Tag Archives: planes

Tuesday, May 26 — Moving Day

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We woke earlier than necessary (7:00) for our 8:45 taxi ride so I turned off my alarm and slept a bit more. I had already laid my clothes out last night, and managed to fit even the thicker things in my luggage so I knew it would go quickly this morning.

I finally rose at 7:30, and made my Nespresso coffee, got dressed, and packed. Still more time to spare. So I sat around a bit, checked email and Quicken — just killing time, really.

Finally it was time to head downstairs and check out. Our taxi driver was already waiting for us. Dan said, “I hope we didn’t keep you waiting long,” but he didn’t answer, so who knows? The drive took a while due to traffic and the distance. I don’t know why we had the idea initially that the airport was closer to the city, as it was definitely not! But still we arrived nice and what I think I’ll call “patty early”. We checked our luggage and raced through security. Here they have you take out laptops and iPads, but nothing else. Both Dan and I triggered the thing that means they have to check us out. For me it was my barrette and Dan had a shirt with a side zipper and that triggered it. They are pretty darn careful here. I actually appreciate that, as sometimes I’ve gotten through with all sorts of things I forgot to remove and they don’t catch them.

We made our way to a lounge to see if we were allowed in (the AerLingus lounge was closed due to renovations but I read that we’d be allowed in the other one here … maybe). Sure enough, we qualified, even without first class or anything. The lounge was pretty tiny, and we were allowed to stay for two hours only, but since our flight was boarding in about 1 1/2 hours that wasn’t any issue. The real reason we wanted to get in was to get free breakfast. We are cheap that way.

As you can see above, Dan had what they call the full English, or is it full Irish? Hm. I didn’t do the meat or tomato and even with what I chose it was a ton of food. As you can also see, sitting in a lounge is so exciting Dan can hardly contain himself. The other people in the lounge looked equally thrilled to be there. Killing time is a riveting experience.

We decided to amble to gate 6, where we were to board our flight. It didn’t take long to hear the announcement that Group 1 was boarding. Alas, we were Group 2. And then, horrors! — Group 3 gets to board with us. Now how distressing can that be?

Okay, it wasn’t at all distressing. So never mind.

We were in row 2 of the plane, with another passenger in the window seat while we were middle and aisle. The flight was completely uneventful. At least for us. One man had to console his crying infant for quite some time. As this photo shows, Dan wanted our pants to match. Or maybe it was an accident. You decide.



And then we landed. Hello again, London Heathrow! At least for a very short time. But oh my, was it hot out! Cork was too warm already. This is “too warmer”!

We weren’t sure what to expect since we were coming from the EU and entering the UK. I’d been told by someone on the Rick Steves group that we could expect nothing, and that person was correct. No passport control or anything. So after getting our luggage we made our way to Heathrow Express.

Into that train we went for our fifteen minute ride to London Paddington.

We were going to have no problem connecting to our next train so I even asked at the station if we could change the ticket to an earlier train but that would have cost something so instead we went to the Mad Bishop and Bear in the station and had some bites and drinks. I tried the non-alcoholic G&T and it was surprisingly tasty! I should have taken a photo of what they used because I’d try it at home. Too late now, though.

Our train departed precisely at 3:23. Our seats were in the “quiet car” — I had reserved them (for no cost) but clearly there were loads of available seats. Right before we departed the station a couple came in with their cat (in a crate) and proceeded to yak. And yak. And yak. I don’t know if they didn’t realize it was the quiet car or if they didn’t care, but no one pointed to the sign. Quite different than another trip we were on when a woman acted as the Noise Police. She needed to be on our train! They got off in Reading though, so silence was then enjoyed.

We had a five or six more stops. I don’t really count them carefully, but I did pay attention because I sure didn’t want to miss our stop! Sometimes I did take a quick station shot. Just because, as well as other rather shabby shots out the somewhat dirty window.

And then we arrived. Hello, Moreton-in-Marsh!

We begin tomorrow on a week-long walk. I would love to say this will be a very easy walk compared to some, but it’s so darn hot I think it will still be challenging. Still, I am looking forward to it.

We walked to our lodging, provided by Cotswolds Journeys since we used them for this walk, checked in, and made our way to our rather large room.

And then the real fun for today: we met up with Greg and Jan! (My brother and sister-in-law.) They are joining us for the walk. I just hope we don’t melt.

