Just trying to get to Venice

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We are here sitting at Portland PDX just hanging out waiting to board the plan and of course having a few drinks. This morning we woke up and went down stairs where they had a full free breakfast. Mother was pretty impressed with the breakfast and even with the hotel.

Afterwards we went back up stairs to get ready to head off to the airport. She is one funny gal where she took everything out of her suitcase where I only pulled a few items out of my travel bag. Watching her get ready this morning made to think that this is going to be a very very long trip. We left for the airport but first we needed to fill the car up with gas before we returned. Mother was starting feel sick because she needed water. I found out rather quickly that I’m just going to keep her hydrated every day. We finally made it to the airport and believe it or not we even made it through security without any problems. That was great, because it gave us time to relax before we had to board the plane at 2:45. At least I thought. You are probably wondering what I mean. Well, I missed read the departure time and the plane was leaving early than I thought. We nearly didn’t say good bye to Portland Oregon. Lucky for us we decide to walk to the gate early. This is when we found out that Air Canada was doing a final call to board. We were the last ones to board and I thought to myself; crap, what else can go wrong.

Hello Calgary; the flight was short with no problems. I guess the only problem that we could have had was if the plane went down. At least something was going good for us. When we landed we were directed to go to customs to get checked in. This is where the fun really started. First at Portland, we were told that our bags were checked all the way to Frankfurt Germany. According to the custom agent; that was not true. We had to get our pass ports stamped then locate our luggage and check-in with Air Canada again. Now does this make sense considering we were only going to be in Calgary for fifty minutes? We located the luggage carousal; however, we had a little problem. No surprise there. We found Mothers luggage which by the way, is a little hard to miss, considering it is a Zebra strip suit case. Mine on the other hand, was MIA for a short time. I located it tossed to the side on a table; evidently, the main zipper busted open or at least I hope. I didn’t have time to go through it so all I did was to make the zipper work and took off. I was smart enough not to pack my electronic gizmos and gadgets in my main suit case. All that was in the suit case was my close. Mother and I were off once again looking for the ticket both for Air Canada and the of course the security gate; which was not too difficult to locate. What was difficult to locate was the gate in which we needed in order to board the plane. Yes, there were signs in which we followed with big bold letters and arrows, but guess what? The sign appeared to be pointing in the right direction but was actually pointing in the wrong direction. Who knew to follow the arrow along the wall which leads to a corridor that was built for a rat? At least that we found the boarding gate in time and I mean in time. Yes, again we were the last ones to board and our seats were in the very back and I mean the very back. We can now say good bye to Calgary.

Hello Frankfurt Germany; after a long long flight we finally made it to Germany. OK now can anything else go wrong? Now remember we were told back in Portland that once we arrived in Germany that we had to pick-up our luggage and check into our connecting flight with Lufthansa. Doing this meant that we had to go through customs so we did. After filling out some paper work and getting our pass ports stamps we found the luggage carousal. We stood there until I found the service desk for missing luggage. I showed them our claim ticket and guess what, our bags were checked all the way through to Venice; no one told us that. Crap, now that means we need to find the ticket counter for Lufthansa and go through security once again. After some minor communication setbacks we were checked in. We had plenty of time so we decide to have a drink and relax. We decide to eat in this one restaurant because it took American currency and found out one important dinning tip. In the United States when you go out to eat the server brings some type of bread or something in that way to nibble on. So after getting our drinks the server brought out a small plate with only one pretzel and one piece of bread; also there was some kind of dipping sauce. So naturally we ate it, but not before who was going to try out the dipping sauce first which was me. It had no taste; really it looked like mayonnaise with relish in it. We decided that this time we were not going to be late for the plane so we asked for the bill. When it came, we were charged for not only our drinks but for the one pretzel and one piece of bread lets don’t forget that very tasty dipping sauce. The server insisted that we had ordered it so without arguing with her in a German airport and getting tossed into jail, I thought the smart move would be is to just pay for it.

We made it through security, but this time it was not me getting processed in triplicate in triplicate it was Mother. She had a bottle of water in her carry on that I didn’t know. We had some time before we had to board so Mother got comfortable on a bench and took a short nap. The time came to board and I can honestly say there was no organization. There was never an announcement to board the plane so we just walked through a door which lead us down stairs were we had to wait. A ticket agent showed up and let us through; however, when we got to the doors we had to naturally wait. I didn’t see any plane for us to board but what I did see was a bus. This was starting to get interesting. We boarded the bus and I thought we be at the plane in a few moments. No it never happened. After riding on the bus for about fifteen minutes and crossing the runway where a plane just took off and from what I could see another one was about to land we made it to our plane and now we can say good bye to Frankfurt Germany.

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