Geeky World Tour - Prague
In Which I Arrive Four Hours Late, and My Luggage Doesn't
It's time again for the Geeky World Tour, in which I visit someplace cool and then blog about it, so that in years to come, I can remember it all. This year's trip is a split: to Prague with my girlfriend Amy for five days, then she will have to head back to the US, and I'll go meet Mom in Edinburgh.
I've been dating Amy now for about two years, but this is the first international trip we've taken together. Just after we started dating, I took my big trip to Greece and Italy, but it was too early in the relationship to invite her -- a shame because she was a Classical Studies major. A year later, I asked her to Vienna, and got a regretful, "Ask me again next year once I've saved up the money and vacation days". And lo and behold, it's a year later, and we're together in Prague.
Since she lives in an exurb of Nashville and I'm in Atlanta, I knew getting us there would be tricky. Turns out that there aren't any American airports anymore that fly direct into Prague in March. Luckily (or so I thought), I found a Nashville->Atlanta->Brussels->Prague itinerary that would keep her from having to drive to Atlanta first, and I'd just meet her in the Atlanta airport and take the last two legs with her.
Since her layover time in Atlanta was pretty short, naturally I was worried about her making the connection. But it went off without a hitch. As we got on board the Delta 767 to Brussels, I thought, surely the hard part's over. I was wrong.
With 90 minutes left in an 8.5 hour flight, the captain sheepishly woke up the passengers with an announcement. It turned out that every lavatory on the plane was jammed and could no longer flush. We'd be diverting to Shannon, Ireland, where Delta has a maintenance crew to take care of the problem. Note: the diversion took 30 minutes of flying time. The repair took 30 minutes of repair time. And except for the few people who rushed to the lavs immediately upon their being repaired but before we took back off, it was another 30 minutes of ascent before the fasten-seat-belt sign was turned off. So that a few people could go 30 minutes early, we were 90 minutes late getting into Brussels.
Which was a problem, because our connecting flight to Prague would be leaving in ten minutes.
To their credit, Delta realized the problem on their own, and had an agent on the jetway with new itineraries for us. They'd booked us flights on Lufthansa from Brussels to Frankfurt and from Frankfurt to Prague; we'd arrive four hours late but on the same day. Connecting through Brussels was easy. The Lufthansa agent was curt but assured us that they had our bags and that they'd make it to Prague with us. The first flight was fine--instead of peanuts they served a yummy German chocolate bar -- and while connecting through the massive Frankfurt airport in 50 minutes required some hustle, the second flight was fine too and served a very light lunch.
Things were looking up, until we reached Prague and got to baggage claim...and watched it go around, and around, and around, with neither of our bags to be found. We put in a lost baggage claim at the appropriate counter and then took a shuttle bus to our hotel, a lovely building with an art-deco facade on a quiet side street just a block or two from one of Prague's major squares. We were tired, the temperature was quickly falling to freezing, and we hadn't had a change of clothes in two days. But we still managed to see Prague's famous Wenceslas Square and have a delicious-but-expensive dinner at a Czech restaurant there.
Czech food is rustic, and heavy on beef, pork, potatoes and dumplings. As a former Memphian, I felt compelled to try the pork ribs. Unlike Memphis barbecue, which is sweet and spicy, the Czech sauce was more savory, but delicious. Amy had duck and enjoyed it, and from the two bites I liberated from her, I did too. Even though we were very full, we rushed back to the hotel at a fast walk, almost a run, to keep warm, and then went to bed early, still in our traveling clothes.
Hopefully in the morning our luggage would find us.
It's time again for the Geeky World Tour, in which I visit someplace cool and then blog about it, so that in years to come, I can remember it all. This year's trip is a split: to Prague with my girlfriend Amy for five days, then she will have to head back to the US, and I'll go meet Mom in Edinburgh.
I've been dating Amy now for about two years, but this is the first international trip we've taken together. Just after we started dating, I took my big trip to Greece and Italy, but it was too early in the relationship to invite her -- a shame because she was a Classical Studies major. A year later, I asked her to Vienna, and got a regretful, "Ask me again next year once I've saved up the money and vacation days". And lo and behold, it's a year later, and we're together in Prague.
Since she lives in an exurb of Nashville and I'm in Atlanta, I knew getting us there would be tricky. Turns out that there aren't any American airports anymore that fly direct into Prague in March. Luckily (or so I thought), I found a Nashville->Atlanta->Brussels->Prague itinerary that would keep her from having to drive to Atlanta first, and I'd just meet her in the Atlanta airport and take the last two legs with her.
Since her layover time in Atlanta was pretty short, naturally I was worried about her making the connection. But it went off without a hitch. As we got on board the Delta 767 to Brussels, I thought, surely the hard part's over. I was wrong.
With 90 minutes left in an 8.5 hour flight, the captain sheepishly woke up the passengers with an announcement. It turned out that every lavatory on the plane was jammed and could no longer flush. We'd be diverting to Shannon, Ireland, where Delta has a maintenance crew to take care of the problem. Note: the diversion took 30 minutes of flying time. The repair took 30 minutes of repair time. And except for the few people who rushed to the lavs immediately upon their being repaired but before we took back off, it was another 30 minutes of ascent before the fasten-seat-belt sign was turned off. So that a few people could go 30 minutes early, we were 90 minutes late getting into Brussels.
Which was a problem, because our connecting flight to Prague would be leaving in ten minutes.
To their credit, Delta realized the problem on their own, and had an agent on the jetway with new itineraries for us. They'd booked us flights on Lufthansa from Brussels to Frankfurt and from Frankfurt to Prague; we'd arrive four hours late but on the same day. Connecting through Brussels was easy. The Lufthansa agent was curt but assured us that they had our bags and that they'd make it to Prague with us. The first flight was fine--instead of peanuts they served a yummy German chocolate bar -- and while connecting through the massive Frankfurt airport in 50 minutes required some hustle, the second flight was fine too and served a very light lunch.
Things were looking up, until we reached Prague and got to baggage claim...and watched it go around, and around, and around, with neither of our bags to be found. We put in a lost baggage claim at the appropriate counter and then took a shuttle bus to our hotel, a lovely building with an art-deco facade on a quiet side street just a block or two from one of Prague's major squares. We were tired, the temperature was quickly falling to freezing, and we hadn't had a change of clothes in two days. But we still managed to see Prague's famous Wenceslas Square and have a delicious-but-expensive dinner at a Czech restaurant there.
Czech food is rustic, and heavy on beef, pork, potatoes and dumplings. As a former Memphian, I felt compelled to try the pork ribs. Unlike Memphis barbecue, which is sweet and spicy, the Czech sauce was more savory, but delicious. Amy had duck and enjoyed it, and from the two bites I liberated from her, I did too. Even though we were very full, we rushed back to the hotel at a fast walk, almost a run, to keep warm, and then went to bed early, still in our traveling clothes.
Hopefully in the morning our luggage would find us.