Around Mogadore: COVID, lost luggage spoil dream European vacation

So, I have learned many things in the past month: One of them is to never schedule a vacation for my husband Bill and me in the fall.

We just don’t seem to have any luck. Going on a Viking river tour sounded like a dream come true a year and half ago when we scheduled the Grand European tour vacation. Optimistically, we thought the pandemic would be over, and with the availability of vaccines and boosters, COVID numbers would have decreased.

NOT!! But we tried to think positively and be pro-active this past year in our contacts with others. Before our trip, we masked in stores, we went to events held outside, and ate at home for the most part, cooking our meals or getting carry-out and eating on the front porch of our home.

The first thing that happened to the Cashers and us on the day of departure was a cancellation of our airline flight from Chicago to Amsterdam. We had already checked in and gone through security at the Cleveland airport for our flight from Cleveland to Chicago, where we would get the connecting flight to Amsterdam. Anticipating a wonderful vacation, we relaxed for an hour’s lunch at the Great Lakes Brewery in the airport. During that time, we were notified that our flight from Chicago to Amsterdam had been canceled. Luckily, our travel agent was able to get us on a different flight from Cleveland to Detroit to Amsterdam the same day. So we went to Amsterdam after all; however, our luggage went to Chicago. And sat there. And sat there. And sat there, until three days later when it showed up in Amsterdam. But we were already on the Viking ship and traveling through Germany.

Do you know what it’s like to wear the same two pairs of pants for two weeks? I do. I had only placed enough clothes in my carry-on for two days. Luckily, Viking comped our laundry during the trip or I don’t know what I would have done about my underwear!

The first 11 days of the trip were very nice. There were eight of us in our group, and we got to meet and talk with some wonderful people, ride a boat through the canals in Amsterdam, visit the Anne Frank museum and house, and explore the Riksmuseum. We got a close-up view of the windmills of Kinderdijk, then crossed into Germany. The cathedral we visited in Cologne was beautiful, and we sampled our first brew house beer. We were able to do a little shopping in the city, finding some items for the four of us. Walking back to the boat along the river in the Cologne park was refreshing. We visited a fort in Koblenz, Germany where we rode a cable car. The villages of Miltenberg and Werzberg were two of the next stops and included a visit to another castle. Bamberg and its smoky beer was the next day’s stop.

One of our favorite days was spent in Nuremberg, where we got a guided tour the first hour of our visit. After that we wandered off on our own, visiting the Albrecht Durer home and museum, taking a stroll through the town square and having sausage sandwiches, tea, and gingerbread cookies, then visiting the Germanisches National Museum to see the German cultural exhibits.

The food on the ship was exquisite. Breakfast included an omelette bar, and lunch and dinner each night were superb. One night we had roast duck breast, and another night we ate Chateaubriand. My challenge was to figure out how to mix and match my meager selection of clothes each evening. Luckily, we did a little shopping on our excursions and purchased a few items to make up for the lost ones in our still missing baggage.

At this juncture, halfway through the trip, Bill and I started feeling awful, with runny noses, coughs, sore throats, and headaches. Yep, you guessed it. After all our careful planning, we got COVID! We isolated as much as we could, eating meals in our room, and skipping the excursions that were offered, some of which included Regensburg and Passau, Germany, and Melk and Vienna, Austria. After five days of isolating as much as we could, we decided to forego our extra week in Germany where we were going to attend the Octoberfest in Munich, sadly coming home to tissues and doctor’s video visits.

We have recovered from COVID and are thankful that we didn’t have any complications. Hopefully soon, we will look back on our European adventure with pleasant memories such as some that I outlined above. Instead, right now, our feelings about our vacation are a wistful mixture of irony, sadness, and frustration. Obviously, no amount of planning can prepare you for an encounter with the virus. And we are still waiting for that luggage!

For Mogadore news, please contact Barb Bauer at BarbBauerMog@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Around Mogadore: COVID, lost luggage spoil dream European vacation