Nothing could have thrilled us more than the suggestion of a trip to Europe after over two years “country-bound” in Australia.  Joe’s London (now Melbourne) mates from 50 years prior were taking a river cruise and it sounded like we were invited to join them. While ocean cruising had never been high on our list, we were quite taken with the thought of a river cruise. Australian-based APT sails a few European rivers but the one we were planning was two-weeks from Amsterdam to Budapest on the Rhine and Danube rivers. 

Joe began looking at flights and prices were pretty steep at the time. On a whim I googled Round-the-World flights and we had a response that startled me. We could do an itinerary that included flying west to Amsterdam, a stop in Malta, continuing west to California, then finishing up back in Australia for just a little more than a round-trip flight to Europe. In Business Class!

I was skeptical (“if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”), so I began doing a little research on Airfare Geeks. These sort of  companies must be accredited and AG passed with flying colours. We booked the original itinerary pretty quickly in case they had second thoughts. We were able to add the Malta flight for no extra charge. 

The month before departure we were being super cautious:  wore masks everywhere and avoided a lot of busy locations. We bought travel insurance in case of cancellations, border closures or any Covid cases that prevented travel.

And then we were off!