone with Cathay Pacific only to be told to contact staff at the airport. These staff had either gone home or had conveniently disappeared from sight.

We checked into the hotel, and tried to get some rest, but my brain was whirring at supersonic speed trying to work out alternate plans. Just before 10AM I got a message saying that the flight would depart at 1030PM. That was sort of good news, BUT we’d lost our 24 hour buffer in Japan. We would arrive at the airport, about an hour before the cruise departed! This wouldn’t work as it was an hour from the airport to the cruise terminal. There were no earlier flights available.

So, what do we do? Scrap the whole thing, go home and hope the insurance pays out OR find some cunning plan to rescue the vacation. I contacted our cruise agent and she suggested that we could possibly forgo the first night of the cruise and meet the ship at the first port of call. This would at least salvage most of the trip. The first port is about 4 hours from the airport by train, so rather than get depressed about the whole thing maybe we could turn it into an adventure.

Well the previous paragraph was written about 7 hours ago, we still have had no response from Princess on whether we are allowed to join the ship at the next port. The problem seems to be that the port in question uses tenders rather than the ship mooring to a dock. A number of requests have been eMailed by Princess to the ship, but so far no response.

We are now at the point where we have about an hour to make the decision whether to fly or not. If we don’t receive a positive response from Princess in that time frame, it’s back home!

I finally managed to get a little more information from Princess. There was a reason that they had not received the go-ahead for our pickup. Someone planted a large typhoon off the coast of Japan. It was quite possible that sea conditions would not be safe for tender operations to and from the shore. In addition, there was doubt that the ship would follow it’s original itinerary if the typhoon got in the way!!

With all that had been going against us so far the the typhoon was the final nail in the coffin, some one somewhere was telling us not to go!! Cruise was canceled, flights were canceled and we bought ticket back to Ottawa!

The only silver lining so far is that I have trip interruption / cancellation insurance, and after talking to the broker we will likely get a refund on both the cruise and the flights PLUS we should also get $1000 each in compensation from the airline, as it was a technical fault on the aircraft that caused the problem. That cause is specifically mentioned in Cathay’s Terms and Conditions as a valid reason for compensation! We’ll wait and see on that one!

All things being equal,we’ll be heading off to Scandinavia and England in June.

This is a combined couple of days as I managed to fall behind with all the hectic social engagements.

Yesterday we headed off (in the rain, again) to an area that neither Lyn nor I had been before. The destination town was Pitlochry, with a stop at a power dam and a Nature area at Killie Crankie (I did NOT invent that name) Although wet at times, the weather would clear revealing some stunning scenery. As usual, mostly pictures to follow

On our way home we stopped at another dam at Loch Laggan. This dam was built almost 100 years ago by the British Aluminium Company. The water from the dam is sent 5 miles through underground tunnels to another holding loch. From there it is sent via a 30 mile tunnel through the mountains to the Aluminium plant in Fort William. The pipes you can see in the picture are the overflow pipes should the loch get too full of water.

Our next stop was the grave yard at Cille Choirill, where Lyn’s parents are buried. We were greeted at the entrance by a herd of “Heeland Coos”

We then headed back to the house for our final night.

Today we took a scenic drive up to Inverness to meet up with Lyn’s brother and to do some final shopping. It was then off to the airport hotel in preparation for an early morning flight to Amsterdam, then home to Canada.

WRAP UP

For a number of reasons this was not one of our more successful trips. I was sick before we left, and was still pretty weak. Lyn was also sick and had a cough that would not go away. The week on the boat was good (almost!), but unfortunately the tours were nowhere as good as the last Danube trip we had. We got the feeling they were always scrambling to find something to show us. What we did see was mostly a rebuild of the area after the fall of communism. The trips weren’t a total disaster, but had we done this trip first, it may well have put us off doing the other part of the Danube. The last couple of days of the cruise were a disaster for me, which again left me pretty weak for travelling to Scotland.

