Scandinavian & Russian Splendors, Oceania Cruise

June 15, 2010 The start of our celebration of our 50th wedding anniversary! Up at 6:15 a.m. & after breakfast, did a few chores. We had finished our "check-list" yesterday so had minimal to do. Had an appointment to get my hair done and was back home at 10. Gayle came about 10:45 & we had put our bags out on the sidewalk so she could do a "departing" snapshot. Easy check-in and flight to DFW. Had a late lunch at Fridays

5:15 p.m. Just left DFW on Lufthansa to Frankfurt. Late departure, pilot said due to custom's checks at the gate. We are in a 2 seat row, have blankets, pillows, earphones (gratis) & I'm listening to the Vienna Philharmonic, New Year's concert 2010. The plane is finally cooling down, was terribly hot. Bob inflated my new footrest & it is wonderful! Dinner was served at 7 p.m. and was amazingly good! Watched a movie but the volume was hard to control. Just saw a beautiful sunset over Nova Scottia. 12:30 a.m. Texas time but 7:32 local time. Bright sunshine, not sure it ever got dark. Over Ireland, about 1 1/2 hr more. I never did sleep but Bob got about 30 min. They turned the lights on about 7 a.m., passed water & juice and a cereal bar. Now are serving breakfast--the fruit and hard roll (typical German breakfast) were good.

This is the plane we were on, an immense airbus holding about 400 passengers, which landed at 9:15 a.m. on schedule. We noticed that we went into an area all under construction & wondered where you got into the terminal. Well, there was no air bridge & we had to walk down a really long flight of stairs & then get on a bus. The bus was joined, 2 sections & we were in the last section which really whipped around corners! We drove a long way to a terminal. The bus was jammed & we had to stand. I think I would have fallen, even holding on with both hands except for the jam of bodies. When we finally made our way into the terminal, we found a "blue board" & the SAS flight to Stockholm was cancelled!! Asked several where we should go to re-book and finally found a man in an "information" area who helped by making phone calls learning that there was a pilot's strike. He took us to a Luftansa office & they sent us upstairs to rebook. We headed for the lines & were called back--forgot we were in Germany!! They gave us a # & we were directed to sit and wait in a separate area until our # was called--a bit over an hour later! In the meantime Bob called the Oceania emergency # & they had already arranged for seats on a later flight. We were to have left at 12:15 & now go just about 8 p.m. We still had to wait for them to call our # to get our boarding passes. So we had hours to wait and no actual gate number so we spent the time walking about the huge airport, looking in the shops, etc and finally about 3 p.m. decided we'd better get something to eat. Our flight was late to leave for Stockholm, finally leaving after 8:30 p.m. There were 6 seats across and full of business men in suits. We slept the entire way! We were met by the Oceania folks at the luggage area, they loaded our luggage along with 2 other couples--John & Ann from San Francisco & John & Mary Helen from Atlanta who also were on the canceled flight as well as a pile of bags that had arrived late. The bus was new, very comfortable taking about 30 min.

How glad we were to see the Regatta, arriving at midnight! The check-in was quick & we ordered hamburgers & Cokes from room service. We un-packed our carry-on's & just a bit from one big bag. Then we got our showers & got to bed at 1:30 a.m.--LONG 2 days! But what a blessing that our luggage arrived in Stockholm with us! We went right to sleep & slept soundly until the alarm!

The sign that welcomed us!