Severe Winter Weather in Europe and Beyond

Nuns having fun: Sisters take pictures
in the Vatican's St Peter's Square

Vatican - Rome, Italy 
Blanketed by Snow  

The top picture appeared in the Mirror story entitled Snow Pictures: Winter weather moves in on UK as Europe shivers. Click the link for more pictures.

The lower picture was taken last Spring when we toured the Vatican during our Mediterranean & Greek Isles Cruise.

Impacting Transportation 

Motorists have been urged to take extra care in treacherous conditions as snow across much of the UK turns to ice.

The Met Office has issued nine warnings for ice after disruption to road, rail and air travel following up to 16cm (6in) of snow in some areas.

Half of the 1,300 scheduled flights at Heathrow were cancelled and some trains and Tube services also disrupted. Almost 400 transatlantic passengers are stranded overnight in Ireland after six London-bound flights were diverted.

Ice is likely to be a hazard on roads and pavements across parts of southeast Wales and much of England, except the southwest potentially leading to the risk of disruption to travel on Monday morning. Fog patches are also likely to form overnight in many areas, adding to the risk of disruption to travel in parts of the UK.

BBC News - In pictures: Europe snowstorms 

BBC News - Europe snow: Your pictures
The Telegraph Readers' snow photos

As Europe is hit with one of its worst winter storms in decades, much of the United States is experiencing unseasonably warm weather and no snow. Colorado and Nebraska was hit by a major winter storm over the weekend, snarling transportation in that part of the country.

If you are flying internationally, be sure to check with your airline to see if your flights have been impacted by this weather system that has been impacting Europe for several days now.

Qantas Resumes Flights After Court Action

Qantas Airline Grounded 

Entire Fleet

 Disrupting Air Travel 

Across the Globe 

Causing Woes 

For Cruise Passengers

A surprise grounding of all Qantas flights on Saturday caused a nearly 48 hour disruption of service in Australia, Los Angeles, and elsewhere. Flights resumed after an Australian court ruled on the bitter labor dispute which prompted the walk-out.

The Australian government called an emergency court hearing on Saturday night to end the work bans for the sake of the national economy.  There had been no advance warning of the labor action.

Qantas is the largest of Australia's four national domestic airlines, and the grounding affected 108 planes in 22 countries. About 70,000 passengers fly Qantas daily, and would-be fliers this weekend were stuck at home, hotels or airports, or even had to suddenly deplane when Qantas suspended operations. More than 60 flights were in the air at the time but continued to their destinations, and Qantas was paying for passengers to book other flights according to the airline.

Cruise Passengers Scrambling

Royal Caribbean, Princess and Holland America all have ships sailing in the region and are evaluating the situation. Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas is scheduled to sail from Perth, Australia, on Monday evening, meaning that many passengers are likely scrambling to make alternate travel arrangements. 

It will be 24 to 48 hours before Qantas returns to normal.  See the following link for Latest information about resumption of scheduled Qantas services.

Top 10 Reason For Trip Insurance

This airline strike is unfortunately another example of an unexpected situation that can cause your vacation plans to go awry. We always highly recommend you purchase travel insurance for these unexpected events. We want you to have a worry free vacation, so the small cost of the insurance should be reason enough for peace of mind. The priceless component is that there is someone you can turn to should an emergency situation occur.

This weekend alone, insurance companies, like Travel Guard, were helping stranded passengers due to Tropical Storm Rina, the snowstorms on the East Coast, and this Qantas strike.   And those are only the ones that made front page news.  The most common excuse I hear for not purchasing insurance is "I don't need it, I plan to go no matter what."   As you can see from these examples, you aren't always in control.