In Scotland we were greeted with rain and the message that for the last 3 weeks it had been dry, sunny and warm and that the rain was much needed. Lyn still had the cough, although both of us have recovered quite a bit by now. We should be fine when we get home!!!!

The next trip in October will be a cruise around Japan.

PLEASE

If you have managed to read this far, could you either drop me an email at travels.winch.cc or leave a comment on the blog. I am not sure if anyone (other than you Robert) is reading this or not. It takes a fair bit of time to put together, so if there is no interest I can spend more time relaxing!!!!

The Final Insult

With a 4:30AM start we had an early night last night. Two hours into our sleep we were woken by a very loud alarm. We must have been in a deep sleep as we had no idea what is was, I tried stopping it with my watch, the cell phone, the room phone….. finally twigged it was the fire alarm. Everyone outside, no real information other than the fire alarm indicates there is a potential fire!! Can’t go back into the building until the fire officer gives the OK. 20 minutes later still no fire service! After 25 minutes the alarm switches itself off and everybody goes inside. Never did see or hear the fire service. Evidently this happened earlier in the week……. not impressed. We’re still waiting for our wake up call!

The Final Final Problem

We got home without any problem, only to find a note on the door saying that during our absence our gas meter was replaced. Because no one was home at the time they were not allowed to turn the gas back on! Result…. no heat, no hot water!!

Today we just stayed local, and went to a few of the local sites. After yesterday we didn’t want to stray too far from home!

Again, mainly photos rather than words. Our first stop was a store to stock up on Cadbury’s chocolate and some British biscuits (cookies). We also grabbed some goodies for lunch and headed out to Neptunes Staircase. This is a series of 8 locks on the Caledonian Canal, lifts (or drops) boats 20m (64ft). If you look at a map of Scotland, you will see the North is actually separated from the South by water. It is possible to sail from the North Sea through to the Atlantic.

The scenery is ever changing here at the whim of the weather, the 2 pictures below were taken 10 minutes apart

We headed off to a small marina with some smaller locks and birds.

We then headed back to the house, our hearts dropped as we approached the main road back to Spean Bridge as there was an electronic sign with an Accident Alert on it! Fortunately the accident was on a road about 20 miles beyond our destination.

We decided to take a trip to the coastal town of Oban, although we had been there many years ago, we figured it was time for another visit.

The Day started off fine (for this part of the world, I define “fine” as bucketing down with rain, but not to the extent that you can’t see the car in front of you).

We have a Renault Hybrid rental, I didn’t realise it was a hybrid when we picked it up, so I spent 10 minutes trying to start the engine!! I HATE this car, it may be better if we had an instruction book. It plays sounds with no explanation, it tries to keep you in lane with its auto steering, but fails. When you steer manually to keep the car on the road it flashes messages to you saying KEEP CONTROL OF THE CAR!!…. any way back to the blog.

We wandered around Oban for a while and had lunch. Above Oban is McCaig’s folly, a reproduction of the Colosseum in Rome.

The scenery here is fantastic, unfortunately (my) pictures don’t do it justice, but I’ll put a few below.

As we left Oban, there was a traffic sign saying there was an accident close to Spean Bridge with a delay of 20 minutes. We figured we were a couple of hours away, so it shouldn’t be an issue. The GPS gave us an alternate route as we got closer, but it only took us through Fort William High Street, by-passing the bypass!!. We got onto the main road, a ten minute drive to Spean Bridge.We left Fort William at 3PM. Although it was slow, all was OK until we got to a round-a-bout, after exiting there was a sign ROAD CLOSED. Why put it after the round-a-bout when there was no where to go?? No diversion signs ….nothing. Lyn knew of a possible country road (track) route, so we tried that. To cut a very long story short, the road was single track with passing places. With coaches, large trucks and no police to help out it was carnage. This was made worse when a lorry (truck) went off the road and closed it as well!!

The 10 minute journey took 4 hours!!! Apart from lack of any official help in controlling the traffic, the main issue was the fact that the local police did not have the authority to investigate an accident if there were injuries. A special unit had to drive in, and they were 2 hours away, assuming they were available. The main road was closed for over six hours.

