Wanderung 31

Since our flight did not leave until 5, we decided to take public transportation to Dulles Airport to save a $50 cab fare ("A penny saved is a penny earned!"). We have done this so often that we now have a routine for the procedure: I drive the luggage and Monika to the nearest CUE bus stop, then I drop them off and drive the car back home while the luggage and Monika wait at the bus stop. Then I quickly walk back to the bus stop to rejoin Monika, and we take the CUE bus to the Fairfax/Vienna Metro station to catch an Orange line train. We take that train eastward to the East Falls Church metro station, where we transfer to a Silver line train that heads back westward to Reston. There we transfer to an express bus directly to Dulles airport. That rather involved sequence takes about two and a half hours in total, but it is cheap!

Monika had printed our boarding passes, but we still needed to print our luggage tags at the United check-in counter and tie them to the luggage handles, a task that used to be done by United personnel but now was laid at the door of the hapless passengers. I assume that off-loading the luggage tag task allowed United to marginally reduce their labor costs and maximize profits, albeit at the expense of their passengers. Is it any wonder that we now drive, take trains, or even cross oceans on cruise ships in order to avoid the hellish experience provided by U.S. airlines?

Although that folderol delayed us by an extra 10 minutes, getting through Security was a breeze we are now Global Entry Pre-clearance people, which service is quite reasonable and efficient as it is provided by the U.S. government rather than being outsourced to rapacious corporations like the airlines. So by 3 p.m. we were at the gate waiting for our 5:15 p.m. flight.

Of course, in a similar vein "damn-the-passengers" vein, United is reducing both seat width and leg room on their aircraft in order to maximize the number of people that they can squeeze into each airplane. Unfortunately, this results in flight conditions that resemble the "torture box" instrument of the Spanish Inquisition, where the victim could neither sit, stand, nor lie down but instead had to assume an uncomfortable crouched position for hours on end. But at least we had window and aisle seats, so we could take a few pictures out the window along the way.

So after a very long, uncomfortable night trying to sleep whilst cramped up in economy-class seats, we arrived in Amsterdam, disheveled but unbowed.

In Amsterdam airport we signed in on the free Wifi briefly, and were surprised to catch an email from Linda and Jerry that their flight to Europe had been cancelled! Fortunately, Linda had been able to arrange an alternate flight after pleading with the ticket agent that her elderly, rickety, and anxiously neurotic uncle (that would be me) would be quite distraught if they did not get to Europe on time. Her sob story had the desired effect, and they were rebooked on a Lufthansa flight to Munich and then a short hop northwards to Hamburg, but with the re-scheduling they wouldn't be arriving in Hamburg until 5 p.m.

That delay gave us the afternoon free, so after our final 1-hour hop from Amsterdam to Hamburg on a Germanwings short-haul aircraft, we called Heinke and Gustl to see if we could squeeze in a brief visit that afternoon before we had to pick up Linda and Jerry at the airport. They were agreeable, so after we landed we collected our luggage and took the S1 commuter train to Ohlsdorf, where we dropped off our bags at the Armedia Hotel. Then we just hopped back on the S1 and used Hamburg's efficient system of trains and busses to get to Heinke and Gustl's place. It is so much more pleasant, (and probably safer for all the cars around us!), to be travelling in trains or busses rather than driving an automobile after a long, tiring flight.

When we arrived, Heinke cooked some home-made borscht for lunch for all of us, and although it was the first time I had ever had borscht, somewhat to my surprise I enjoyed it very much (it is a rather odd reddish color due to the beets). We also took a walk over to the Bramfelder See but not the path around it as we were suffering from a combination of jet lag and sleep deprivation to the extent that I had problems even pronouncing words distinctly, which made my German incomprehensible, I'm afraid. Nevertheless, we had a nice albeit brief visit with Heinke and Gustl before returning to our hotel room, where I squeezed in a short nap before we took the S1 train back out to the airport to pick up Linda and Jerry.

Coming from Chicago via Munich, Linda and Jerry had endured even longer flights than we had, but they were still pretty chipper, all things considered. However, they were understandably hungry, so we immediately sat down to a light meal at the Edeka cafe/grocery store just above the train station in the basement of Hamburg airport. Then we all hopped on the S1 back to Ohlsdorf and returned to the Armedia, where we collapsed for the night.