This is the day that never ends

6 am came very early, as it usually does, and we were in the car and on our way to Charleroi airport, south of Brussels. Since we were due to have returned the car and check-in by 10 am and it was Monday morning going with the morning commuter traffic to Brussels, we had to make this ridulously early start. The previous day we had also noted the fog that might slow traffic up even more.

Another thing we had in the back of our mind was a news report, in Dutch but confirmed by our landlady, that Charleroi had been cancelling flights due to bad weather - namely the fog. What we didn't know was that 4 airports in the network had been having problems since Saturday night. After arriving with few delays and an easy check-in, we settled in to wait. We could see the runway outside our gate encased in fog. And there were no planes in sight. First, Dublin and Venice incoming flights were announced as having been diverted to Liege. Then these same outgoing flights were cancelled. And finally, so was ours. The chaos ensued.

We tried standing in line to rebook but it seemed pointless. We tried thinking of alternate ways home via other cities, we tried calling home to Scotland to find someone who could look up other flights for us, we tried getting an internet signal, we tried finding an internet cafe, and finally we got in line again and found we wouldn't be able to take the same flights home from Belgium again until Wednesday. Work just wouldn't wait so we decided to try and get home via Frankfurt Hahn airport - that flight left at 7:50 pm. It was now just after 11:00 am. We were in Belgium, and we had to get to Germany... The Amazing Race began.

We were hungry, a little uncertain about all our connections, nearing pennilessness as we had blown 50 Euros in cash on gas since we thought we wouldn't need it, and not sure when we could relax. But I don't think we were stressed and everyone stayed in good spirits so that was a bonus. Nana was going to be pushed to the full today, and Scott was just thrilled that another country was unexpectedly added to the itinerary and that he managed a car, a bus, a train and a plane ride, all in one day, across 3 countries.

The transportation & food highlights: a bus to the Charleroi train station, a hurried visit to the ticket counter, a train to the Liege station, lunch (sandwiches & cokes) and a visit to the convenient internet cafe to confirm bus shuttle times to Hahn airport, a super fast and luxurious train to Frankfurt International Airport, the 6 minute rush to try and catch the 4:45 shuttle to Hahn - unfortunately we missed it, the 1 hr and 30 min bus ride nail biting bus ride that seemed doomed to failure when it departed 15 minutes late and was so full that 3 of us were sold half price tickets because we would have to stand - we didn't care because we had to make that connection and fortunately ended up with seats anyway, the race to the check-in desk with only 5 minutes to spare for check-in, the excrutiatingly long wait in the security line, the very stern immigration officier, and finally the waiting in the Hahn departure area where we were told our flight was interminantly postponed (oh, we did eat some more sandwiches and cokes at this point, made possible by the savings on our half price shuttle tickets.)

As you know we made it back to Scotland, we were finally able to board our flight an hour and a half late. The adventure continued when it was so hot on the plane it nearly induced a blackout from Nana but we made it safely back to Scotland's terra firma. A break came when we didn't have to pay more for parking due to the delay and found out one of our fellow travellers had been turned away from Hahn the previous night due to bad weather. Thankfully we were very close to home now, and not still stuck in Germany.

The ride home was swift and uneventful apart from the fog near Clackmannan and the sudden drop in temperature as evidenced by a heavy frost on the sidewalks and trees. We had all seen some more of the world than we expected that morning and after 21 hours of being on the move. We huddled under the blankets and slept soundly.

So yes, Tracy, we did manage to get to Cologne, Germany, and Scott saw the Dom (Cathedral) albeit from a swifly moving train...