The Departure From America
Right now it's noon in Amsterdam. After a few paragraphs, you may realize why some of this will not make sense.
I don't feel as wasted as I usually do, but I know it's coming. Jet Lag from the US to Europe is the tough one. Maybe that's because when you are coming home you have that little extra buzz of getting back to what's normal.
This has been a screwed up little trip. Here's the highlights and lowlights.
Leg one - Minneapolis to Detroit. I'm waiting at the gate, calling mom and dad and wishing them a pre-happy 48th wedding anniversary. There is an announcement at the gate that they have found a crack in the airplane. We are assured that they are having someone take a look at it, and that will be ready to go once the inspection is completed. Are they following procedures here, or are they actually worried that the plan might not be flight-worthy? The old man sitting next to me snickers, and I ask him if the crack is on his side of the plane or mine.
About 10 minutes later, they announce that they have found another plane to make the fight. We are moving from F3 to G15, BINGO! This is just halfway across the airport, about a 10 minute walk. We sit and sit waiting to board the new and improved. Boarding is quick, people are ready to go. There is not an empty seat on the plane.
The crew is uneasy now, and they announce that they have NO food or beverage service on the new stead. The captain announces that we will go without unless someone has strung objections. I waited for a gravity challenged female to start grumbling, it would have been fun to skewer her and serve her as the main course. We taxi away from the concourse about 50 minutes past departure time. Now the plane taxis for 15 minutes, taking the 494 exit east to 94 east and finally lifting off somewhere in Wisconsin.
Let's not forget, I have 2 more flight segments ahead.
The captain announces that we will be touching down the exact minute of the departure of my international flight in Detroit. Uh, right. Houston we have problems. The captain announces that if you have problems with your connecting flight, please present yourself to the stewards to make arrangements. Dutifully I present my ticket to the jittery Dutch speaking attendant, who tells me I will never make that flight. I know that, now what. She tells me to see the desk agent to get reassigned to the later flight to Amsterdam from Detroit! I am saved.
Leg two - Detroit to Amsterdam. The one hour layover flies by, and I make a flurry of last minute calls because I can. It will be one month without phone service here on the continent. My t-mobile phone works here, but it's $0.99 per minute for service. Then again, that's why you take vacation, to get away from the damn phone.
On the earlier flight I had the cat-bird seat. The flight was wide open, and I had a seat in an empty row. Can you say lay down and go to sleep?!? But I'm not on that flight now, and I can't pick my seat using the nifty internet check-in tool on the Northwest website. In fact, I'm lucky to be on the flight, because there are no empty seats on the flight. I'm in 19D, sandwiched between a rosary praying Hispanic guy and a excessively wide Turk. Don't get me wrong, the Turk is not mean, we talk a little and he is very pleasant. The excessively wide thing is not pleasant. These moments also make you realize that I am not small, or medium either. So what do we do about the arm rests?
The flight is really fine, except for the obnoxiousness of the seat-mounted multi-media displays playing NWA commercials. Once the flight started, I did a quick tour, and found the free computer games! Very nice compared to the continuous infomercials of the past. I played Bejeweled for hours! I hope it annoyed the Turk and Hispanic, because their constant chuckling at Something about Mary and I married a Super Heroine bugged the crap out of me!
In final approach, the captain announces that we are about 50 minutes late on arrival. WHAT? Why did we taxi from Detroit to Toronto to take off? It is happening again. Theoretically I had one hour 30 minutes to catch the flight to Berlin. Now it's 45 minutes. We arrive at G55, can there really be 55 gates in one concourse? YES. My flight is leaving from B26, is concourse B exactly opposite of concourse G? YES. Be calm, we can make this flight if we just move quickly. Unless there is a security checkpoint between the gates. There is. I reach B26 at 9:55 for my 10:10 flight. This is a bus gate, , and as I walk up the attendant is walking in the door, and the bus is pulling away from the door. I wave and shout, but she does not turn, just walks toward me and meets me at the desk, telling me I have missed the flight, and directly me to the transfer desk next to the security checkpoint. Not to worry, there is a 3:20 flight. Uggh.
Things pick up. I can use my phone to call Ole and tell him I am delayed before he leaves to pick me up at the airport. With the transfer ticket, I get a meal voucher, a 5 minute phone card, and a €50 voucher on a KLM flight. I still have to deal with a 4 hour layover on full jetlag. The meal voucher gets me a wilted lettuce Mediterranean salad (not mean to be wilted), and a huge kiwi cocktail fruit drink with enough kick to keep me writing this long.
The final kick is that the delay in arriving in Berlin leaves Ole and I in rush-hour traffic to and from the airport. More news about that later. I need to move now, as my eyelids get heavy, and every time I think of what to do, my head screams sleep.
