We are back at home after a grueling travel day yesterday that started at 6:30 am with a train from Munich and ended 16 hours later after several hours on the ground in Saudi Arabia while the mechanics worked on a door that wouldn’t close properly and then had to be secured with screws, one of which got stuck and took another 45 minutes to remove and replace. At least by then most of the plane had emptied and we were able to spread out and chat with other passengers and the flight attendants. One passenger said he was going to tell his brother that he was delayed because “our plane was screwed.” Maybe it was the late hour and travel fatigue, but we all thought that was hilarious.
The captain came back several times to make sure all was fine and to give us personal updates on the progress, assuring us that he was impressed with the equipment they were using and that all was safe, they just had to follow all procedures. At the end he reported that the plane was fixed, but before we could take off they had to take a photo of the paperwork with a cell phone and send it to headquarters in Germany, but the internet was slow so that was causing another delay. Ah, the Middle East. By then they had fed us and turned the movies back on so we just laughed and went back to watching Everybody Loves Raymond, Big Bang Theory, the Spongebob Movie, Modern Family, the Insurgent movie, and Doc McStuffins. Lufthansa has upgraded their entertainment offerings. Big thumbs up.
The pilot also came back and invited the kids up to see the cockpit of the plane and to sit in the captain’s seat. The staff did a great job of making the best of an unfortunate delay.
We finally made it home after midnight and we all slept until about noon today. We are unpacking, scavenging for food until we can go out and get groceries and figuring out how to spend the 4th of July. I think we’ll end up going to a friend’s house for a BBQ that won’t start until after sunset because of the Ramadan restrictions against eating or drinking in public until after sundown.
I love traveling, but it’s also good to be home.