After we met up we headed to dinner at the Black Bear Inn. I thought I might be done with fish and chips, but nope … had ‘em again. Food was plentiful, but hey, we have a 7 mile walk tomorrow, so there’s that.

We finished and walked back to our lodging.

And then it was G&Ts. It was just too hot not to. Trust me. (I grabbed this photo below from Greg’s What’sApp post. I’ll try and get the actual photo later.)

After drinks we said our good nights and went to our rooms. I’m hoping we can manage to sleep, but we’ll see. At least I have a fan in my room! (I’m not talking about Dan.)

For now, though … ciao! (I wrote this even more quickly than usual so I hat to think about the typos.)

The Flight

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Boarding the plane was pretty darn quick. It was all done by facial recognition … except when it wasn’t. The camera didn’t see to recognize Dan! He had to then have his passport scanned and all was well.

We got to our sets (row 5, Polaris). I know, I know, fancy schmantzy … but these days I just can’t deal with tight spaces and the inability to sleep. Plus I blame my brother Greg who got us seats in business class once. He suggested we wouldn’t be able to go back and he’s mostly right (we do premium economy on occasion).

We were offered a drink. Speaking wine for me, water for Dan. Yep, he lives on the edge. Then it was a bit of sitting, followed by taxiing, followed by taking off. It was smooth until there was mild turbulence, which they apologetically said would delay our meal. Not that we were hungry anyway.


After a bit of time I looked at my watch. 4:20 AM.

No, not in San Francisco. But when I get on a plane I set the watch and iPad to the destination time, hoping it will get me to accept the huge eight hour time change.

I did a bit of a jigsaw puzzle, and read a bit, but my brain really didn’t want to concentrate on anything. I actually wanted to sleep! Sort of a good thing, but there was dinner to eat. What to do? (Some people suggest you do NOT eat meals on the plane: I’ve yet to convince myself to do that.)

What to do was start writing this.

Food was a bit late, due to turbulence, according to the announcement, but eventually we received our drink and warm nuts, followed by the appetizer. That appetizer was lovely, and was enough for a full meal as far as I was concerned. That turned out to be a good thing: our dinners were not quite so appealing.


After dinner it was lights out for the two of us, and we did a good amount of sleeping. Dan is, in fact, continuing to sleep as I type this. But it’s 11:35 AM at our destination so I’d prefer to try to stay awake now. (It’s 3:35 AM at home.)

Where we are:

Breakfast was served near the end of the flight. I would have preferred lunch, since it was lunch time at our destination, but since I only eat two meals a day anyway, I sort of tried to convince myself it was lunch. It was, as usual, too much food and not terrifically exciting.

This flight really flew by. Yep, that’s about how funny I can be! And then we arrived.

Hello Heathrow!

We went through the passport control in mere minutes, but oh all the walking one does before and after that. It’s a great way to get steps in after such a long sit, though!

Then it was Heathrow Express to Paddington Station.

From there we had to find our way to our hotel via the tube. It took a while, but we did figure out how to do that.

Oh … but it DID take us a while to walk from Euston Station to our hotel. One of use (me!) was using a map app and got confused. Then someone else (he!) took over and managed to also get confused for a bit. We figure this is par for the course and today we had a number of “oops!” moments so perhaps we got it out of our systems early. Who knows? but we got there. Eventually.

Side note: we had to opt for roller bags due to the things we (Dan, really) needed. I’m so torn between the roller bag and our packs. My back isn’t great, and I have neck problems, so a pack hurts, but it sure isn’t fun carrying luggage up stairs, and there were a lot of stairs to get from one place in the tube to another.

Our hotel is nothing exciting, but it will suffice: we are only here for one night and tomorrow we take a night train to our destination. London was just a quick stop.

After dropping off our stuff we went to find an ATM and then a pub. Well, except I first realized I’d left my phone in the room so we had to go back. Another mistake!

ATM was found, money was pulled from there, and off to The Lamb we went. Dan ordered fish and chips and I had a chicken and leek pie. Both were yummy pub food and just what we wanted for our first night here.

Cheers!

On our walk back to the hotel we went past this interesting building.

And then it was time to finish this blog, post my daily flora photo, and hit the hay.

I’m not sure I will be able to post every day: it will depend upon time and internet access. But I will actually write every day so I can post later if things don’t work.

For now … cheerio!

