The Last Day

The Last Day

I never know whether to count the travel home day of a vacation as part of the vacation or not. We were up at six…… (well, Jamie has to have extra time to worry so she got up at 5:45) for our 9:10 flight to Frankfort to catch a connection to San Francisco.. There is a four-hour layover in Frankfort and almost five hours in San Francisco. I think the airlines have given up on short lay over connection flights. Like everything else they do, they would rather inconvenience the traveler than the airline. Having said that, I am amazed at the sheer mass of people that they move through, and at the number of flights they fly with such an astounding safety record. We also thought that United did a good job, not the “friendly skies anymore but they were efficient and on time. I think the staff just has so many people to take care of that there is no time for personal contact. Jamie said this morning that she wished there were a “fast” flight home so that we could be there by lunch. It occurred to me that the flights home are pretty fast as it is. We’ll be home for a late dinner from half way around the world I think back on what it must have been her grandfather’s trip, hiking out of the mountains in Switzerland, through Italy, catching a sail vessel to America and then getting across country, maybe by train if he was lucky. A late dinner in Chico seems like a pretty good deal.

We had about a ten-kilometer drive into Interlaken from our wonderful lakefront Inn. We got to the Hertz dealership down a narrow lane off the main road and were amazed again at Sweet Sue the magic GPS. I’ve decided to never drive Europe (or maybe anyplace I don’t know) without a GPS. I’d still be roaming around Italy without it. The Car owner, manager, clerk, mechanic driver said that we would have to wait since he had to go to the train station to pick up a client. We made a pitch to combine the schedules and he drove us to the station. I have to say that I revised my opinion of Detroit cars (somewhat). We had a Ford Focus and it was bullet proof for us. I enjoyed the manual transmission, the car worked perfectly every time and it seemed bigger on the inside than it did on the outside. I may have to rethink my prejudice (I hate it when that happens). It wasn’t a Toyota but it was a good car for us for this trip.

They recommended (as usual) that we be there two hours early for our flight. As it worked out we were flying a Lufthansa airplane, operated by United. It was just a guess but we went to the United check in desk…….wrong, We then went looking for the Lufthansa counter…..wrong again. The proper check in was at the Swiss Air counter. Don’t ask, there is no logic that I could understand. Security was fast and easy. I suppose the two hours had more to do with working through the logic maze.

It was a good flight to Frankfurt. We had a sandwich and a German beer at a snack kiosk since there are no sit down restaurants. I was hoping to get to one of those German Oktoberfest type places where the stout barmaid would carry ten steins of beer and everyone would sing nationalistic songs but that will have to wait for another time. Time to board the flight. See you in California.