36 hours in ...

 

36 Hours in .... Transito

A flight from SFO to Florence through Munich, What could go wrong? Wrong question: What could go right? Almost nothing. 

Day 0: Actually, things went right on day zero. Drove up from Beach, dropped Sandy off at trainer/boarder, dropped food off at LB's, picked up Wells Fargo insurance check (another long story why Wells rejected the State Farm check) at Loft and saw Loft floor half done (on schedule), deposited check at BofA, checked int at Hyatt Place (E-ville, lovely, ergonomic room), dinner at Town House. All good!

Day 1 (aka the Longet Day): Breakfast at Ocean View Diner, check out of Hyatt ($200/night, maybe payable by State Farm), drop off Volvo in Loft garage, Uber to SFO.

This is where things went south, quickly. Uber driver doesn't get in car pool lane. Cars blocking toll booth lane we are in. Traffic on Bay Bridge super slow (at 10:15am), very unusual for time of day. Huge semi truck blocking middle lane of 80 and 101 interchange, backing up traffic for many a mile. DB's phone lights up during drive to SFO: flight cancelled...which one? Munich to Florence. Phew, we have not booked a day early, still will be in Munich in time to catch a later flight.

Nope! All flights to Florence cancelled, strike in Italy so no intra-Europe flights (and no trains running either, apparently). Traffic so slow to SFO that allows DB to make several calls to our great travel agency and work out a plan with options.

Arrive at SFO airport...not quite. Our Uber driver cannot read signs and misses International terminal. It is hard to miss, it's in front of SFO. Two cycles around the car garage and we get dropped off in front of United check-in. Maybe driver confused after overhearing phone calls with travel agents. 

At United check-in the UA agents say flight to Munich is NOT cancelled. However, they cannot issue connecting flight boarding passes. More discussions with travel agents and woman sitting across from us in lounge overhears and sympathizes. THB and DB agree car and driver from Munich to Florence makes most sense and pre-pay. We will get picked up at Munich airport by Mohammed. Good thing we are doing all carry-ons for this 2 week trip or we might never see our bags (one couple on the trip is awaiting their bags on Day 2). 

aboard the flight, DB gets the last semi-frozen ice cream sundae, THB gets the first milk shake with chocolate sauce

Go aboard the UA flight, and after an hour or so during which some guy from the front  of biz class comes to talk to DB. The woman from the lounge is sitting near him and overhears him talking that his flight from Munich to Florence has been cancelled and suggest he go talk to DB. The two of them consult and he also is able to arrange a Day Trip car and driver. We can't share because he's going to downtown Florence and we are going direct to the Castello La Leccia which is a long ways from downtown.

The plane goes back from the gate and we are on an "active" runway awaiting take-off when the pilot announces the Munich airport has been closed (due to drones, it turns out). Another 1/2 hour goes by and we are cleared for take-off. 

Aside: the Munich airport is normally closed from 12 -5 pm due to noise abasement reasons, so if we had sat on the runway for another 1/2 hour it is possible that our SFO flight would have been cancelled. 

Mohammed meets us at air[port a bit after noon. 

We load up the Mercedes and off we go. Much traffic on a Friday afternoon...it's a national holiday in Germany: celebrating reunification. That means Munich  residents are heading to the mountains for a 3 day weekend. Great weather...horrible traffic.

Now we are in the Alps, in Austria! Who knew...

Ten hours later...wait, this was supposed to be a 7 hour drive. Not with the increased traffic, road work - lots of road work - a ton of trucks on the road, accidents. Even with very short restroom and food breaks...Ten hours later...we reach the glorious Castello. 

Our room is lovely, beautiful, a great snack set out, and THB and DB fade away to sleep, having completed 36 hours in Transit. 

Not recommended. 

(other UCB couple on trip were flying to Florence - still considered an intra-Europe flight, right?) and their flight did go as scheduled)

THB can see this pic on his travel pc and it is rotated correctly...just not in blogger