Day 6 (Friday - 6/03 - Travel Day)

 

The 6:30am alarm came early, but we had a 7am breakfast reservation.  As we ate, we chatted with Christine (she's very chatty). We then checked out and made our way to the train station.  We were early, and the regional train number 63 was right on time.  After a 45 minute ride we transferred in Murnau and after another hour we were at the Munich main station.  We had trouble finding the train to the airport but finally succeeded. That ride was 45 minutes. 

 

At the airport, things began to unwind.  I already knew our planned flight to Vancouver was problematic and it took 1/2 an hour to kiosk check in for that flight.  We grabbed a quick McDonald's lunch and I found there was a flight to America via Chicago that appeared to have space on it. So I booked it, but the app  would not check me in.  So I went to the kiosk, waited in line there 25 minutes, spent 1/2 hour trying to check in before the machine timed out and I lost all the data entry.  So then we joined the customer service line and waited another 45 minutes to get served.  But the agent got us boarding passes but no seat assignments. Next was a 1/2 hour wait for the security screening and a full pat down for both of us. 

 

Our gate was L27 which was a long walk and we had to go through passport control.  My passport wouldn't scan (Angela's did), so I had another 1/2 hour wait for passport control.  Then more walking to the gate where we learned our seats would be assigned at the ticket scanner.  After another short line we had seats in row 38 A&B.  Then we had another 15-20 minute wait for the shuttle bus to the plane. 

 

At the plane (an Airbus A-350-900), we climbed the rear stairs and found our seats.  Since nobody claimed seat C, we spread out.  At the time of the scheduled departure, the Captain came on the PA and said there would be a one hour ground hold due to thunderstorms. At the end of that hour, the hold was extended. We ended up taking off about 1 hour and 45 minutes late which would put us into Chicago around 6:15 pm. During the flight I listed us on the last Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle even though it didn't appear we had a chance to make it. 

 

The flight was good and we arrived just after 6pm.  We then had the very long walk to US passport control.  Fortunately we have Global entry, so we breezed through that. Then more walking, a train ride, a short line at TSA PreCheck, and more walking to gate G4.  We were next to last on the standby list so we waited until the plane boarded and the desk agent told me it looked like we would make it even though we were 8 & 9 on the standby list.  And we did, as a couple ahead of us did not show up.  That's our mantra: Just Show Up. Once on board the airplane, I could see 4 or 5 unoccupied seats.

 

So we made the flight which arrived around 11:30pm in Seattle and our week long adventure was over. Today we were up 24 straight hours.  

 

But we have more ahead of us.  Stay tuned. But first we need to rest up!

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