Our prize Danube trip

As you probably know by now, we were sent home early from our holiday on the Danube. The flooding situation meant that the cruise wasn't viable, with many parts of the river completely closed to shipping due to damaged locks and impassable bridges, and  after a few days spent on two different moored boats, making excursions by coach from them, it was decided to send everyone home.

As a prize winner, I technically wasn't entitled to a refund from the tour company or the insurance company, as such refunds are generally calculated based on the amount actually paid, but they discussed the situation with the promoter and came up with an offer of another cruise this year - impossible because Mark has no leave left - or a refund of part of the cost of the trip. This seemed reasonable - after all, we'd still had flights both ways, a week of full board accommodation and several trips, some of which were excellent.

We spent the first two nights in Vienna, one of my favourite cities in the world. On the first day there was a coach trip to Melk Abbey. The floods had affected the roads too, so we had to use the motorway to get there, but on the way back the road alongside the river had reopened and we could clearly see the flood damage and defences. In one place the silt was being removed from a child's playground and it had come almost to the top of the swings!

I'm not going to give you full details of our trip, because Mark has written about it so thoroughly - you can see his posts here, here,  here and here.  But I thought you'd want to know what can happen from a comper's point of view when a holiday is curtailed or cancelled.

And of course despite all Mark's lovely photos, I had to share a few here too!



The most important thing for a comper - a postbox!

 Enjoying the beautiful Budapest night skyline 

It's a lonely life on the Puzta. A man and his donkey can grow very fond of each other. 

Happy pickles for Happy Meals?