I don't feel as wasted as I usually do, but I know it's coming. Jet Lag from the US to Europe is the tough one. Maybe that's because when you are coming home you have that little extra buzz of getting back to what's normal.
This has been a screwed up little trip. Here's the highlights and lowlights.
Leg one - Minneapolis to Detroit. I'm waiting at the gate, calling mom and dad and wishing them a pre-happy 48th wedding anniversary. There is an announcement at the gate that they have found a crack in the airplane. We are assured that they are having someone take a look at it, and that will be ready to go once the inspection is completed. Are they following procedures here, or are they actually worried that the plan might not be flight-worthy? The old man sitting next to me snickers, and I ask him if the crack is on his side of the plane or mine.
About 10 minutes later, they announce that they have found another plane to make the fight. We are moving from F3 to G15, BINGO! This is just halfway across the airport, about a 10 minute walk. We sit and sit waiting to board the new and improved. Boarding is quick, people are ready to go. There is not an empty seat on the plane.
The crew is uneasy now, and they announce that they have NO food or beverage service on the new stead. The captain announces that we will go without unless someone has strung objections. I waited for a gravity challenged female to start grumbling, it would have been fun to skewer her and serve her as the main course. We taxi away from the concourse about 50 minutes past departure time. Now the plane taxis for 15 minutes, taking the 494 exit east to 94 east and finally lifting off somewhere in Wisconsin.
Let's not forget, I have 2 more flight segments ahead.
The captain announces that we will be touching down the exact minute of the departure of my international flight in Detroit. Uh, right. Houston we have problems. The captain announces that if you have problems with your connecting flight, please present yourself to the stewards to make arrangements. Dutifully I present my ticket to the jittery Dutch speaking attendant, who tells me I will never make that flight. I know that, now what. She tells me to see the desk agent to get reassigned to the later flight to Amsterdam from Detroit! I am saved.
Leg two - Detroit to Amsterdam. The one hour layover flies by, and I make a flurry of last minute calls because I can. It will be one month without phone service here on the continent. My t-mobile phone works here, but it's $0.99 per minute for service. Then again, that's why you take vacation, to get away from the damn phone.
On the earlier flight I had the cat-bird seat. The flight was wide open, and I had a seat in an empty row. Can you say lay down and go to sleep?!? But I'm not on that flight now, and I can't pick my seat using the nifty internet check-in tool on the Northwest website. In fact, I'm lucky to be on the flight, because there are no empty seats on the flight. I'm in 19D, sandwiched between a rosary praying Hispanic guy and a excessively wide Turk. Don't get me wrong, the Turk is not mean, we talk a little and he is very pleasant. The excessively wide thing is not pleasant. These moments also make you realize that I am not small, or medium either. So what do we do about the arm rests?
The flight is really fine, except for the obnoxiousness of the seat-mounted multi-media displays playing NWA commercials. Once the flight started, I did a quick tour, and found the free computer games! Very nice compared to the continuous infomercials of the past. I played Bejeweled for hours! I hope it annoyed the Turk and Hispanic, because their constant chuckling at Something about Mary and I married a Super Heroine bugged the crap out of me!
In final approach, the captain announces that we are about 50 minutes late on arrival. WHAT? Why did we taxi from Detroit to Toronto to take off? It is happening again. Theoretically I had one hour 30 minutes to catch the flight to Berlin. Now it's 45 minutes. We arrive at G55, can there really be 55 gates in one concourse? YES. My flight is leaving from B26, is concourse B exactly opposite of concourse G? YES. Be calm, we can make this flight if we just move quickly. Unless there is a security checkpoint between the gates. There is. I reach B26 at 9:55 for my 10:10 flight. This is a bus gate, , and as I walk up the attendant is walking in the door, and the bus is pulling away from the door. I wave and shout, but she does not turn, just walks toward me and meets me at the desk, telling me I have missed the flight, and directly me to the transfer desk next to the security checkpoint. Not to worry, there is a 3:20 flight. Uggh.
Things pick up. I can use my phone to call Ole and tell him I am delayed before he leaves to pick me up at the airport. With the transfer ticket, I get a meal voucher, a 5 minute phone card, and a €50 voucher on a KLM flight. I still have to deal with a 4 hour layover on full jetlag. The meal voucher gets me a wilted lettuce Mediterranean salad (not mean to be wilted), and a huge kiwi cocktail fruit drink with enough kick to keep me writing this long.
The final kick is that the delay in arriving in Berlin leaves Ole and I in rush-hour traffic to and from the airport. More news about that later. I need to move now, as my eyelids get heavy, and every time I think of what to do, my head screams sleep.
posted by Wylbur at 5:31 AM
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