Rome/Barcelona Oct/Nov 2018-Day 1, 10/24-25/2018 – A Tale of Many Airports

When you purchase a smoking deal on airfare, there are consequences. A year and a half ago, we decided to go on a short cruise of the Mediterranean – from Rome, up around southern France, and down to Barcelona. Cruise dates set, and a $500 RT fare to Frankfurt, and we were good to go. Now to figure out where to go! Plans were set for 6 nights in Rome, and the same in Barcelona on the other end of the cruise, and flights to/from Frankfurt were purchased. All good in theory.

That is until I realized that were were covering 4 different airports and 3 different time zones in the span of about 24 hours. Wow. What a marathon, and in addition, a study of human behavior! And I thought the Delhi airport had provided fodder!

We began with a night flight out of SeaTac on Wednesday the 24th. Vancouver BC is really our preferred airport, since I live halfway to Canada anyway, and the friend I travel with lives another hour north of me. But, any port when airfare is low. Our British Air flight to London was late. Then it wasn’t late. Then it was late again. I lost track.

Sharon said the flight was great. Me? Not so much. I am not a fan of flying. But this is my 7th cross continental trip in 5 and a half years, so I’m better. But this is the first time we hit real turbulence. More than just a few bumps, but really jolted around. Sharon just shrugged and stated that we were in the back of the plane, and it’s always worse, and besides we were over Greenland. It’s always bumpy. So I asked the flight attendant if this was normal. I was told yes. Great. Other than that, the flight was great.

One amusing note was deep into the flight. Everybody was asleep, and most of the entertainment screens had gone dark. One lady was working her way back up the aisle, and hanging onto seat backs for balance. Each time she grabbed a seat, her hand touched the screen in the seat back, and she woke it up. She left a trail of lit up screens in her wake.

We arrived at Heathrow, and trekked through the airport, going through security again. It’s funny how security in each airport is a little different. This time it was liquids. They REALLY wanted all your liquids in a plastic bag! Even Sharon’s 1 oz bottle of lotion. The things you forget.

The next airport, Frankfurt, is huge! I’ve commented about being vanned in from the tarmac before, and how common it was. Last night was the same. But the security was the problem. The line was massive. And we waited, and waited. When we finally got up to the lines, Sharon and I ended up in separate rows. She got through quickly. In my line, the x-ray machine broke down. We waited, and waited, and waited some more. Then, we all merged into the other line. No complaining, just resignation. I switched to another line, and the attendant directed me to yet another. And I ended up behind a man with 5 bins, who wouldn’t get off his phone in order to get organized! I could see Sharon looking around, wondering where I’d vanished to. Half an hour in line, and another half hour just to get through the security. It was really too bad our Nexus/Global Entry passes didn’t work in Europe. SeaTac was a breeze!

We were lucky that we had enough time built into our connections, but we watched multiple people running for their planes.

The final flight, a short hop from Frankfurt to Rome, was a bit like a TV Sitcom. One poor lady (a very sophisticated business woman in a Burberry scarf) had lost her phone. She’d been in several seats (not sure why), and was tearing the area around us apart while boarding was going on. And behind us were the equivalent of the New Jersey/Italian Golden Girls. Two talked over their companion in the middle seat at top volume, switching from English (with a New Jersey accent) to Italian with a fluency I envied. The phrase ‘Let me finish talking’ should give you an idea how the conversation went. Halfway into the flight, phone lady enlisted the flight attendant again to try to find her phone. A little later, she unloaded the luggage compartment above us into the aisle (and just missing Sharon). Then she enlisted the Golden Girls in the search. It was a circus.

As we disembarked, Sharon got up out of her aisle seat, and I looked down. There was a black leather case, hardly visible against a black seat. I asked Sharon if it was hers, and she shook her head. I just knew. Picking up one of the most lovely, soft, fine leather phone cases I’ve ever seen, I turned to phone lady and asked if it was hers. And she erupted with a shriek of refined delight, that yes, it was! And I was on the receiving end of a spontaneous hug. Somehow, it had slipped out and down into the crease of Sharon’s seat before Sharon had sat down. She didn’t even know it was there.

Anyway, we were finally in Rome at midnight. The airports we visited, Heathrow, Frankfurt, and Rome, make SeaTac look small. What I could see of the city on our drive in looks amazing. But like Venice, it isn’t very brightly lit at night. First impressions are of excellent highways, and lots of dark spaces. There was a magnificent basilica up on a hill that had few lights on it. I wonder if it might have been St. Marks, but who knows. We are in the City of Seven Hills, and I’d guess most of them have a monument of some kind on them.

Another comment? Lane lines on the highways are just a suggestion. Not as bad as India by a long shot, but our driver, as well as others, spent a lot of time straddling lane lines.

When we finally reached our hotel, off of a tiny medieval cobblestones street, it had the biggest doors I’ve ever seen. Huge double wood doors, with knockers the size of our head halfway up, about 12 feet off the ground. When the door opened, it turned out to be a people door in the middle. I’ll get a picture late.

Just a few pictures today. Our bathroom is tiled in a lovely yellow. Only in Italy. And two different spiral staircases outside our window. I’ll be really interested to see Rome in the daylight.