First Class Treatment

I arrived at the airport by 7:00am for my 9:10am flight, just as planned, and began to wait in line to check-in. Inside my head I was running through all the things I needed to ask at the ticket counter, hoping I could make my impending 15-hour journey home as simple as possible. I would be flying from Dusseldorf (one-way ticket story here) via Ft. Myers to Atlanta. 

"Any chance you have a window seat available?" I said with a smile as I approached the counter.

Click. Click. Click. She was looking at her computer for a minute and glanced at me just long enough to say, "No. All booked up."

Flight route: Dusseldorf to Ft. Myers.

The next couple questions I asked didn't improve our rapport one bit, and by the time I stepped away from the counter (still without a seat assignment) I was visibly in tears. Yes, I was that girl. I admit, I sometimes cry when I'm flustered, but I don't think I've ever been so frustrated at an airport before. Boyfriend went back to ask her one more question for me and reported back that the counter lady would be at my gate too and I could get a seat assignment from her there. Great, I thought, just the person I want to see again.

By the time I got through security and to my gate people were already standing around ready to board the plane. I finally found someone to help me get a seat assignment and she took my paperwork asking, "You still don't have a boarding pass?"

She looked at my name and said, "Oh, we've been calling for you. We have upgraded you to first class. Here is your boarding pass."

I looked at the ticket in my hand for a minute before I could really believe it. Seriously? I was in shock. I found the lady from the check-in counter working at the door to the plane and thanked her for her help. She was completely pleasant and sincere.  With a smile I boarded the plane and found my way to my first class seat thinking the whole way about how people can surprise you sometimes.

First Class seat on Air Berlin.

While sipping champagne and putting on cozy slippers I settled into my home for the next 10 hours. It wouldn't even be close to the longest flight I've ever been on (it wouldn't even be close to the longest horrible bus ride I've been on), but I had still been dreading that time on the airplane. Now I was excited to enjoy it!

Nice meals, friendly staff, and a cozy chair. I was such a happy camper.

Delicious mealtime in first class. That's just the appetizer.

The flight arrived in Fort Myers right on time and I was one of the first people off the plane. After customs and baggage claim I followed the signs to Departures to check in for the next leg of my journey. Tanned tourists with golf bags were scattered throughout the atrium as I approached the Delta kiosk. I scanned my printed confirmation, smiled at my aisle seat assignment, and handed my checked baggage to an attendant at the self-check-in area. Then I went through security and sat down at my gate about two hours before my flight was scheduled to leave.  Even though I worried about things beforehand, it worked out perfectly with my separately-purchased connecting flights.

I arrived back in Atlanta just before 6:30pm, weary from my long travels. Even with first class for the majority of my trip I was exhausted and just happy to be in the company of my loving family once again.  Arriving at my house I had that two-sided sense of peace you only have when coming home after a long trip: A sense of happiness for building unforgettable memories and a sense of sadness knowing the trip is over.

One-Way Flights

Long story short, I had a one-way flight booked for July 8^th from Atlanta to Luxembourg (via London) since February. And since I promised to keep this portion short, I’ll spare the details and just say that I considered it a freebie, or a bonus, and was willing to lose the ticket if I couldn’t find a flight back to Atlanta.  The problem is, when flying internationally, one-way tickets tend to cost more money than a round-trip ticket. A little strange, but mainly just an airline tactic to make sure you book your whole trip with them. Or maybe to ensure balanced flights going both directions?

Every few weeks I would check my favorite flight-finding website, kayak, for ticket prices, hoping I would find a cheap round trip ticket which I could justify only using half. But rarely can you use the word “cheap” to describe flying to Europe in the summer.  Flight prices to Europe are sometimes more than double in the summer than in the springtime or autumn. But after searching and searching, the boyfriend and I discovered that Air Berlin offers one-way tickets for half the price of their round trip fares! I decided I could justify that half-price ticket (since my flight over to Europe was kinda free), so I booked the flight.

Searching for flight deals online and actually boarding the plane are too different things. When looking online I turn into Ms. Frugal, rarely considering the hassle involved in some of the connections I book for myself. And when I booked this return flight back to America it was no different. Air Berlin is nice enough to offer reasonably-priced one-way tickets, but their departure airports near Luxembourg mostly connect through Berlin (that is way out of the way) with the exception of Dusseldorf. Then I had to choose an arrival airport in America that would offer a cheap connection to Atlanta (which I would purchase separately).  A New York connection was too problematic since it involved different airports; same with DC; Chicago was an option, but domestic connections were outrageously expensive.

Checking in for my flight from Dusseldorf.

