Finally, we are traveling again!

 It's been many long months since we have been able to travel due to the coronavirus pandemic.  Over the last 20 months planned trips were cancelled and rebooked and cancelled again as the pandemic lingered on.  Thankfully by 2021 the vaccines are available and slowly the world is opening up to travel.

We chose to restart our travel with a river cruise in Europe.  We begin in Belgium and travel through 6 countries on the Rhine and Mosel rivers, ending in Switzerland.

The company we travel with is Grand Circle.  In the weeks preceding the cruise we received numerous mailings explaining in detail all the "hoops" we would have to jump through for the airlines and for the various countries and for Grand Circle.  A bit of work but well worth it if we can travel.  

All travelers needed to be fully vaccinated for covid-19 as well as presenting a negative covid test upon arrival to board the ship.  All the ship crew members would be fully vaccinated and tested twice a week.  Every one we will be in close contact with has to be fully vaccinated.  

We felt we would be as safe as we possibly could be.  So with our N95 masks and plenty of sanitizing gel we were ready to board the flight to Europe.

We flew direct from Denver to Frankfurt, Germany on Lufthansa.

It was a pleasant 9.5 hour flight overnight.

Upon arriving in Frankfurt, we had about a 2 hour layover; just enough time to navigate this HUGE airport, go through passport control, and find the next gate.  The next flight would be a short 1 hour to Brussels, Belgium.

 

Belgium wanted a completed "Passenger Locator Form" upon arrival at the airport.  This simply indicated what flight we were on, the seat number we occupied, and the location of where we were staying in Belgium.

A Grand Circle representative was waiting for us as we exited with our luggage.  It was at this point that we had to show our negative covid test result.   There were several other people on our same flight who will be our fellow travelers.  During the bus ride to the ship, we started to get acquainted.

The ship is the M/S River Harmony.  The capacity is 140 passengers and 38 crew members.  This cruise will have only 44 passengers and 38 crew members.  

So come along as we tell about our adventure through 6 countries on the beautiful Rhine and Mosel Rivers.

To continue reading, scroll down and click on "Newer Post".  The next post starts our cruise in Antwerp, Belgium.