ALL ABOARD ONCE MORE
After traveling for 11 days to Ireland,
Scotland and Germany, we returned to the boat around 2 am this morning. We flew
with Lufthansa returning to Birmingham, which was fine although somehow, we didn't realize our seats were not together until we boarded. Details.
When we touched down, the captain announced
in both German and English that the airport was looking for someone to drive
the jetty to our door. A few minutes later he reported that there was someone
operating the jetty but not well. He said it was like they were just “practicing”.
David observed another debacle just outside
his window. A container of luggage loaded on to a cart was not secured and when
the driver of the cart made a sharp turn, luggage went flying all over the tarmac!
David watched four men bustling around lifting the container back onto the cart
and then quickly retrieving all the luggage heaving it into the container in full view of the trapped passengers.
About 15 minutes later the captain announced
that there was a delayed departure of another flight, and we could not deplane
until all of those passengers had boarded and left the gate. It was an hour and
10 minutes from touchdown to finally escaping the plane. Incredibly, there were some passengers who chose to stand in the aisle the entire time.
We found our way to the Airlink which would
get us to the train only to find out that we missed the last departure by 30
minutes. Having paid a taxi driver in Munich 95 Euro for a ride to our hotel
from the airport, we didn’t care what it was going to cost to get an Uber. It
ended up being $36 and well worth it. We
walked to our boat on paths of snow and ice trying not to make too much noise
with our rolling bag and our crunching footsteps. We found our boat dusted with snow and entered
an ice box.
At
2:00 in the morning we were not going to start our engine out of consideration for
our neighbors. So, our radiators could not operate. David started right away
building a coal fire which took some time before any heat was generated our
way. We ended up spending the night fully dressed including shoes and jackets in
our chairs by the fire covered in blankets. Welcome home!
We debated whether or not to shove off
today, but after looking over our itinerary, we realized that we have plenty of
time to get where we need to get. So today was a day of washing,
grocery shopping and resting. Tomorrow we face the 13 locks leading us out of
the city. We can do it!
Thought I would share some photographs of
our trips to Galway, Edinburgh and Munich. We had a fantastic time but so glad to
return to the slow pace of canal boating. Very few travelers and locals (or us) wore
masks anywhere…planes, trains, buses, taxis, restaurants, in the hotel…we have
our fingers crossed that we will remain healthy.
Been hearing about the stormy weather at home. Hope you are all safe and warm.
SIGHTS OF GALWAY
Scenes along our walk on Imelda and Brendon's property
Comments
Post a Comment