When life gives you lemons.......

[Mibbes Aye]

I am in Verona, shortly to travel back to Venice. We were meant to fly back to Scotland tonight but the flight was cancelled and we are here until Wednesday. Accommodation is covered and my work are understanding.

Basically I have a long weekend in Verona extended into a city break in Venice, through no fault of my own!

Anyone else had a lucky break (literally in my case!)?

[Bristolhibby]

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I am in Verona, shortly to travel back to Venice. We were meant to fly back to Scotland tonight but the flight was cancelled and we are here until Wednesday. Accommodation is covered and my work are understanding.

Basically I have a long weekend in Verona extended into a city break in Venice, through no fault of my own!

Anyone else had a lucky break (literally in my case!)?

That happened to me in Rome for the 6 Nations last year.

Snow on the runway in Bristol meant 2 more days in Rome.

Only downside was the hotel they put us up in was out by the airport.

Work and wife were understanding.

J

[danhibees1875]

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I am in Verona, shortly to travel back to Venice. We were meant to fly back to Scotland tonight but the flight was cancelled and we are here until Wednesday. Accommodation is covered and my work are understanding.

Basically I have a long weekend in Verona extended into a city break in Venice, through no fault of my own!

Anyone else had a lucky break (literally in my case!)?

With BA?

I flew out of Verona in May with BA on a 9pm flight, they also had a 9am flight which had to be cancelled - half of that flight was sent back to Verona for 1 night and the other half sat in the airport all day and got on our flight. You sound like you got a better deal then any of those people...

[JeMeSouviens]

I once had to a customer on-site in Boresville, New Jersey. I was supposed to be being replaced by a colleague but he couldn't travel due to an illness in the family, so they asked me to stay on another week. Since they were rearranging my flights anyway, the guy who dealt with our travel managed to rejig my flights/hotel so that I travelled up to Boston for the weekend to stay with a mate who was out there for a year. The best bit was the Friday night flight from Newark to Boston, in a little prop plane. The pilot gave us the sightseeing tour via the Statue of Liberty and then up the Hudson river. It felt like we were skimming the skyscrapers (this was a few years before 9/11).

Almost worth another week in the arse end of nowhere.

[Mibbes Aye]

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With BA?

I flew out of Verona in May with BA on a 9pm flight, they also had a 9am flight which had to be cancelled - half of that flight was sent back to Verona for 1 night and the other half sat in the airport all day and got on our flight. You sound like you got a better deal then any of those people...

EasyJet. To be honest, we are very fortunate in that work and other commitments are fine and we can afford (credit card) the invariable additional expenses.
Talking to other people, some of them are struggling and there are a few very upset folk. If you are stretching it for money or your work isn’t sympathetic I can imagine it must be pretty grim.

[lyonhibs]

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EasyJet. To be honest, we are very fortunate in that work and other commitments are fine and we can afford (credit card) the invariable additional expenses.
Talking to other people, some of them are struggling and there are a few very upset folk. If you are stretching it for money or your work isn’t sympathetic I can imagine it must be pretty grim.

I can only assume you've been impacted by the IT cock-up at French air traffic control (or maybe not, I just know through work of the aforementioned cock-up)

Sounds alright though, at least for you!

I had to cancel a holiday after that unpronounceable Icelandic volcano buggered the whole northern hemisphere up a good few years ago. Out went Helsinki and Tallinn, replaced by driving around the Highlands with a couple of mates from distillery to distillery for a few days, which was actually quality tbf.

[Mibbes Aye]

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I can only assume you've been impacted by the IT cock-up at French air traffic control (or maybe not, I just know through work of the aforementioned cock-up)

Sounds alright though, at least for you!

I had to cancel a holiday after that unpronounceable Icelandic volcano buggered the whole northern hemisphere up a good few years ago. Out went Helsinki and Tallinn, replaced by driving around the Highlands with a couple of mates from distillery to distillery for a few days, which was actually quality tbf.

That doesn’t sound bad in fairness!

Yes, French ATC are responsible but I’m just needing to moderate the smugness levels when faced with an unavoidable three day layover with food and accommodation in Venice.

When the Icelandic ash thing kicked off I was in Barcelona and literally on the runway tarmac when our plane got held up. As any sensible boy does, I phoned my mum to ask her to go online and find out what she could. She wasn’t very internet savvy back then and it was painfully bad.

Me - “Type www”.

“No, www”.

“NO, www”.

“Yes, www, three Ws”.

“No, not 3W, just w,w, w.

“Are you typing it in the right place? There should be a wee bar at the top?”

“Okay, click on the icon that opens up the internet”

“It looks like a letter e”

“Okay, type www”.......

This is probably a thread in its own right, people’s challenges with tech and change!

[Scouse Hibee]

Went offshore to recover a pool table, poor weather meant the chopper taking me back was grounded for a couple of days so left twiddling my thumbs on a rig playing pool and having a laugh with the chefs for a couple of days who looked after me.

