On Saturday, 22 September, we traveled to Düsseldorf airport together with our niece Kerstin and her husband Peter. This time they were not traveling with us to Florida, as they did in May, but to New York, coincidentally on the same day. We all checked in and sat together for an hour or two.
We got to our boarding gate, and the KLM flight to Amsterdam was delayed. Once we boarded, it was even further delayed. It soon became evident to us that we would not make our flight to Orlando, and that was indeed the case.
Upon arrival in Amsterdam, we were told to proceed to T2 to find out about our new flight plans. After waiting there 20 minutes, we were told T2 was only for inter-European flights and we must go to T4 (or whatever, I forget the actual number). This was, of course, a good 10-15 minute walk away.
AT this point I was pretty sure there would be no more flights that afternoon, and that we would have to fly tomorrow. I was very busy making alternate plans for our arrival.
However, after a not-too-long wait at T4, we were indeed rebooked, to fly to Atlanta and then transfer to a flight to Orlando -- putting us in at midnight. Not at all ideal, but better than waiting to fly Sunday.
At that point -- about 4 p.m., we finally had lunch. About time! We didn't have to wait long until we boarded, and we were finally on our way across the Big Pond.
The only thing of note about the flight was the meal: chicken in sauce, rice and "broken green beans". Oh, and about halfway through we got an ice cream cone!
The flight passed and eventually, we landed in Atlanta. For some reason, the automats at immigration were not in use and we were strictly divided between US and Other, so we had to split up. There were many many people there and I was surprised to get through in only 30 minutes. Even more surprisingly, Norbert got through first and was waiting for me with the suitcases.
The good surprises continued as we got through Security in about 5 minutes, far and away the quickest we have ever had there. We took the train to our terminal, waited about 10 minutes and then boarded our third flight of the day.
I slept much of the way there. By the time we arrived, got our bags and into our rental car, it was nearly 1 a.m. We then drove for about half an hour to our hotel, the Budget Inn in Sanford. It was perfectly fine for one night but was most definitely showing a lot of wear and tear.
We hit the bed about 5 minutes after we arrived. A very, very long day!
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