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In Which We Fly Home
Aug. 23rd, 2019 11:00 pmWe got up ludicrously early today: 3:30 local time in the UK. We checked out of the Best Western Willerby Manor, which I wholeheartedly commend to you, should you find yourself in search of a base of operations in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Convenient to Hull and the adorable market town of Beverley, with a delightful indoor pool (it is also a health club), with a surprisingly good restaurant / pub, the Figs Brasserie. Cheerful staff, the beds are acceptable and other than the fact that the built in hair dryers emit a bit of a hum, no complaints at all.
Anyway. We checked out, drove over that enormous bridge over the Humber, dropped the Europcar off, located the key drop for the car return and checked our bags. Then we got in line for security and oh lordie did we cock that up. My apologies to everyone else in line behind us.
See, between TSA Precheck, and limited European security experience (going back to the US at Schiphol, US rules of leave the electronics and liquids in the bags apply), we totally forgot about the whole remove electronics, liquids bags, etc. And thus, we wound up getting the full treatment. _They opened my small hand lotion to chemically test the contents._ For real.
Oh well!
No jetway! A ramp that zigged back and forth.
Once we were at Schiphol (oh, and they did feed us breakfast and oops, I ate the tiny granola and only after realized there was milk powder in there. Sigh. At least Dramamine is an effective antihistamine), we rode a little bus from the plane to the terminal.
Because this was a one way ticket, purchased separately from our round trip, and directly from KLM, rather than Delta, the two tickets we were flying on were not connected. So we went through passport control, got our bags, and then found departures, rechecked our bags for the second flight, went through so so so many rounds of passport checking, stopped at McDonalds for the kids, bought a couple souvenirs, and found our gate.
Once on the plane, things were very uneventful. Altho when people tell you that the refurbed business on those flights have narrower lie flats than the previous iteration and/or other iterations, they are not actually kidding. One must never complain about such things, however! Mercifully, everyone got some naps in. And my special meals all showed up and they had chocolate chip cookies for A.
I tried to buy internet for T. on the plane, but after 3 rounds of payment problems, I gave up. And then I found out that I was still charged, when we were off the plane and had cellular data again. *sigh* More things to try to fix.
We had one of our favorite (probably our favorite, honestly) driver going home from the airport, which was good because there was a big slowdown going into Concord. R. says there had been a water main break at the rotary.
Once home, I unpacked, did laundry, napped and tried to work on a grocery list and clean out the last of what was in the fridge.
Anyway. We checked out, drove over that enormous bridge over the Humber, dropped the Europcar off, located the key drop for the car return and checked our bags. Then we got in line for security and oh lordie did we cock that up. My apologies to everyone else in line behind us.
See, between TSA Precheck, and limited European security experience (going back to the US at Schiphol, US rules of leave the electronics and liquids in the bags apply), we totally forgot about the whole remove electronics, liquids bags, etc. And thus, we wound up getting the full treatment. _They opened my small hand lotion to chemically test the contents._ For real.
Oh well!
No jetway! A ramp that zigged back and forth.
Once we were at Schiphol (oh, and they did feed us breakfast and oops, I ate the tiny granola and only after realized there was milk powder in there. Sigh. At least Dramamine is an effective antihistamine), we rode a little bus from the plane to the terminal.
Because this was a one way ticket, purchased separately from our round trip, and directly from KLM, rather than Delta, the two tickets we were flying on were not connected. So we went through passport control, got our bags, and then found departures, rechecked our bags for the second flight, went through so so so many rounds of passport checking, stopped at McDonalds for the kids, bought a couple souvenirs, and found our gate.
Once on the plane, things were very uneventful. Altho when people tell you that the refurbed business on those flights have narrower lie flats than the previous iteration and/or other iterations, they are not actually kidding. One must never complain about such things, however! Mercifully, everyone got some naps in. And my special meals all showed up and they had chocolate chip cookies for A.
I tried to buy internet for T. on the plane, but after 3 rounds of payment problems, I gave up. And then I found out that I was still charged, when we were off the plane and had cellular data again. *sigh* More things to try to fix.
We had one of our favorite (probably our favorite, honestly) driver going home from the airport, which was good because there was a big slowdown going into Concord. R. says there had been a water main break at the rotary.
Once home, I unpacked, did laundry, napped and tried to work on a grocery list and clean out the last of what was in the fridge.