Endless Days

It was raining in Amsterdam early this morning (shall we just leave it at before 0500 in the morning) when I walked through the skyway from the Hilton to Schipol. Lufthansa check in was a breeze and they directed me to Lounge 26 which turned out to be heavy on coffee, pastries and booze with WiFi that was only marginally faster than what was available in the open airport.

It was raining in Frankfurt when we landed at the far end of nowhere. I still don’t know where on the airport the plane was parked but it certainly took forever for both the bus and the hike to A/Z for US stateside departures. There was barely enough time to down coffee at the Senataor lounge before heading to Z15 for what proved to be a not on time departure. Flight wasn’t bad, if you discount the high maintenance couple next to me (who on earth wears a fur coat on the airplane and then gets upset when the cabin attendant doesn’t want to hang it up? I mean really, )

I finished all but the edging on Tree-of-Life in Spring and started the next shawl in blacks and whites. Read a few books on the iPad and otherwise passed the time till arrival at JFK. The only positive thing I can say about clearing immigration at JFK is that it did not take as long as the last couple of times in Houston. Since both of those two experiences approached two hours in entertainment, that is probably not saying much.

What was completely unexpected was that customs was taking forever. Each of the two officers was actually speaking with each and every person. Since there were no working dogs in the vicinity, I have not a clue as to what they were looking for.

Did I mention that it was raining in NYC? I found the cruise line agent without two much difficulty. The poor guy had been there since 1215 (and it was now 14xx). After five phone calls, he found my transfer had been sitting outside since 1230. So there I was on my way.

Since Memorial Day is Monday, this turned out to be the start of the holiday weekend. Translates to completely insane traffic. Did I mention that it was raining? Pouring down rain which both lead to slower traffic and drenched pedestrians dodging between trucks and cars in an effort to get anywhere that din’t involve gallons of water descending from the skies. It took almost two hours to get to Pier 90. Since ship boarding had started at 1500, the area was almost deserted. I received more than a few astonished looks for not having more than a backpack and small wheeled suitcase.

I met Maus for dinner and happily handed over the backpack with her goodies which significantly reduced my luggage load. Since the rain had finally stopped, the walk both to the restaurant and back to the ship turned out to be lovely.

harbor at night

harbor at night

heading back to the ship

heading back to the ship

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
This entry was posted in Travel, Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to Endless Days

  1. Isobel says:

    Getting any yarn in Iceland? 🙂

  2. catdownunder says:

    you might ask who travels with a fur coat these days….do people still wear them in Europe? Haven’t seen one here since I was a child!

  3. Ann says:

    I was afraid you were going to say Boston because we are in Maine this weekend. Unless you stop in Portland, we’ll miss you yet again as Bar Harbor is way too far a drive for a day trip.

    We really want to visit Iceland one day, or perhaps nest Feb. but he also wants to return to Alaska then for the start if the iditerod and the fur ronde. Today he threw out Morocco and Spain for Feb, wanting to do the camel trip. He didn’t believe me that it’s snowy then in the Atlas Mountains. I countered with Israel.

    Have a great time in Boston today. If the weather is still lousy, there’s a big Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Museum of Science, or a major one on samurai at the Museum of Fine Arts.

Leave a Reply to Ann Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.