Cruising down the river, in the middle of the night, somewhere around 3:00 AM, sound asleep after an evening of learning about Cologne beers and the music of Cologne, our adventure came to a screeching, crashing halt. Either by an error in judgement or perhaps a brief moment of snoozing...the 2nd captain directed the bow of the beautiful Viling Bragi directly into an abutment of a very solid bridge...Being mid-ship, the damage in our suite was basically limited to the shocking disturbance, the haranguing sound of the breaking of glasses, the emptying of the refrigerator and the clearing of everything and anything that was on any of the counters. Others were not so lucky! In the dining room, over 50% of the china and glassware was ruined! Potted plants were smashed. Did I mention that once the Bragi slammed into the abutment, the ship following was unable to avoid our Bragi, so schmucked in the rear as well! When all was said and done and with a ten hour delay for police investigation, river authority inquiry, cruise company investigation and the determination as to whether the boat was seaworthy, permission was finally granted for us to proceed...with an escort out of Germany! While the captain spoke to us twice about the 'situation', we never did hear about the discipline for those in charge at the time of the collision. We did know that there was significant damage in the thousands of dollars damage...but we were able to continue!
Beyond the physical damage...the damage to Viking River Cruises reputation took a serious hit as well. For me, it was being told that because of the delays, the Bragi was heading directly to Amsterdam, meaning that our stop at Kinderdijk, the World Heritage site, renowned for its windmills would be missed...that was so disappointing. All my life, since reading about wooden shoes and windmills, that was my dream, to see those sites in person. While Viking staff apologized for the mishap, unfortunately, knowing what I missed takes away from all that we saw.
Putting that behind us, the rest of the cruise, arriving at 2:00 AM was anti-climactic, much of the onboard chatter more about the 'event' rather than the smooth sailing into Amsterdam, along the Rhine and the Utrecht Canal.
Disembarking was a smooth operation. We were up at 3:30 AM, packed, showered, bags in he hall by 5:00 AM, breakfast and on the bus by 5:45...then off to Amsterdam Airport. Check-in, clearing
Customs, was like clockwork. With two hours to spare, sleep seemed to be the only appropriate thing to do.
Before we knew it, it was boarding time, first a flight to Frankfurt, and with little time to spare, a quick farewell to our travel partners, Garnet & Shirley, Pam & Jim...as we rushed to catch a flight to London-Heathrow to visit our daughter, her husband and two delightful grandchildren.
Finishing the first leg of our one month journey on Marion's birthday, heading to see our family in England, was just too good to be true.
Despite our final day experience, travelling with Garnet & Shirley and Pam & Jim enriched our experience four fold! Each evening we joined together at the dining room table, laughed and reflected on the day and regularly drank toasts to the moment...and there were so many moments to celebrate! All we can hope is that another opportunity comes along...
And now, time to focus on the grandchildren !
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