The day had finally come for our long postponed European river cruise, which had been changed numerous times since 2019, due to covid.
We arrived early at Sydney International Airport for our flight on Singapore Airlines, to Frankfurt via Singapore and then on to Prague for a few days of touring, outside of the structured Scenic Jewels of Europe river cruise, due to commence at Budapest on the 9th August.
Beryl and I have never been to Europe, so it was going to be a relatively whirlwind adventure, taking in the scenery and culture of numerous countries, as well as spending three weeks in Germany to visit relatives and the place of my birth. We arrived at Sydney airport early so that we could have lunch in the lounge, which our business class tickets allowed. Boarding was also a breeze and we entered the top level of the Airbus a380, sitting in a large seat with room to move. The seat dropped down into a flat bed, where I could stretch out my 185cm body and sleep a bit. Also tried my first Singapore sling. 
Sydney airport
Spacious seating in Airbus A380
Frankfurt airport
Big difference in business class seating on Lufhansa A320
The flight to Singapore went quite well and we landed at the massive Changi airport complex. Wish we had time to look around and view some of the exotic orchids and butterfly garden. We spent a little time in the lounge, but it was so crowded, that we went and sat outside the boarding gates for the next flight in a Lufthansa.
This was an older aircraft and not as plush as our first leg of the flight, but the bed/seat was more comfortable. We slept most of the way to Frankfurt, only waking during times of air turbulence. Frankfurt was a real let down and our plane had about 10 rows of business class seating and hadn’t been cleaned or serviced as the staff just didn’t turn up. Terminal boarding was also changed at the last minute, leading to some confusion amongst passengers. Some of business class got a rather stale snack, which I am sure was left over from a previous flight and they ran out of food before even the 10 rows were served. I felt sorry for the flight stewards as it was not their fault. Take-off was held up by about 45 minutes whilst the pilot waited for a new slot to become available, the result of the no show by ground staff.
The flight to Prague was only a short leg so no hardship. Our next surprise came with the cab fare from the airport to the marriott hotel in Prague. It came to 10,010.00 koruna,which was 100 more than I had (Aud$50) but the driver took my cash and was happy with that. Alarm bells and suspicion started, but we had arrived.