Katies do Euro Summer

[Katie]

Sometime way back when in 2023, I spotted an Instagram post by the Skein Sisters yarn store in Sydney (where I've never even walked through the door!) announcing a Rhine River knitting cruise in 2025.
I mentioned this to Mumma Katie (my mother) and she seemed unexcited by the prospect. Her favourite knitters Arne and Carlos weren't featured in this cruise and she was very much into their double-colour knitting during Covid.

At some point, tickets go on sale for the ~150-170 passengers on the cruise. It's so popular, the TA website promoting it went down. Over 1000 people were interested in the cruise, and my submission ended up being one of the lucky ones. I told Mumma Katie we were going on the Rhine cruise and she confessed she'd also tried to book it! Huzzah, Mumma Katie WAS interested in the cruise, even without Arne and Carlos.

Our knitting cruise departs AMS on 4 August and arrives in Basel on 10 Aug, with disembarkation on 11 Aug.

Mumma Katie had done some cruises before, there was one back in her Miss (almost but not-quite) Queensland days in the early 70s and some travel with her partner around 2018 or so. When we booked, I had not yet been on a cruise, well, if you don't count the overnight ferry between Oslo and Copenhagen.
The booking was made back in Sept 2023 and for quite some time was the only arrangement we made. Well, it was about the only arrangement we made until 2025 as I didn't have my act together to get rewards seats last Aug/Sept.

 

[Denali]

I swear I saw something about this about a week ago. Im not a knitter but I follow a group in the UK that make mail box toppers and spotted a few in May (I was very excited to find some) so maybe thats why I got the ad

Very exciting about you going on this and your trip report!

 

[Katie]

So, this is our cruise: Knit Retreat 2025

At the start of the year, we finally started knuckling down with arrangements. But first - Mr Katie's BFF threw a spanner in the works.
"Katie and Mumma Katie are on a cruise from Amsterdam to Basel in Euro Summer? Well, how about we re-do our Spring Classics rides from 2024 and hope the weather's better and we don't end up covered in mud and freezing from the dreary rain every day?!"
Mr Katie: "OK, sure"
The Teen: "Hang on, you're leaving me home alone with the dog for 2 weeks?"
...

Many discussions and the decision the Teen really can't stay home alone for that amount of time yet. Now the trip turns from Katie and Mumma Katie into the whole family going ... except for Q (the dog). He stays home.

Now we have:
Mumma Katie and the Teen flying together to LHR, spending time in London and then toodling off to Paris on the Eurostar. Now I'm not worried about Mumma Katie getting more time in Europe, just worrying about grandmother and granddaughter patience levels. They've negotiated some really interesting things to do together and have agreed on a number of activities.

 

[Katie]

Slight spanner add to the plans, but hoping some serendipity might come into it!

Mumma Katie came home yesterday to discover her bathroom vanity pipe/hose had exploded and her house was flooded.
After cleaning up what water she could with her neighbours, Mumma Katie stayed at our house last night.

Waiting for insurance assessors and advice in the coming days (initial assessment was done today), but she may have to pack up her whole house before going to Europe with the Teen in about two weeks.
Upside: Mumma Katie is away for four weeks, so repairers would have a clear time to do repairs, if that's possible to arrange at short notice.

 

[I love to travel]

What a fabulous experience and family bonding time. Riding along

 

[Katie]

Stage 1 of the trip has commenced!
Mumma Katie and the Teen departed and flew BNE-DOH-LHR, successfully navigating Doha airport for the first time together.
Teen was unimpressed with her GF meal on the first flight as it unfortunately contained a heaping pile of mushrooms. She opted for a non-GF meat pie (she's gluten-sensitive, not coeliac) with a glass of champers instead. Haven't heard much from Mumma Katie, but I guess she enjoyed the flights.

On arrival into LHR (~6:30 am), it seems they had to wait almost an hour for luggage; I was asked to check the AirTag locations as the Teen wasn't able to see them in her FindMy app. The bags were definitely at the airport, luckily not left behind in Doha.

They caught the underground to near their hotel, and I assume deposited their bags successfully. Mumma Katie had emailed the hotel asking if they could leave their luggage there, to which the hotel responded a resounding No. I told her I'd never heard of such an issue with a hotel and being too early to check in, and they should just give it a burl.
Next I knew, thanks again to Apple's FindMy app, they were on the HOHO bus and toodling around town. Based on limited photographic evidence and credit card purchases I can see online, I know they ate at Macca's and went by the Sherlock Holmes museum.

Some surprising news just before they left - I got a call from the Teen's university. They have my phone number somehow and not hers. We can't find any way to change it in their system. Anyway, she's at risk of failing a subject from this past semester, unless she sits an exam at 9am AEST one day later this week ... if she doesn't give the exam a try, she will fail the subject.

Fingers crossed she will wake up to an alarm to sit an exam at midnight BST! The exam is only being offered once. This will be after a big day starting with a tour of the Globe at 10am and a Jack the Ripper walking tour in the evening ...

In the meantime, on the Katie home front, Mr Katie is still sorting out his week of cycling and contemplating options for dropping off their hire car. Dropping it off in Zurich seems to come with a ridiculous cost, well beyond a one-way charge we've had before.
Arrangements have been made for our furry fiend to be looked after, and there's some tidying around the house I need to do for the houseguests who'll arrive about 9 days before I get home. PHEW.

 

[Katie]

Cruise updates
There must be some water issues in the Rhine, as our cruise is now finishing in Breisach instead of Basel. The cruise line will get us into Basel on disembarkation day (Mumma Katie and I were arranging our own transfers/what we were doing after disembarking).

The TA organising the cruise has established a WhatsApp community, which cruisers may elect to join. There's around 140 cruisers, 1/4 of which are Aussies. The group chat is going off!

I was not the person to mention I'd be leaving Aus via the QF SYD Flounge , what a flex (hey, good on you if you happen to be reading this).
Lots of Americans and Canadians on the trip, some non-knitting partners.

 

[Katie]

Thanks to renos at BNE, this was the best departure pic I got of the Teen and Mumma Katie.