Last Monday, Andrew and I said goodbye to his family, and on Tuesday we said goodbye to mine when my parents dropped us off at the Denver airport for our flight back to Switzerland that afternoon. It was really hard to say goodbye after so much wonderful time together over the past few months. I think it was even harder because this time we don't know when we'll come home next, and know it might be as long as two years.
We had several strokes of luck during our return. It started when our carefully pre-weighed luggage turned out to be 1.5 pounds overweight on the airport's scale. At home, with a luggage scale they had weighed in at 48 pounds each. The airline employee was very kind to waive the $200 fee per suitcase -- although we would have just taken something out and left it with my parents rather than take the fee. So we kept everything and saved $400.
We had found a beat up carry-on suitcase in my parents closet at home that turned out to be one we had left there on a past trip. We filled it with all the stuff we hadn't been able to fit with our other luggage, including some of our winter clothes and foods like cake mixes, frosting, and canned green chiles. Andrew used that as a carryon. It was rather fat, though, so when we got to the gate, he showed it to the gate attendant and she offered to check it for free all the way to our destination. So we managed to check another bag without paying the additional bag fee of $125.
When we landed in Chicago, something was wrong at the gate we were assigned to, so we sat on the tarmac for about 30 minutes. Then we got a new gate but it took another 15 minutes to move to that gate and get off the plane. That meant we had 15 minutes to get all the way across O'Hare airport to the offsite international terminal, which included passing through security again. We ran with all our carryon luggage, but were resigned to missing our flight.
As we hoofed it around the corner and could see our gate in the distance, we heard a last boarding call over the loudspeakers and someone calling our names. We yelled to the gate attendants that we were coming and they urged us on. We were the very last ones to board the plane, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath. On the plane we were in the very middle of the middle section, but the plane narrowed toward the back and the middle section narrowed to just three seats instead of four. That put Andrew on the aisle and made it easy for me to get out to stretch my legs or go to the bathroom. There were also bottles of water at every seat.
The flight to Copenhagen was good, and at that airport we had to go to a desk to get new boarding passes for the next flight to Zurich -- a reason for which we won't be flying Scandinavian Airlines again because they don't give boarding passes in advance and you have to risk missing every flight by standing in a long, slow line to pick up your next boarding pass. But this time we made it without having to run.
We landed in Zurich in the afternoon of Wednesday feeling tired but a sense of home as we entered the now familiar Zurich airport. Three of our four suitcases didn't make it and we weren't surprised because of the close connection in Chicago. We got them safe and sound two days later.
We've been home a week now and although it took some adjustment, it was quick and we're back in the groove of things. We are anxious to see all our friends here soon and to enjoy Europe in the summer. The first thing we did on our first beautiful, sunny Saturday was to go hiking in the Alps.
Here's what we saw.
It's good to be back. :-)
We had several strokes of luck during our return. It started when our carefully pre-weighed luggage turned out to be 1.5 pounds overweight on the airport's scale. At home, with a luggage scale they had weighed in at 48 pounds each. The airline employee was very kind to waive the $200 fee per suitcase -- although we would have just taken something out and left it with my parents rather than take the fee. So we kept everything and saved $400.
We had found a beat up carry-on suitcase in my parents closet at home that turned out to be one we had left there on a past trip. We filled it with all the stuff we hadn't been able to fit with our other luggage, including some of our winter clothes and foods like cake mixes, frosting, and canned green chiles. Andrew used that as a carryon. It was rather fat, though, so when we got to the gate, he showed it to the gate attendant and she offered to check it for free all the way to our destination. So we managed to check another bag without paying the additional bag fee of $125.
When we landed in Chicago, something was wrong at the gate we were assigned to, so we sat on the tarmac for about 30 minutes. Then we got a new gate but it took another 15 minutes to move to that gate and get off the plane. That meant we had 15 minutes to get all the way across O'Hare airport to the offsite international terminal, which included passing through security again. We ran with all our carryon luggage, but were resigned to missing our flight.
As we hoofed it around the corner and could see our gate in the distance, we heard a last boarding call over the loudspeakers and someone calling our names. We yelled to the gate attendants that we were coming and they urged us on. We were the very last ones to board the plane, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath. On the plane we were in the very middle of the middle section, but the plane narrowed toward the back and the middle section narrowed to just three seats instead of four. That put Andrew on the aisle and made it easy for me to get out to stretch my legs or go to the bathroom. There were also bottles of water at every seat.
The flight to Copenhagen was good, and at that airport we had to go to a desk to get new boarding passes for the next flight to Zurich -- a reason for which we won't be flying Scandinavian Airlines again because they don't give boarding passes in advance and you have to risk missing every flight by standing in a long, slow line to pick up your next boarding pass. But this time we made it without having to run.
We landed in Zurich in the afternoon of Wednesday feeling tired but a sense of home as we entered the now familiar Zurich airport. Three of our four suitcases didn't make it and we weren't surprised because of the close connection in Chicago. We got them safe and sound two days later.
We've been home a week now and although it took some adjustment, it was quick and we're back in the groove of things. We are anxious to see all our friends here soon and to enjoy Europe in the summer. The first thing we did on our first beautiful, sunny Saturday was to go hiking in the Alps.
Here's what we saw.
It's good to be back. :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment