The 2022 trip: Italy and a river cruise

 We're getting ready for our 2022 Europe trip: here I'll go over what it is and how it was booked.

I doubt anyone here recalls (I hardly do myself) that for our 2021 trip we booked a round trip starting in Rome, with an April 2022 placeholder date for the return.  As we were thinking of what we would do for 2022, Margaret was hearing from her sister-in-law Barbara suggesting that we join her on a river cruise; she's liked these after doing a few of them.  For the cruise that she was planning, I was finding the cost to be out of reach but the description was appealing: Uniworld's Classic Germany and Amsterdam cruise.  As we looked at it some more, we agreed that we'd find a way: it's an "only live once" way to see some picturesque German towns and Cologne, then have time in Amsterdam at the end, as Margaret has been wishing.

Once we started this cruise booking, we looked at the airline booking.  I understood that we could change the Delta return (Boston-Rome) to any date with the generally available Economy fare code with no change of fare, and the funds were available through the end of 2023.  As I tried to change the flight date, I kept getting error messages until I selected Oct. 5.  Aha, even though the funds were available, this ticket could last be used on that date, one year after the outbound.  If we tried to book a later date, the funds could just be applied to a new ticket, and there would be the problem of deciding to use it on a likely expensive one-way or start a round trip when we already had plans for the other direction of the trip.  So we booked Oct. 5, which I think is good although it's a little earlier than Margaret was thinking.

Barbara will arrive for our second week in Umbertide; then we'll fly from Rome to Munich to a bus to Nuremberg where we'll have a night before the cruise starts.

For the return, this is finally the chance to do an Iberia trip on points, where we've had several booked trips cancelled either by the airline or by us.  Last fall there was a favorable deal to get some more points on a credit card conversion; I did that to give us a chance to fly Business.  Now, when could we get the award seats when they typically just release two of them per transatlantic flight?  I found them if we spent five nights in Amsterdam after the cruise, a good chance to spend time there and on some day trips.  I had promotions from a new credit card to have those nights in a hotel for free.

Meanwhile, as I was starting to hear in early summer about the crazy waits at Amsterdam airport security, Iberia posted a schedule change that they wouldn't operate the Madrid-Boston flight on the day we booked, Nov. 2.  I didn't like needing to call them, but after one call where the answer made no sense, the calls worked better and we got changed with our Business seats to go Nov. 3.  Then one week later, the morning Amsterdam-Madrid flight was removed from the schedule, so there wasn't a way of making the connection in Madrid on the same day.  Another call needed, and there was the option of changing to British Airways via London on the same day, but we preferred to stay with Iberia and get a night in Madrid, also on a reward.

I'll also mention arranging phone and Wi-Fi service in planning, before we see how it works on arrival.  I'm going by memory where things may have been more difficult than needed, but it seemed that my login to my TIM Italian phone account needed to be done with a VPN saying I was in Italy, I found out by chat that it was the day before expiration of my current SIM card, and to add value I needed to put that card into my phone to receive a code by text.  Then for making payment I wasn't finding where they allowed entering my "foreign" credit card number; I could do it with my Italian PayPal account listing an Italian mailing address, but the credit card still couldn't be a U.S.-issued Visa or MasterCard; it could be an American Express card.  Got that?  I got the value added, and waiting for the eve of departure to get the plan that looked right to last a month including EU worries.

So we have our worries: with most COVID rules removed, it's still on our minds that many friends have had bouts with the disease while traveling.  I've followed stories of low river levels disrupting the cruises, but that seems to have eased to the point of the rivers being too high at some points.  For Amsterdam airport, we need to continue to plan for a long time clearing security.  Still, hoping for a memorable trip overall.