Let me discuss the second subject first. We were both up early and I was packed and repacked for the X time by 0900 which was a good thing because Miriam was giving us a ride to BART. She looked at us. Where are you going? SFO was the reply. Oh, why don’t I just drop you off? I am going into San Francisco for the day and have the time.
I felt guilty for all of about 20 seconds, then said yes. As a result of the kindly provided ride, we were at the airport prior to the check-in being open. A coffee and a bit of sitting later and we wandered over to the line. And then the fun began. Apparently the EU is getting a bit more concerned about one way tickets. Like – are we EVER leaving the EU? George had to pull out his permanent residency visa. Even better for our lovely counter person were the outbound flights to Iceland on Thursday and print out of the ship’s itinerary showing that we were obviously leaving the EU in less than 90 days.
So this is a warning for anyone flying into Europe (US, Canadian, OZ etc) to leave by ship. Having information on your phone is all well and good, but having things printed out makes it sooo much easier on everyone. It isn’t that the counter people want to be a pain, they just need to follow the regulations. And I can’t think of anything worse than getting sent BACK from the gate to check-in to provide the information. Trust me, she said that it has happened more than once.
So there we are, checked in, luggage dropped off and headed to security. I am really unclear as to how he managed it, but George was walking around with his reader’s on his face, caught them in something and broke the whole mess apart, More than a bit disgusted/angry at the whole process, he told the young screener just to toss the pieces out. Well, guess what? Anything given up once you start the TSA screening goes into locked containers and can’t be retrieved. I asked.. We are in the International Terminal known for fancy shops of high end goods and expensive snacks. that is it, Name sunglasses, yes. Reading material? Nope. I went out on a search mission of mercy. There is a lovely actual book store a couple of terminals from G. There were exactly two pairs of readers that might possibly work. Each one of them obviously cost more than 3/for from Amazon. Enough said. He now has readers. I can’t imagine dealing cranky guy for ~11 hours on a flight unable to read….
Just as a general note as well – mask wearing is well under 1%. I am not sure why everyone wants to believe that COVID, RSV, and Flu aren’t a thing – but there you are. I saw the occasional other mask wearer on ship. Seemed to be almost a nod of the head there in recognition. Here? Thousands of people, rare masks…..
——-//—
On board and ready to take off!