The Rest Of The Story

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After packing was complete, Dan went to buy a couple of croissants. We both wanted almond croissants, but quality control must have been missing this time: one looked lovely, with powdered sugar on top and one was browner than it should have been, which no powdered sugar at all. Strange. I ate the latter one, but actually couldn’t finish. Not because it wasn’t any good, but these things are just so huge! We finished up breakfast, spent some time on the 27th floor since we had a lot of time, and eventually wound up back in our room where I checked out of the hotel.

Downstairs we simply hand in our keys and that’s that. This hotel seems to prefer no hands on: you can check in on a kiosk (although I couldn’t figure that out when we arrived) and you check out online. No personal touches there if they can avoid it!

Dan called a car and we waited outside for its arrival.

It is not inexpensive to get a car to Newark, but we simply didn’t want to deal with the train this time. It did take a while to get to the airport, but checking our luggage was as speedy as can be, as was security. So to the lounge we went. We both had second breakfast (I was sort of craving eggs). And then a lot of hanging out since we had over two hours before we would board the plane.

OH … and when we were walking through the airport we could see if was absolutely pouring outside. I don’t know what it’s like in New York now, but we did notice it got terrifically dark in New Jersey.

And speaking of NJ: as we drove to the airport the billboards were nearly all about personal injury attorneys, and there were lots of “injured in New Jersey?” mentions. Hm. I guess people are likely to get injured in New Jersey? One wonders.

Okay … we are now home … nothing much of importance happened on the plane aside from horrible food and service from United. They need to up their game or we need to switch airlines. We shall see.

When we picked up our backpacks mine had been opened and they sent along an explanation. TSA selected my bag for inspection. Fine. They didn’t take the chocolate so I won’t complain!

Now, my cold is in full swing and I’m thinking it is more than a cold so I’m going to bed to recover. At least it waited until the end of the trip.

I’ll try and write more tomorrow if I find the energy. Thanks to all who followed along!

Goodbye Bilbao … Hello …

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Today was definitely a very late start day. The locals were eating when we went out, which hasn’t been the norm. Maybe we are learning to relax a bit? Heh.

We wound up at the Plaza Nueva, and enjoyed our coffees and choices of breakfast food. I’ve no clue what Dan had, but my croissant was so large he had to do me a favor and finish it for me. (But the angle from which this is taken makes his treat look rather small and it really wasn’t quite like that. Honest!)

We had asked the desk if we could have a late checkout due to our later, 16:55 flight, but that was denied, but they told us they could hold our luggage for us, so that worked too. Up to our room we went, and did a variety of wasting time kind of things, and packing (but hey, I had already done that … some other person had to do a lot more. Hah!) before we went downstairs prior the checkout time of noon. We got to the desk at 11:58. No one was there. Okay, can’t be our fault if it’s after noon, but yours truly always gets uptight about time. When someone finally showed up she immediately knew our room number. I have a feeling she had us pegged for annoying tourists or something, but who knows?

Then we took a walk in a direction we had yet to go, and ended up climbing up a hill for a pretty good view! We spotted the funicular we took the other day (final photo).

Then back to the hotel. We figured we could eat at the airport lounge, saving a bit of money as well. We collected our luggage, grabbed a taxi (not literally), and took a short but somewhat costly ride to the airport. (I do wonder if Uber would have been less, and we knew we could take a train and then a bus but we went for simple and easy.)

We checked our larger bags (required not only because of our trekking poles but because this plane said we wouldn’t be allowed as much carryon luggage), and went through security in pretty much no time, even while we had to take all electronic devices and cameras out of our bags and I had to remove my sweater and scarf. But hey, shoes could stay on.

Up to the lounge we went, and food was had. Even the lounge had 0.0% beer. It appears it’s everywhere.

We had gotten to the airport with a lot of time to spare, so that meant blogging, resting, and time for coffee and sweets too.

Finally on to the plane we went. And oh my, the woman to my left, who spoke English much better than we could speak French, had a long story to tell about her car rental and getting charged for damage. She was a character, for sure.

The flight was non-eventful, and since I was in the middle seat I didn’t get photos, aside from before the woman arrived and when she went back to talk to her partner.