[Smartie]

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That doesn’t sound bad in fairness!

Yes, French ATC are responsible but I’m just needing to moderate the smugness levels when faced with an unavoidable three day layover with food and accommodation in Venice.

When the Icelandic ash thing kicked off I was in Barcelona and literally on the runway tarmac when our plane got held up. As any sensible boy does, I phoned my mum to ask her to go online and find out what she could. She wasn’t very internet savvy back then and it was painfully bad.

Me - “Type www”.

“No, www”.

“NO, www”.

“Yes, www, three Ws”.

“No, not 3W, just w,w, w.

“Are you typing it in the right place? There should be a wee bar at the top?”

“Okay, click on the icon that opens up the internet”

“It looks like a letter e”

“Okay, type www”.......

This is probably a thread in its own right, people’s challenges with tech and change!

A wee bit off topic, but this reminds me of something that happened to me once.

I was booked to stay at the Novotel Birmingham Airport, I was going to an event at the NEC.

The finer details escape me but I remember when I was checking in, the guy checking me in was absolutely off the scale rude, hopeless and totally ignorant. I had a mini-tantrum, told him I wouldn't be staying there and stomped out. In those days I wasn't particularly tech savvy so I phoned my Dad to tell him of my predicament - stranded in Birmingham with nowhere to stay, in the days before it could be sorted on my phone. My Dad went straight onto the internet (he's quite good at getting decent hotels at decent prices) and called me back with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.

"Good news - I've got you a hotel. I went onto one of those secret hotels things and got a cracking deal on a 4 star hotel at Birmingham airport for you. Only bad news is, it turns out it's the Novotel."

I had to skulk back in sheepishly and just take the room from the same dick that had served me earlier. It was an awkward exchange, but he was significantly more polite and competent. And a bit terrified.

I was mortified.

[Mibbes Aye]

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A wee bit off topic, but this reminds me of something that happened to me once.

I was booked to stay at the Novotel Birmingham Airport, I was going to an event at the NEC.

The finer details escape me but I remember when I was checking in, the guy checking me in was absolutely off the scale rude, hopeless and totally ignorant. I had a mini-tantrum, told him I wouldn't be staying there and stomped out. In those days I wasn't particularly tech savvy so I phoned my Dad to tell him of my predicament - stranded in Birmingham with nowhere to stay, in the days before it could be sorted on my phone. My Dad went straight onto the internet (he's quite good at getting decent hotels at decent prices) and called me back with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.

"Good news - I've got you a hotel. I went onto one of those secret hotels things and got a cracking deal on a 4 star hotel at Birmingham airport for you. Only bad news is, it turns out it's the Novotel."

I had to skulk back in sheepishly and just take the room from the same dick that had served me earlier. It was an awkward exchange, but he was significantly more polite and competent. And a bit terrified.

I was mortified.

That’s a belter!

[lyonhibs]

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A wee bit off topic, but this reminds me of something that happened to me once.

I was booked to stay at the Novotel Birmingham Airport, I was going to an event at the NEC.

The finer details escape me but I remember when I was checking in, the guy checking me in was absolutely off the scale rude, hopeless and totally ignorant. I had a mini-tantrum, told him I wouldn't be staying there and stomped out. In those days I wasn't particularly tech savvy so I phoned my Dad to tell him of my predicament - stranded in Birmingham with nowhere to stay, in the days before it could be sorted on my phone. My Dad went straight onto the internet (he's quite good at getting decent hotels at decent prices) and called me back with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.

"Good news - I've got you a hotel. I went onto one of those secret hotels things and got a cracking deal on a 4 star hotel at Birmingham airport for you. Only bad news is, it turns out it's the Novotel."

I had to skulk back in sheepishly and just take the room from the same dick that had served me earlier. It was an awkward exchange, but he was significantly more polite and competent. And a bit terrified.

I was mortified.

I remember once my now wife was getting back up the road to Oban from Edinburgh a good few years ago. It was at Xmas time so we'd heard rumours of issues on the roads/tracks up in those parts but it was pre smartphone, at least for us. So we had to ask my mum, who had commandeered the home laptop to look up info for us.

Having no idea how search engines work, she would type in entire paragraphs into Google, like "my son's girlfriend wants to get the train or possibly bus from Glasgow to Oban. Are there any problems, current or anticipated, on that route"

My wife and I were doing our nut in telling her that's not how it works, and she was in turn getting tetchy claiming "I know what I'm doing...."

[DaveF]

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I am in Verona, shortly to travel back to Venice. We were meant to fly back to Scotland tonight but the flight was cancelled and we are here until Wednesday. Accommodation is covered and my work are understanding.

Basically I have a long weekend in Verona extended into a city break in Venice, through no fault of my own!

Anyone else had a lucky break (literally in my case!)?

Not got anything to add other than my daughter will be dancing in a European championship thing there next year so we were planning to make it a longer break. Is it nice? Plenty to do?

