Peter & Mary’s 2017 Holiday

The plan for today was easy. Our travel agent had organised two flights, leave Dublin at 11am, arrive in Amsterdam at 1:35pm, then leave Amsterdam at 2:25pm to arrive in Venice at 4:05pm.

Of course it didn't happen that way. Stay with me dear reader its a lesson in overseas travel.

I had arranged to return the hire car at 9:30am so I set a challenge for Mary to be ready by 8:30am and she was. Reception said it was easier to go left out of the hotel and then right at the next turn - a 10 minute drive. Following those directions we found the airport okay, but where were the hire car yards? Not hard I thought, just drive around a couple of times and I will see them.

Now, I would have thought that airport people would had just 5 signs for travellers, arrivals, departures, short term parking, long term parking and hire cars. Apparently hire cars, although a huge parking lot, are not important to the Dublin Airport people and the money spent on branding hire cars is wasted - couldn't see a coloured sign anywhere - but we were close according to Mary's iPhone, (the SatNav) is packed in my suitcase. I stopped at a petrol station and asked for directions - left, then first exit from the big roundabout. I saw a Europcar subtle bus and followed that - thank goodness, after the roundabout it was left, lefth and left again and when we got there a sign in green about the size of a beer carton - not good enough! Dropped the car off and got the okay then bullied ourselves onto the next shuttle bus.

We checked in okay 22.8kg each on a 23kg allowance phew, and went to the departure lounge in good time. Time passed and no announcement until at 11:30 we were advised that rain in Amsterdam had delayed our flight by an hour but we should be boarding soon. At 12:00 we boarded, think we would still have time for our connection - I was reassured by the hostess that if we were delayed so too might be our connection.

We sat on the plane for a further 2 hours.The pilot finally gave us a message and said that we did have an opportunity to leave after the first hour on the plane, but an airport staff shortage meant that we had no-one to drive the truck to push us back! So we left 3 hours late.

Arriving in Amsterdam we went looking for an information desk. No chance, just a row of electronic terminals for self help. I couldn't understand exactly what to do and so asked for help - staff were stressed [mainly older female in poorly fitting uniforms at KLM] and I was told to have another go. Mary and I were rescheduled on and 8:30pm flight but had seats miles apart - I managed to get seats 7H and 8H.

Of course the 8:30pm flight was not going to be on time - kept on getting further delayed. I tried to get seats together again but couldn't. We finally boarded at 9:30pm with the person at departures getting us together in row 5 with more leg room - thanks!

Arriving in Venice at 11:30pm we looked at options to get to our hotel. The private boat was €120 or $180 - no, so we opted for the public boat - all stops for €16 each. The trip takes about 1 hour 20 minutes so we caught the midnight boat and arrived at our hotel at 1:30am. We had to walk up through St Marks Square - no-one there, our shoes and suitcase noise echoed around the walls. Finally we walked down a small lane where a man smoking in the shadows said "Mr Peter Dane" - he had been waiting for us - thank goodness Mary phoned ahead.

Lesson learnt - try to get direct flights, hang the expense ...

Anyway the apartment is first class and the location is excellent -time for bed ....

Cheers,Read more