We landed, got out of the plane, bought an expensive bottle over water (nearly $4!), and … hello Brussels! But not for long. We had a long walk to the baggage area, collected our bags eventually, and walked to the train we needed to take. With help from a very kind young man we got tickets, first to the south Brussels station and eventually to our next destination. Oh … and three of the photos below (the last three) are of bikes … like SO many bikes. I am not sure if you can see them, but I’m hoping you can make them out. This was at the train station in Ghent, I think.

Hello Bruges!

We took a cab to our hotel, and then … hooray … after getting to our room we met up with Jan and Greg (for those who don’t know, my sister-in-law and my brother). Let the fun begin! Sadly I didn’t even think to take a photo of them or our room, but after getting to our room, the “upgraded executive room” or so we were told, we went to theirs. Now wait a minute! Theirs is much, much larger than ours! What is it? The presidential room or something?! Hmmm.

We enjoyed glasses of wine, some chips, and devoured the remainder of Greg’s breakfast sweet since we hadn’t managed to get any dinner. (Thanks, Greg!)

Now, back in our room, it is late and we are ready for bed. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. (Internet is extremely sketchy here, so I can’t promise posts will get through … time will tell.)

Welterusten!

And We’re Off

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We headed to the airport on the early side. Okay, the too early side! But since we thought we might hit traffic we had opted for our departure time. So be it.

We checked luggage, rapidly went through security, and headed to the Polaris lounge where we made our dinner reservations. It took a while to get in, but eventually we got there. Dinner was … well … it was fine, but nothing to rave about. The portions are pretty tiny, which was fine since we knew our flight would also have a meal. From there we went back to some seats and sat. And sat. And sat. (Below is Dan, being a good boy with his alcohol free beer. And yeah, that’s my wine.)

We haven’t flown Lufthansa for a long haul flight in eons, and back when we did it certainly wasn’t in business class. So here we are, lay flat seats, fancy devices (there’s a tablet you can pull out of it’s holder plus a usual monitor in front of you), a blanket, pillow, and even a mattress pad. (And it has now occurred to me that on United you are putting your head down on a seat where so many others have slept and I wonder how carefully they clean things.) Oh … and important news … we can heat our seats. Go figure.


Prior to take-off I noticed we had a plane camera, so I did take some videos. I love it!

Dan was served dinner before I was. It took them quite a while to get to me, in fact. I guess they like him more. Understandable! I opted for a green and white asparagus appetizer, which came with a small salad and a dinner roll. Since we’d had drinks at the lounge and one small drink after boarding it was sparkling water for me.

Then it was sleep time. It was a restless legs sleep, but eventually I managed to doze off. Upon waking I saw that Dan was already upright and reading. Event it was “breakfast” time (despite the fact that it was dinner time in the country we were flying over and soon to land in. I figured an omelette could be for any meal, so I opted for that, although I really couldn’t finish it. These flights usually feed us more than I can handle, and having a lounge before and after a flight means we could eat even more.

After a bit under 11 hours we landed

… hello Munich! Or, really, hello Munich airport because that’s as much as we would see.

Then we had to head to another gate, which required a shuttle ride. A woman who had been on our first flight chatted with us a bit. Turns out she is from Los Gatos and she and Dan have a friend in common. Gotta love our small world.

From the shuttle we verified our next gate, and then went to spend an hour in the Senator’s Lounge. For this year — and possibly only this year! — we are Star Alliance Gold members which gets us into these lovely, quiet spots. Food is available, but having eaten so much I opted for a cappuccino (yes, I know the Italians would shake their heads if they saw me do that in the early evening!) and water (planes really cause dehydration).


Finally, back to a gate we went. This time for just a short hop, really. Stay tuned for the final destination!

(I’m quickly posting this, despite not having time to really make sure things are done properly: we have about 15 minutes so it’s either now or when we get to our hotel, and I’d rather it be now!)

Goodbye New York, Goodbye Vacation

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We had a ton of time to get our breakfast downstairs and come back and pack. Nothing exciting there. Then we decided to opt for a car rather than deal with our luggage, get to the Penn Station, and get a train to the airport. Maybe it was wimping out, but at the end of a trip I’m just not up for any stress and lugging these wheeled cases around is a nuisance. I look forward to using our packs next time if at all possible!

The start of security was a breeze: no ID necessary, but simply a scan of our faces. Then it was time to put our luggage, bags, and coats in the trays. But there was all of one line for that, so all lines (1K, Premier, TSA Pre, and the rest of the travelers who have none of those) merged into one. It’s just not a busy enough day, I guess, for them to bother to have more of the conveyer belts running. Since we were so early for our 4:30 flight it wasn’t a problem. I was just surprised by that one line.

