We are in France now, enjoying the sights, sounds, smells and foods of Provence, but it wasn’t easy getting here. I am not complaining or whining – I understand that what you are about to read is certainly a “first world” problem!
We wrestled mightily with our logistics for this trip. Going back and forth and finally settling on the plan to fly from Milan to Marseille even though we couldn’t get a direct flight. We were trying to save an entire day in the car (on narrow, winding roads with a big car) in addition to a “different country” drop-off fee near a thousand bucks!
This is the “oversized” Ford S-Max diesel that we dropped in Milan.
So our flight was Milan to Marseille via Brussels with 45 minutes to make the connecting flight. Yep, we missed the connection due to circumstances WAY BEYOND our control. High winds in Brussels delayed flights in an out and even though our flight attendant led us to believe we could (and would) make the connection, alas, gate 44 was empty when we finished our sprint and arrived there.
With our love of Belgian beer, there are worse places to get stuck! And when you’ve been up since before 5am, 11:30 is not too early for beer!
Oh, did I mention that there is only ONE flight from Brussels to Marseille on our carrier? The lovely people at Brussels Air now routed us through Munich (yes we are getting progressively farther away from our desired destination).
We arrive in Munich and spend our layover time trying to make sure we will still have a rental car in Marseille and trying to make new meeting plans with our Air B&B hosts. Done and Done.
Our flight out of Munich is delayed and we finally deplane in France (our 4th country of the day) almost 6 hours later than planned. While waiting at luggage retrieval area 4, we hear our names announced over the loud speaker…never a good sign. After tracking down who called us and where we are supposed to report, we learn that our luggage is still in Munich.
We can have it delivered sometime tomorrow, or return to the airport and pick it up at 9pm. Since we still have to go through the car rental procedure and have dinner, we decide to wait and return in 2 hours for the luggage. The fight out of Munich is delayed and we do not have our luggage in hand until after 10pm.
As we are staying over an hour away our hosts welcome us after midnight.
It took us over 18 hours to make the 6-hour trip…a long, long day and a long, long story.
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Eve and Roger's Cycling Adventures 
Thanks for sharing. “If It’s Tuesday, This Must be Belgium” comes to mind. Thoughts and prayers for a “less eventful” balance of your trip.
OH! The joys of travel! So glad that your luggage did actually make its way to you.
Missed connection? Lost luggage? Germany? France? Hungary? Bulgaria? Orient Express? 42 hours without sleep? Been there, done that. May the remainder of your aventure française be extraordinaire et incroyablement belle.
LOL, you win!😊
What an ordeal! Glad you and your luggage are together and settled in France. Sorry, but it does make for a good story.
At least you weren’t stranded in a dry country! We’re there any CHOCOLATE beers?!
There was no chocolate beer on the menu, but tons of chocolate available – and we did indulge 😍
The joys of travel!! At the time, it’s a horror story, but in good time, it will be another ‘travel story’. We’ve had our share too. We ended up with a Member of Poland Parliament accompanying us in a cab to safely deliver us to our hotel at 1 a.m. in Warsaw. It’s a long story too.
At least we all take the opportunity and travel – beats sitting at home with no adventures!
Enjoy France and eat a few croissants for me.
So true Mags, we just felt terrible for our hosts who were graciously waiting to greet us!
Y’all really show your “glass half full”, beer helps! ;);)