[Mibbes Aye]

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Not got anything to add other than my daughter will be dancing in a European championship thing there next year so we were planning to make it a longer break. Is it nice? Plenty to do?

Verona or Venice?

[DaveF]

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Verona or Venice?

I'm told it's Verona.

[Mibbes Aye]

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I'm told it's Verona.

I really liked it. It is a small city and the main part of it is very walkable. It is one of those classic little ‘mittel’ European towns with everything really accessiblle and basically built around the ‘old town’.

Some pretty squares and back streets and alleys to drink or eat on. Pretty much Edinburgh prices, so not cheap, but the food and wine was very good, so it felt like it was worth it even if it was expensive.

Went to the Hellas Verona store, mentioned we liked Liam Henderson and got lots of smiles.

It is nice and I think and hope you will enjoy your trip. Best of luck to your daughter in her competition.

If you want specific recommendations of bars and restaurants then feel free to PM me.

[Mibbes Aye]

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I'm told it's Verona.

I realised I didn’t really answer your question!

The main pull of Verona is the opera at the open air amphitheatre. You don’t need to like opera to go, it is spectacular in itself and if you didn’t like opera before, you are not going to feel let down, it is an experience in itself, bucket list thing.

[DaveF]

Thanks MA.

[Sylar]

That Icelandic volcano got me an extra 9 days out in San Francisco, all paid for by the kindness of my then University! They had booked me into one of the nicest hotels in the city for a conference as it was on an amazing offer, and they were great at offering the same rate for the rest of the 9 days. I spent said 9 days enjoying myself to no end, but the credit card bill when I got back took a couple of months to navigate

[Mibbes Aye]

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Thanks MA.

The one thing I would add is that I have never ever been bitten as badly in my life as I have been on this holiday, and I have been to some mossie-ridden places and the Highlands :-)

We are a mass of bites from head to ankle. Definitely been happening outdoors as we could feel the bites as they happened and it was equally as bad in Verona as Venice.

Would strongly advise you stock up on the Skin So Soft and the post-bite treatments for the sake of your sanity.!

[DaveF]

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The one thing I would add is that I have never ever been bitten as badly in my life as I have been on this holiday, and I have been to some mossie-ridden places and the Highlands :-)

We are a mass of bites from head to ankle. Definitely been happening outdoors as we could feel the bites as they happened and it was equally as bad in Verona as Venice.

Would strongly advise you stock up on the Skin So Soft and the post-bite treatments for the sake of your sanity.!

Noted, ta!

[stuart-farquhar]

Back in the 80s I was travelling from New York to Pittsfield in Western Mass on the train. (Lake Shore limited if I recall.) Anyway I got in tow with a bunch of musicians and other guys all travelling to Chicago. Beer flowed songs were sung and it was great. Till someone pointed out I had missed my stop.

My Uncle was waiting for me at the station and he knew i was on the train. After getting the Guard involved I was let off at an unscheduled stop at an unmanned halt over 40 miles away. Left in the dark, pissed on a cold December evening.

About 20 mins later i could see the headlights of a car slowly coming towards me. Just as it was about 10 feet away it stopped. A guy leaned out the window and said "Hey are you Al?" A little shaken I could now see it was the police. My Uncle called them on the hope I would be thrown off. They took me to the station house to await my irate relative to collect the drunken Scotsman.

[McD]

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That doesn’t sound bad in fairness!

Yes, French ATC are responsible but I’m just needing to moderate the smugness levels when faced with an unavoidable three day layover with food and accommodation in Venice.

When the Icelandic ash thing kicked off I was in Barcelona and literally on the runway tarmac when our plane got held up. As any sensible boy does, I phoned my mum to ask her to go online and find out what she could. She wasn’t very internet savvy back then and it was painfully bad.

Me - “Type www”.

“No, www”.

“NO, www”.

“Yes, www, three Ws”.

“No, not 3W, just w,w, w.

“Are you typing it in the right place? There should be a wee bar at the top?”

“Okay, click on the icon that opens up the internet”

“It looks like a letter e”

“Okay, type www”.......

This is probably a thread in its own right, people’s challenges with tech and change!

i was once asked to help someone over the telephone who was having some issues getting their laptop connected to the internet. When I asked what version of windows they had, the answer I got back was priceless - ‘CR Smith, son’

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That Icelandic volcano got me an extra 9 days out in San Francisco, all paid for by the kindness of my then University! They had booked me into one of the nicest hotels in the city for a conference as it was on an amazing offer, and they were great at offering the same rate for the rest of the 9 days. I spent said 9 days enjoying myself to no end, but the credit card bill when I got back took a couple of months to navigate

A mate of mine was on his honeymoon when the ash cloud hit, he was in Iceland. At the airport, after several hours of waiting, they were told by the airline rep that he and his wife could be taken by train to Paris. When he asked what arrangements there were to get them from Paris to Edinburgh, where their flight should have went to, he was told ‘oh, the airline would consider your travel agreement fulfilled when you reach Paris, from there you’d need to make your own arrangements!’