We had to be down at the lobby to catch a shuttle to the airport at 5:30am. The hotel prepared a bagged breakfast with a continental breakfast for us to take to the airport. At the Schiphol Airport there was no lines at 5:45am and we journeyed to the Lufthansa desk to check in. At that hour of the morning there was only one person working the desk, so we waited in line for about 40 minutes to get checked in and my luggage checked through to Denver for customs.
We got to the gate with time to spare and soon loaded the A320 (like a 727) for the 45-minute flight to Frankfurt. They did manage to serve a breakfast on the flight, granola, yogurt, a breakfast bar and an apple. Then we arrived a Frankfurt.
Frankfurt was again terrible, 1-star, would not recommend. Again, we got caught up in their failing fingerprint, facial recognition passport control. It still wasn’t working. We were again in a long line 9f people waiting to go through passport control. They took a group of us back through the airport to get in another line for passport control, and then a gentleman took a group of us back to the original line. We only had a 2-hour layover this time, so we were somewhat stressed.
We finally got up near the front of the line, and I saw what the problem was. Whether it was one person, or a family group. When they got to the window and handed over their passports, they had to wait while the system processed through the non-existent fingerprint scan, the lights for the photo facial scan went on and off, and after a few minutes the system timed out, and the police could stamp the passports. One person took 3-4 minutes, a family group of 6, took 15-20 minutes. We were going to gate Z-18, so after we got through passport control, we hustled up some stairs and finally arrived at gate Z-18 with about 10 minutes to spare.
After taking some deep invigorating breaths we waited while they boarded the elderly, the families with small children, active duty, etc., etc. We were in boarding group 1, so after about 10 minutes we “boarded”. What boarding meant was that we went down two flights of stairs to the tarmac level and exited doors leading to busses. We were just about the last to board the busses, and we pulled out and drove halfway back to Amsterdam (it seemed) and pulled up next to the aircraft.
Just like our trip in, the United aircraft was standing on the tarmac. There we sat for 15-20 minutes while the ground crew scurried around prepping the aircraft. After a while they opened the doors, and since I was in the doorway, I stepped down and got immediately yelled at by the security guys to get back on the bus.
We stood there another 10 minutes or so, but at least the doors were open for some ventilation. The security guys then gestured for us to come down and enter the plane. I think I was the second guy up the steps and stepped into the first-class cabin. I found my seat and settled in.
After about another 45 minutes or so, be finally closed up and began to taxi. We eventually took off and began to climb out.
On the airline they had Aperol Spritz in a bottle. Just as satisfying. It was a long 10-hour flight, I got a satisfying lunch (beef short ribs, potatoes, and an ice cream sundae for dessert; a nap; and got to watch Wicked: For Good. But of course, traveling Westbound, we gained 8 hours for traveling 10.5 hours so we landed shortly after noon.
We cleared customs by going upstairs (to avoid mingling with domestic passengers) and trekking a long way back to the international arrivals area. It was a long hike, but it strung us out, so we encountered customs officials a few at a time. They processed us through their photo-id system, and we arrived a baggage collection point. After 15 or so minutes the bags started coming out of the carousel. We eventually got my bag and headed out to the exit area, got asked a perfunctory “Anything to declare?” and were released into the concourse. I decided not to recheck my bag since the flight to Casper will let you gate-check the bag, so we hustled down to the train to go to concourse B. We got to the United Club (free for international travel) where I had an hour to kill before mu flight.
With about a half hour before takeoff, I wandered down to B-62, down at the small gates at the end of the terminal. I sat down and boarded the flight and relaxed on board. We had a maintenance issue with a big orange light on the dash that was illuminated. After trying for 15 or 20 minutes the maintenance guy decided to shut down the plane completely and restart it. (The old shut down and restart it ploy.) We took off about a half hour late, but made up most of the time on the flight.
Mike and Jan met me at the gate and off we went. We stopped for a quick meal at the Smokehouse. I only had a cup of green chili, since I was working on my third or fourth meal of the day. With that, we drove home in the early afternoon. I unpacked, separated out my dirty clothes, almost all of them except for a couple of shorts and t-shirts. I managed to stay awake until about 7:30 pm and then I crashed. After a couple of brief head breaks, I finally failed open about 5:30 am after 10 hours. I got up made some coffee & Kahula and started on yesterday’s blog. Later this morning (Sunday) I started a big load of laundry and finished off this page of the blog.
I am so glad I blogged daily, so I can go back are review each day, since my memory tends to bleed them together. Big old churches that run from the 10th through the 16th century, Roman ruins from the 1st through the 5th centuries, damage from WWII bombings that range from virtually nothing to complete restoration of ruins.
As a reminder, Kate’s Google album of all 871 pictures is available at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/SFQh7Ypfb1WZgcDx7