So Many Dishes

When I wrote about our trip to Bordeaux this past June, I described our flights as “blissfully uneventful.” Indeed, they did not involve the drama we had last year. But although we have flown to destinations farther from home geographically, I feel pretty confident that the circuitous route we took to France resulted in more air miles than any other trip.

I knew that it would take at least one connecting flight to get to Bordeaux from Orlando, our preferred airport. Although we book our flights through Viking, the cruise line we travel, I check flights on Expedia, and try to guess how they will route us. (It also reinforces that we save a lot in airfare using their services). I figured we could expect two connections.

I was right about the two connections, but wildly off in guessing the route. To start, our first flight was to Chicago! That’s the wrong direction 😂 O’Hare also turned out to be an adventure. We arrived at Terminal 2, but had to get to Terminal 5, where most international flights originate. To get there, we had to take a bus from a gate in Terminal 1. Walking to that terminal was no problem. Finding gate 18B was. It was down a flight of stairs and at the other end of a tunnel. There we had to show our tickets and passports before being taken to the bus, where we had to show them again, and yet a third time when we got off the bus at the other terminal. To be fair, we didn’t have to go through security again, but we’d had to take a bus to change terminals in Newark the year before, and it was just, yeah, this is the bus, get on. Then again, that’s Newark. No need to say more.

By about halfway through the ride to the other terminal, Ken and I were laughing hysterically. First, the distance was so far, we start joking that we were actually taking the bus to Bordeaux. We were standing, and the driver drove like she was racing at LeMans. Finally, there were the signs. We crossed multiple taxiways, and I think a runway or two. We saw multiple signs that basically said “airplanes have the right of way.” No, I never would have figured!

That flight we took from Chicago was going to France, right? Wrong! We flew past France to Zurich. Approximately nine hours in the air, in a middle seat. It felt like a day and a half. I hate the center section of wide body planes with a passion, and I always hope that we’re flying with a configuration that has two seats on the side, even if it’s at the rear of the cabin. By the time we had our flight arrangements and I made our seat selections, those rows were gone. The highlight of the flight was, because we were flying Swiss Air, at some point they brought around Swiss chocolate.

From Zurich, we finally got on a flight to Bordeaux. it was a regional carrier for Swiss Air, with a very young cabin crew who looked like a couple of high school kids. They handed out water and more chocolate, and then we landed. It was over 100 degrees in Bordeaux, but we didn’t care. We were on the ground and staying there.

Coming home was a different itinerary that took us in yet another direction. We only had one connection on our return flight, but that was in London, at Gatwick. Our previous London airport experiences had been at Heathrow, and I feel certain that this was significantly easier.

But to get there, we had to get out of Bordeaux, which was its own adventure. One of the perks of traveling with Viking is that they meet you at the airport when you arrive, and take you to the airport when you leave. But they don’t just drop you off at the curb. They make sure you’re in the correct line to check in. So we got checked in with plenty of time to make our flight—or so we thought. We headed toward our gate.

Of course, we had to go through passport control first. The EU is in the process of rolling out an electronic entry/exit system (the UK system is up and running, and was quick and simple to use at Gatwick), but implementation has been slow and inconsistent. We saw the kiosks in Zurich, with people lined up in front of them, but we were directed to a traditional passport control window with a human, although we did have our faces scanned in the process.

In Bordeaux airport, although we saw numerous kiosks, they clearly weren’t operational. Everyone had to clear passport control with an officer. Unfortunately, there were a lot of travelers and only two agents. Then one of them left! Ken and I looked at each other in panic, because the line was moving at the speed of a sloth. Eventually we made it to the front of the line, the officer scanned our passports and grunted at us, which we took to mean we left could go. We made it to the gate before boarding started. They ended up holding the flight, because there were more than 20 passengers checked in but stuck at passport control. The pilot apologized for the delay, but it certainly wasn’t his fault.

The final flight, from Gatwick to Orlando, brought a nice surprise. Our return was on British Airways, and their policy is that, if you want to select your seats more than 24 hours before your flight, it will cost you. I’m not willing to chance being separated from Ken, so I had selected seats in the second last row, where there were two on the side. But when I looked at the boarding passes the agent had printed out in Bordeaux, I noticed that we had window and middle seats. I figured the seat configuration was different on this plane than the one originally scheduled, but I was still not a happy camper. Ken was assigned the middle seat, and I offered to switch with him, but he said no. So I sat there, mentally composing an email to BA customer service. Then I realized that the door had shut, and we had the three seats to ourselves! We got a lot of inquisitive looks, and I still wish we had more legroom, but it was really nice to spread out at least a little bit.

I wish you could teleport to your travel destination, but until then, I’ll just roll with the punches enjoy the memories of a fantastic trip.