As usual, we had a lot (too much?) time for the lounge. I’m absolutely fine with that, though, since I stress out if I’m not early. (Will I ever learn to relax about getting to airports? I doubt it!) I had the vegetarian chili for lunch, and I have to say it was actually very good. (Some people suggest skipping food on the plane entirely and just filling up on lounge food, due to the questionable quality of some plane food. I can understand why, but eating on the plane makes things go faster so I still go for it.)

The lounge was fairly quiet, unlike any other time I’ve been here. Finding seats was no problem at all, and it was nice and quiet.

It is now 30 minutes to boarding so I will close this out and post it. (The lounge has since filled up, and it’s not as quiet any longer. People are walking all around to find a seat. I guess I can be glad we got here when we did.)

When we get back home I’ll write (most likely something very short) about the rest of the journey and then I’ll also be blogging about things I want to do differently (probably tomorrow). In truth I think this all went very well, but there is always the “Why did I bring that?!” and the “Next time remember to bring this!” stuff.

So bye for now!

Goodbye Europe, Hello NYC!

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We woke early today and, miracle of miracles, we both woke before our alarms went off. (More of a surprise with me than with Dan.)

Packing was quick. Deciding to check luggage after all was rather speedy as well. Roller bags are just not as pleasant to deal with in the overhead bins, and it also meant I didn’t have to consolidate my purse with my Cabin Max bag. I do, however, feel a bit of a failure when I do checked luggage. Go figure.

Our drive to the airport was easy, but communicating to our driver wasn’t. She initially thought we were going to terminal four, even though we said one a number of times. She then dropped us off at the far end of terminal one and we had a bit of a walk. It wasn’t really a problem, being as we were there much earlier than necessary. We were so early, in fact, that they hadn’t opened the luggage check area yet. That opened only a few minutes later, though, and we were second in line so that was quite speedy. Then it was a walk to the the A gates.

Not speedy was finding the lounge! We had mixed messages when we looked online. One suggested the lounge I thought we should go to was closed for renovation. Dan’s info said we should go to B6, but we couldn’t even find B6! Eventually we saw a sign and, sure enough, “my” lounge was where we were to go. It was quite nice, and I loved that we could go outside. Had the weather been warmer we would have sat out there.

After a few hours (that, for me anyway, seemed to speed by) we saw on the board that we should go to our gate. So off we went.

I’m sure we could have left the lounge 10 or 15 minutes later, but I do like getting to the gate on the early side.

This plane’s seating is different than we’ve experienced before. We can’t sit together, as no Polaris seats are in pairs. Because of this we chose window seats. Dan is in 7L and I’m in 9L (8L didn’t have a window). It’s rather fun to look outside — something we’ve not done on an international flight since we moved to Polaris. (I like to have the map on the screen so I can see where we are.)

(The final image is probably over Porto.)

One reason to get Polaris is, of course, so we can put the seats back and actually sleep, but first … dinner. Or what they call lunch. Seemed more like dinner to me, and it was actually quite tasty.

Soon after eating I decided to try and sleep, and I think I slept for over an hour — perhaps even two hours. Then it was the typical just hang, do whatever … and look out the window when we finally saw land again. First it was Canada, and later Massachusetts.

The landing was maybe the smoothest I’ve ever experienced. After landing we saw a lot of emergency vehicles. Hmm. We figured some plane must have had an issue. And, indeed, one did. Ours! We were informed that a tire had some sort of a problem and we were stuck for a while as they had to decide if the plane could proceed to the terminal or if it needed to be towed. Finally we moved again (no towing), and arrived. Going through passport control was SO easy, because we have Global Entry. Gotta love it. Luggage was retrieved and we opted to use Lyft rather than take the train.

Maybe that wasn’t a wise choice. Traffic was ghastly. But so it goes. We finally arrived at the Hotel Belleclaire. It’s rather funny that this is the smallest room we’ve had on this trip. Maneuvering around is a challenge. I am somewhat convinced that I get smaller rooms here when I book through Expedia. I had written to the Belleclaire to see if they would match Expedia’s price, though, and they never replied. (Their site says that they will match a price. Hm.) But we arrived safe and sound and I won’t complain. We unpacked, rested a bit, and then went out to meet family.

