Jamie

Iceland's volcanic eruptions and the resulting enormous and ominous clouds are totally disrupting the European air traffic. Thousands of flights were cancelled yesterday and yet again this morning. Airports are being shut down one after the other (Geneva, Zürich, Paris, Munich, London, etc.), meaning that flights to other continents, America included (should you have relatives on an overseas trip), are grounded. Hundreds of thousands of passengers are stranded here and there.

It looks like my romantic trip to Austria (scheduled to start tomorrow morning ) with my dear wife will need to be postponed.

See ya'. Jamie

Jamie

See ya' HERE then?

No intra-European flights tomorrow morning either

Jamie

motowebmaster

I saw some pics yesterday evening. Seems like mask usage should be common for a while:

Iceland's volcano sending ash into sky -- latimes.com

It's good that you haven't left home. Reminds me of some of the shows I watch on the National Geographic Channel.

Speedtrip

Dumb luck Jamie, hope you can make other arrangements.

The Prophet

Jamie,

What a bummer. I’m sure that you can find an alternate nice place locally. It proves once again that NATURE rules, and we are merely specs on this planet.

We had a weird occurrence, albeit not anywhere near as “flight stopping” as what you are experiencing over in Europe.

See Here, (unfortunately you have to suffer through a short commercial first!) this was about 70 miles north of us.


http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/meteor-crosses-over-wisconsin-10384085

Obviously, the Apocalypse is upon us, and it now makes perfect sense to rid yourselves of all – now worthless – worldly possessions.

PM me, and I’ll provide an address to ship all of your bikes… and any cash, to.

Otherwise…

Ride Safe!

Bob

__________________

• A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. ~Lao Tzu
• Motorcyles are not my whole life, but they make my life whole. ` me

Jamie

Thanks. But the travel agent (pleading "act of God, force majeure, natural catastrophy", etc) is probably first in line to hoodwink me

Jamie

The Prophet

Jamie,

The local news here reports that the European airlines are back at it again in Europe, as the atmospheric conditions have reverted back to a safe level.

True? false? I know we've had some European visitors (Germany) "stranded" here for the better part of last week and the past weekend. They've been able to arrange flights back home now.

There are also rumors about the skies over Canada being affected. Anyone hear anything?

That said, looks like you get a "second chance"!

Ride Safe(and through clear skies)!

Bob

Jamie

YES Bob, European airports are gradually re-opening, at long last, as I am typing this up. But there are still thousands of folks stranded somewhere far away from home and it'll probably take more than a couple of weeks for forwarders, travel agents, tour operators, airlines themselves, etc. etc. worldwide to "catch up" with the truly gigantic backlog (e.g. I have got relatives grounded in Viet Nam, with NO return flights to Europe scheduled until late next week).

And some travel industry analysts suggest that some of these industry "players", mostly on the "low budget" side, may never financially recover from the little apocalypse. Ouch!

The good news is that my travel agent has agreed to replicate my romantic Austrian tour at a later date, to be determined. A better approach, I thought (perhaps mistakenly?), than joining the ranks of people frantically trying to file a refund claim and finding out that ALL "hot lines" ring busy 24 hours a day.

Best. Jamie

motowebmaster

Sunday I was driving to a destination and waited a while for Amex Travel to get on and give me just a hotel reservation. In my day-to-day, I'm required to book hotels through a single process.

They said they were backlogged worldwide due to the volcano disruption. The person who made my reservation had only a basic understanding of United States geography, but she did well.

Forchetto

I couldn't give a damn about silly volcanos. On my regular trips to the UK I just use the car-ferry from Bilbao to Portsmouth. Lots of fun, no hanging around airport lounges for weeks or humilliating searches to see if I have explosive underpants, takes 24 hours to get there and I can get drunk on the way.

When I travel South here in Spain I use one of our 300 kmh High speed trains. Get on one in the North, step out in the South 800 km later as fresh as I started.