The only good part was the scenery again.

We even caught a rare glimpse of the elusive “Ben Nevis”. This is the highest Mountain in the UK at 4003ft.

The evening finished with a “few” drinks for birthday celebrations.

Finally managed to get back to some form of normality, still a weak but improving. Just a quick entry, as many of you know Lyn was born in the Highlands of Scotland. This is where we are now. Just a few pictures to show the area.

Above is the house where Lyn grew up, built in the early 1800’s, the part on the right was divided off as a shop.

Above is the house again, this time with the “new” shop on the left. This shop was built about 50 years ago. The shop is still owned by the family but is leased out to the Spar company.

Across the driveway from the shop is the other main building in the village, the Woollen Mill.

The name of the Village is Spean Bridge, here are a few pictures from the bridge.

Below is the Railway Station, it is still in use but the building is now a good restaurant

Well after 36 hours of pumping my bilge is well and truly empty! After 60 hours I finally plucked up the courage to start refilling. Amazingly in those two and a half days without food I didn’t feel hungry. I just wished I had a set of scales, I am sure I must have lost some weight!! The main downside for my is tiredness at the moment. For Lyn, she still has this nagging cough that won’t go away. Any way we managed it to Scotland with no major incidents, and I managed a piece of toast this morning.

It was Lyn’s Sister in laws 80th birthday party, and there was gathering of the family. I pecked my way through lunch with no ill-effects. This week there may be a couple of blogs as Lyn has a couple of idea for places to visit, otherwise we are just spending time with family,

Well, I’m not sure what caused it, but I spent the whole night pumping out my own bilges, fore aft and sometimes simultaneously. Enough said…. no blog today!

Another great nights sleep, due in part to a fantastic Serbian Folk show last night. Their energy totally tired us out!!

Unfortunately the photos are unable to convey the level of energy in the dancing. The performers were part of a 300 member group who tour the world.

After breakfast we headed out for a walk around the town of Vukovar. Coming from the west it is easy to forget that WW2 was not the last war in Europe. There was a lot of unrest, bombings etc. in this area of the world as recent as the 1990’s. It seems Serbia was at the root of much of this unrest. Although most of Croatia was occupied for around 3 months, it was closer to 8 years before Vukovar was returned to Croatia. The town was the first in Europe to be totally destroyed by war since 1945. More history here.

The town is, as expected, a mixture of new and old.

As we sailed into the town you could see an old water tower. Every day during the war 2 civilian vouluteers would climb the tower to raise the Croatian flag in defiance.

On the waterfront is a memorial to the people of the town who lost their lives in the conflict

Storks nest in the area to mate and raise their young, then in September they head down to South Africa for the winter. They will return to the same nest next year. I was luck to catch the stork in the nest as we were walking away

When we finished our walking tour we got on a coach for a 45 minute trip into the country to have lunch with a local family. This turned out much better than I expected. Although the hosts did not (want to) speak English, they understood it quite well. This wasn’t an issue as we had interpreter with us.

The house was newly constructed after the war, as the old one was destroyed. The garden was huge, at least 100m by 15m. The husband raised fish, grew grapes, apples, vegetables, plums, blackberries, herbs etc. He was a paratrooper in the war as one of his activities as a civilian was parachuting. His wife was in intelligence. We had a 3 course Croatian meal with nearly all of the fruit and vegetables being supplied from the garden. We also had home-made blackberry liqueur and apple wine. During the meal we asked questions of the family, and they were interested in our lives. Overall a great experience.

We returned to Vukovar and spent some time in town on our own. Before the war the town was famous for shoemaking, although the original company no longer exists and the workforce has reduced from 4,000 to 800, they are still well known for quality footwear. I finally broke down and bought new pair of shoes at probably half of the cost that they would have been in Canada.

Tomorrow is our last full day, with a stop in Kalocsa, Hungary

This morning we arrived in the capital of Serbia, Belgrade. The more I hear of the Balkans countries and the former Yugoslavia, the more confused I get. It seems the Serbs wanted to pick a fight with everyone! Google will be your friend if you want more information!