Alas I found one that would work: A flight departing from Dusseldorf airport flying direct to Fort Myers, Florida (who knew that would be a direct flight?!). Then I separately purchased a flight from Fort Myers to Atlanta for under $100. This was a slightly risky move since booking separately means I am responsible if I miss my connecting flight, not the airline.  But I gave myself a three-hour connection time, which I figured should be plenty. To be extra safe I also tracked the flight for a few days and it seemed that Air Berlin flight to Fort Myers was regularly one time: a good sign!

I have another story to tell about the flight, so you’ll have to check back to read about the connection tomorrow!

A Belgian Adventure

Late Saturday afternoon we left Bruges to head for the coast, just 15 km away.  The nearest city on the beach is Oostende, so we drove towards there and decided to head west once we hit the coast to look for a campground.  When we had decided originally to camp on the beach, I imagined something akin to this picture:

"Beach camping" as pictured on the National Park Services website.

Wrong. Boyfriend wasn't surprised at all when we pulled into this camp ground:

Albatros Camping, just outside of Middelkerke, Belgium.

What?! That's not a campground, it's a mega city! I guess campsites in Belgium look a little different than our national park campgrounds in America. The picture above is actually of a postcard of the camping megacity which they gave us when we checked-in. It had the gate code on it so we could get our car inside the very secure megacity.  Welcome to Belgium beach camping!  I think this quote from a Flanders toursim website describes it well, "A real family residential campsite park where both young and old feel at home."

Boyfriend said there might have been a smaller campground had we kept driving further down the beach, but we were tired, the dark clouds were rolling in, and I kinda wanted to experience the real camping megacity.

We then pitched our tent and headed back into the nearest town, Middelkerke, to find food for dinner. Luckily, we just caught a few stores still open and found the essentials for sandwiches. Then we bundled up for a quick walk on the beach! It was super windy, the sky was overcast and the water was freezing, but I had to say I'd put my feet in the North Sea.

Sandwiches back at the campsite, a few rounds of uno and then we called it a night. Before I knew it, I was waking up to the sound of a loudspeaker yelling in Dutch and French.  Not the setting I would have chosen for an alarm clock, but for 25 Euro, what do you expect?

Slowly we packed up the tent and drove back into Middelkerke to return to a place we had spotted the night before: a mini golf course! As I've mentioned before, we love mini golf, and for me, no trip to the beach is complete without it!

Boyfriend playing mini golf in Middelkerke.

Not too happy being stuck between those hills!

21 holes later (I know, I thought that was strange too) the sun was almost about to shine through the clouds, so we decided to drive down the coast and find a nice beach.  I wasn't too hopeful since I hadn't seen much blue sky over the past couple weeks in Europe, but I was willing to cross fingers and at least take a nice walk.

To the beach!

To my surprise, it turned out to be a gorgeous day! We parked the car and climbed the huge sand dunes to the beach access and walked along with our feet sinking into the sand.  The wind made it too chilly to run around in bathing suits still, and the water was just plain cold, so we went back into the dunes to find a spot sheltered from the wind.  The beaches I normally visit in Florida don't have such dunes, but I really liked that people would just hangout there.

Napping in the dunes.

After a relaxing afternoon in the dunes, and a nice long nap in the sun we both were sun-kissed and sandy, and ready to head home.  Even though it was only one night away, it really felt like a vacation, and we had so much fun.  We did make one more stop though, since we were in a spontaneous mood. I spotted a highway sign that said, "Spy" on it and mentioned, "Hey, I think Bill Bryson talked about going to that town in his book."

Boyfriend said, "Want to go?"

"Yes!"

The problem was, I didn't remember what he said about the town of Spy. We drove around the ordinary town for five minutes and I wondered if Bryson thought it was a dud too. Maybe that's all he said about it? Don't go! I thought. But just as we were about to give up, we spotted a brown tourist sign with an arrow that said, "Grotte de Spy." Hmmm... intriguing. Let's go!

The road towards "Grotte de Spy"

We drove down a long road until finally we reached a parking lot where a few other cars were parked, and there was a large graffiti-ed sign and an arrow pointing down a path that said "1 km."  I was wearing a bathing suit, a coverup and flip flops; hardly an outfit for hiking, but who am I to pass up an adventure? So we started walking.

Eventually we were lead to a steep winding trail that ended at the entrance to a big cave. We walked around inside and even found a very narrow part that lead deeper into the cave. The sign posted was in French, so we didn't exactly know what we were looking at besides a big cave.  Wikipedia has since informed me that Grotte de Spy was where scientists made some major discoveries about Neaderthals.

Inside the narrow section of the Grotte de Spy

Turns out, Bryson didn't visit Spy. He went to Spa. Think I would have preferred the latter.

But I love the idea that just because we thought there was something to see there, we went on search of an adventure. And we found one.