“No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!” is a phrase that has been running through my mind a lot for the past couple days, except in place of “Spanish Inquisition” I put “Icelandic volcanic ash.”
Long story short, we are some of the very few European travelers from the past couple days who actually made it to our destination, and only eight hours after initially scheduled. Pretty impressive given that we were originally scheduled to fly via Amsterdam’s Schipol airport, which closed the day before our flight and hasn’t reopened since. As it turned out, our Munich to Atlanta plane took a more southern route than usual in order to dodge the ash as we made our way out of Europe. We landed in the US to the news that airports (including Munich) as far south as Switzerland had closed while we were in the air.
We breezed by the long, long lines of stranded travelers waiting to be rebooked in Atlanta’s international terminal, glad that we already had boarding cards for our second flight. We started to think it was really going to happen, we were really going to make it. Not only was our connecting flight to New York on time, but we even got upgraded to first class. As I said, lucky, lucky, lucky.
This morning in New York the local news is full of stories about area airports full of stranded passengers and canceled local concerts due to musicians stuck in Europe. And me? I’m busy trying to learn how to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull while enjoying my breakfast bagel. Mmmm.
Julie, I can’t believe it! And I am worried I won’t get home next week. Are you worried about your return flight at all?
Joke! I hope you make it. It’s not looking so good for Amsterdam, is it? Hopefully things will be back to normal by the time you’re heading back. I’ve been trying to follow the news, but it sounds like anything could happen at this point.
I’m not worried about our return trip, yet. Even if we end up being delayed for a couple days, it wouldn’t be so bad. More than that, and we might have to start looking at taking a boat…
Wow – glad you and Scott made it. We all thought you were stuck in Amsterdam and maybe just said “screw it” and headed to a “coffee house” 😉
Who cares about dodging the ash, you got upgraded to First? Yes, you were so lucky!
Enjoy New York and come back loaded with travel tips, OK?
@Christine – We were hoping if we got stuck somewhere, it would be Amsterdam (because of our good friends there, not the sex and drugs…).
@Ian – it was short-haul US domestic first class – not as exciting as it sounds. No gourmet food or sleeping pods… but yeah, still a nice touch. 🙂
Just back from a Caribbean cruise, with no delays on our return trip to ZRH from MIA on Swiss. We were lucky, too, and dodged the ash. Enjoy your fix of American life!