We are no longer on the Danube, we are on the Sava. Having said that, the confluence of the rivers is only a few hundred metres away, and we will rejoin the Danube when we leave here.

After breakfast we got onto a coach for a short 15 minute drive into the old part of Belgrade. Our first stop was at the Belgrade Fortress, a Roman fort dating from around 2AD. More details can be found here.

On the way to the fort we passed a memorial from the Serbs to the French for their help in WW1

Hiding behind the fence was an old Citroen van

Unlike Canada, flowers bloom here in May

Below are some general pictures taken around the fort

Next stop was Tito’s Burial Place. Having listened to a lot about his life, I still haven’t worked out whether he was a good guy, or a bad guy!!

Next stop was the Belgrade Cathedral or the Church of St Sava. Construction was started in 1935, but stopped in 1941 due to bombings in WW2. A temporary church was erected close by taking just a few years to build

Construction resumed in 1985 and was completed just a few years ago. More details if you want them here

In Serbian Orthodox churches there are no statues, only 2D representations are allowed. All the decorations in the church are mosaics.

There are no seats in the church, the congregation have to stand throughout the service!!!

Off to Croatia tomorrow

Confusion reigns! We are now sailing between Serbia and Romania. That shouldn’t be an issue, right? Wrong! Probably 90% of the passengers use their phones or smart watches to tell the time, this is not normally an issue. However when sailing between two countries on different time zones, this does become an issue. Depending on which country has the stronger cell system will determine what time your device shows! Unless tamed, the clock will bounce between time zones.

Regardless of the first world problems thrown at us, we still managed to getup in time for breakfast.We did NOT manage to get up for our passage through one of the largest locks on the Danube, this occurred at 5AM.

We will not be docking until 1PM. The scenery has changed overnight from flat country side either side of us to gorges. The are is generally known as the Iron Gates and can be read about here

Pictures below

Along the way we passed Mraconia Church and Monastery;

Above, the Monastery is to the left, the Church in the centre and the Convent (being renovated to the right). Some of the Monk’s cells are let out for tourist accomodation, and the Monks act as local Guides

We passed a large stone tablet on the Serbian shore, this was in tribute to a Roman ruler who managed to construct a bridge across the Danube 2000 years ago.

The final point of interest along this stretch is a sculpture constructed between 1994-2004 in honour of Decebalus, the last ruler of Dacia around 2000 years ago. It is about 43m (140ft) high and 25m(82ft) wide.

We have bow docked at the Serbian town of Donji Milanovac. As Serbia is the only country on our trip that is not in the EU we have to undergo Customs and Immigration, and carry our passports with us.

After lunch we stepped out on to Serbian soil to be met by an elephant/mammoth!

The only logic I can think of behind this is the fact we were heading off to an archaeological site that fated back to 9000BC.

We took a 20 minute coach ride to Lepenski Vir. This is a location on the banks of the Danube where, in the 1960’s archaeologists discovered the remains of a settlement dating back 11,000 years.

As we got off the coach I noticed a number of people looking at something on the ground It turned out to be a group of mini butterflies. their wing span was around 1 inch

At the entrance were two cottages built about 300 years ago, the modern dwellings!

We then walked along to the main centre which was housed in a very warm glass building. We watched a short video outlining the findings from the ’60s. In the centre there is a depiction of what was discovered. It was not in the original location, due to flooding of the Danube when they created a dam, but all of the artefacts and their positioning were the original articles.

The carvings of the humans are the first known carvings of this sort. The mouth is believed to represent a sturgeon, which was the main source of food for the village. Each house is shaped like a slice of pie, and each one is exactly 1/6th of a circle. It is believed that the shape is derived by the shadow cast by a large rock formation on the Romanian side of the Danube, below.

Outside were two reconstructions of what the archaeologists believed the houses would be like

After the trip we headed off to a new town, Golubac, where the boat had sailed to in our absence. The town is home to a 13th century fort.

Here endeth another day!