By Lee Ryder In association with KLM, Air France and Nexus Metro!
Have you ever attempted to watch a football match thousands of miles away in Riga then ended up in your own front room via Amsterdam and Paris 17 hours and three flights later?
Probably not I hope, but nor had I until yesterday!
You see we here at the sports desk at the Chron will literally travel over land and sea to bring you an insight to the crazy world that is Newcastle United - yet some things just cannot be helped.
United have been at the centre of some bizarre situations down the years, managers walking out straight after games, audacious and successful transfer swoops, our own players performing a street fight on the pitch, our star striker slating the manager live on Sky to name but only a few.
Yesterday though some of the madness rubbed off on me just for actually attempting to watch United!
The very serious threat of terror in the UK scuppered my flight plans meaning I missed my connection from Newcastle in Amsterdam which was supposed to be bound for Riga.
And I wasn’t alone either with around 20 members of the Toon Army also left stranded in Schiphol Airport at around 10am yesterday.
The good people of KLM in Amsterdam did try their best to get us to Riga - but unfortunately three hours after the match was due to kick off.
They tried everything, via Warsaw, via Prague, via Tallinn and even via Moscow but no permutation would get us there on time.
So the final whistle for the night sounded in the unlikely backdrop of Holland for some or did it?
Toon fans are a spirited bunch and when some of them got over their disappointment and were told they could spend the night in Amsterdam, the Geordies didn’t need a second invitation to take in the game from a different venue.
Others took the first flight home but there were only a few seats left.
At one stage I thought I wasn’t even going to see the UEFA Cup clash with Ventspils on the telly.
But after being re-directed to Newcastle via Paris it became clear I could be home in time for the kick-off albeit in my own front room and the company of John Helm and his co-commentator.
Helm’s partner at the microphone though was still up in the air.
For not only had I been caught up in airport chaos but so had the ex-Toon star John Barnes.
Earlier Joe Royle, who was supposed to be covering the game in Riga, had pulled out of the mammoth race against time leaving Digger to hotfoot it round Europe.
Barnes of course made it but with no luggage he was left to present and co-commentate in the same T-shirt and jeans he’d travelled in.
At Paris there were no delays thankfully but it was the unlikely emergence of another ex-United star that left me feeling like it was all some kind of mental dream.
In the departure lounge I took a call from Talk Sport who wanted me to go live on the show with Mick Quinn and Patrick Kinghorn to update listeners to the whereabouts of the Toon Army soliders who were missing in action all around Europe!
I’ve interviewed the Mighty Quinn a few times for the Chron but I never thought one day he’d be interviewing me and of all places on the tarmac of Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport minutes before stepping onboard a plane.
On arriving back on Tyneside I wasn’t surprised to hear my luggage hadn’t made it home.
But after a quick stop at Greggs to re-fuel - shame they don’t have one in Paris - I was home just in time for the kick-off, some 17 hours after I’d left for Riga to take in United’s big Euro clash.
And rest assured our chief sports writer Alan Oliver did make it in time for the match to deliver the latest news and views on United in today’s Chronicle.
*LISTEN to Quinny and Patrick Kinghorn today from 1pm-4pm on Talk Sport on 1089/1053AM
Talk Sport’s website is www2.talksport.net
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