And it was COLD. Funny that this is probably the coldest weather on the trip. Who knew?

Next up: meeting with Brandon, and later Jameson, Meghan, and Lia. We ended up eating at Amsterdam Ale House, which is sort of a go-to place when we stay at the Belleclaire. Only one photo, shot by Dan., and it’s not exactly his masterpiece, but how wonderful to be with these four tonight!

At this point it is 3:48 AM in Spain. I think I’m handling the time change fairly well, but tomorrow will tell the real story!

G’night!

Tschüss München, Tschüss Deutschland

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… and, so very sadly, goodbye Jan & Greg. Oh how I will miss you.

This morning, after getting nearly everything packed, we went one last time to Greg & Jan’s room and had coffees and pastries. (EEK, I forgot to thank them for the coffee they brought for me … so sorry, you two … and thank you!!)

When it was time for them to head to their train we said our goodbyes and Dan and I went back to our room to kill a bit of time and finish packing completely. After checking out we found our way to the S-bahn and the train arrived in only a minute or two. Have some boring photos from the train:

The train took us right to the airport. But what a place it is. We hadn’t been to this airport before, so we had a bit of navigating to do, but the signs are fairly clear once we look up and find them! We entered one building but our terminal was out the back of that building and into another. First though … a Christmas market between the two buildings!

Part of me wanted to stop and look around, but, more importantly, I wanted to get in and check our roller bags since we knew they were too large and too heavy for the Lufthansa flight.

Security was easy (so very organized), although I trigged the thing again. I saw the image they had and it showed that something was in a pocket. But no, nothing there! So who knows why that happened. Dan triggered it because of his TSA approved plastic belt. So much for thinking that belt could stay on.

We proceeded to the Senator Lounge (a perk of Dan’s, being as he is Star Alliance Gold), and we then knew whe had quite a bit of time to eat, do whatever on our iPads, and relax. (And, for me, walk a bit since I got antsy legs!)

… and yet the time passed rather quickly for me. So much for “quite a bit of time”.

We headed to our gate (a 7 minute walk according to the info provided in the lounge) and, yes, it took a while, especially since all those “moving sidewalk” thingies (what are they called?) were not working. We were boarding group 2 … but they boarded 1 and 2 at the same time. AND we were in the first row after the first class rows (of which there were only 3). Another bonus? No one in the other seat in our row, so I moved over to the window.

It was a fairly quick flight, and most of it was in the clouds, but I did take a few photos.

We had a bit of a walk and two fun bits on the way to gather up our luggage:


And the … hello Paris! We were planning on doing the train in and then catching a cab at the end of the run, but then we decided the cab wasn’t much more expensive and would be easier than navigating ourselves. But oh the traffic was horrendous. Maybe this is a normal thing: I wouldn’t know. Getting in to the city, though, was such fun. I’m excited to wander tomorrow.


We are staying at the Hotel Saint Petersbourg Opera. It’s not cheap, but it’s Paris and you take what you can get. We have a sweet room, and it’s near a lot of places include it Palais Garnier, where we will see Rake’s Progress tomorrow night.


Dinner was just a short distance from our hotel and suited us just fine. By that time it was getting rather late so we knew we wouldn’t go far. It’s now after 10 PM and it’s been a long day, so off to bed we go.

We’ve Arrived!

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Our flight to Frankfurt was pretty uneventful. There was the occasional turbulence but nothing awful. Well, the landing was rough but I believe that was due to the weather (we had to circle for 20 minutes before we were cleared to land).

We both managed to sleep on the plane. I sure think the expense of Polaris is worth it.

I am feeling pretty good at the moment. It’s currently 12:31 PM here and it feels like it’s around 4ish in the afternoon. Not bad.

Passport control was a breeze: I wasn’t even asked a single question. Dan was briefly quizzed, but it seemed like the guy wasn’t even paying attention to his answers! Then off to get luggage and when it was finally coming down the ramp our bags were nearly first. Easy peasy.

We headed out of the luggage area to find Greg and Jan waiting for us. So that was easy as well. We then headed from Frankfurt to their place in Heidelberg. (SO thankful that they picked us up … thanks, you two!)

Kind of boring, right? No catastrophes, no lost luggage, no long lines. But don’t worry, I know that on every trip there is something that will cause a bit of stress. I’m ready. Or as ready as one can be, anyway.

We are now settled in at Greg and Jan’s: and one of us is napping. I’ll probably do the same in a moment.

And Now We Are Home

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We began our morning quite leisurely since checkout was at 11:00 and there was no rush to get to the airport. Packing is usually more difficult at the end of the trip, even while we never purchase souvenirs. This time, though, I had no issues at all. I suspect it’s because I had to unpack and pack so many times I knew where everything would fit.

When we checked out we called a car to take us to Paddington Station. Normally we’d just do the tube — the cost would be MUCH less and the time wouldn’t be much more. But with our extra luggage we opted to spend the big bucks.

Well … getting out of our area took quite a bit of time: traffic was rotten. We finally got over the Thames and our driver took us near Buckingham Palace. Who knew there would be a bunch of horses and riders in full regalia going up the street ahead of us?! More delays. Finally they headed straight and we turned a bit.

Only to find they were again in front of us!



We could only laugh.

Eventually we did make it to Paddington, but it took quite a bit longer than the tube and it was, oh, perhaps $50 more! But on a trip like this I suppose that’s a drop in the bucket. (That being written, one drop can make a bucket overflow … right?)

Next up was getting to the Heathrow Express. Again, this was a bit of an extravagant expense. But it was only a 15 minute ride compared to the longer, less costly way to go.

Except there was a delay!

This delay was nothing like the “horse delay” though, and we did get to the airport. From there we walked (and walked) to the United area to check our luggage. Easy peasy.

Next up was security. Being in another country our TSA pre-check doesn’t do much good, but we were able to get through via a speedier lane. Well, I had a good pat down at Frankfurt’s airport, and this time I set off the alarm again. No pat down this time … just had to remove my shoes. And yes, those were the culprits. I wonder if there’s a way to research and find out if a particular brand and/or style of shoe sets off the alarm. It sure would be nice to know. But if I wear these again (doubtful), I’ll just remember to remove them and put them in the tray, even if they say not to bother.

But wait, there’s more! We then had to navigate to the United area where our gate and the lounge were located. Signage made it somewhat easy, but when we got to one spot it said to reach the gates including ours was a mere (okay, they didn’t use the word “mere”) 15 minute walk! I can’t remember in which order we did escalators but there was some up and down and maybe down and up … or something. Clearly there were people who had arrived thinking they could just get to their gate quickly and arrived a wee bit late … lots of running going on! But of course we did make it, with no running, and we entered the rather full, and in need of an update (ripped seats and all) United lounge.



When it was time to get to our gate that was quick ‘n easy. Close to our arrival we were able to line up and get ready to board. The plane was not close to full, so boarding went quickly.

Taking off did not.

While we were ready to take off, the captain said that we were delayed due to other planes ahead of us, making our arrival time a bit later than we had expected, even while we would have arrived early had we been able to take off on time. We settled in, readying ourselves for a 10+ hour flight.


About eight hours into the flight I put the flight map back on: I love seeing where we are. Well, apparently the internet was down (a reason I rarely bother to spend any money on purchasing WiFi — and never on an international flight as it’s tremendously expensive) so while the info was provided (2h 19m to destination) the map showed the UK only and was pointless. Ah … but when I clicked on it it showed us over South Dakota. Hello USA! I guess we really were going to get home.

(United has updated their map and their safety video since the last time we flew. The map is better, I think. The safety video is definitely not (yawn). FYI … because you know you want to know.)

At the start of our flight we were served a rather substantial dinner. Then lights were dimmed and it was clearly time to rest. I’m not sure how airlines determine whose time to use, but I’d much prefer adjusting to the time ahead of me rather than the one I just left. When I get on the plane (or sometimes even right before) I set my watch for the destination time. What can I say? I guess I like to think ahead.

The flight was pretty uneventful, although I did end up with my restless legs and a bit of a stomach issue toward the end: the legs are no surprise, and the stomach was, I think, simply due to eating too darn much!

My sister Carolyn picked us up after we easily breezed through customs (thank you, Global Entry!), and she drove us straight to our house. THANK YOU, Carolyn!

And now we are home. Not unpacked, because of the time, but home. Tomorrow will be a washing, grocery shopping, and house cleaning day, for sure.

Over ‘n out.

Soooo … time to plan the next trip …?!