"They" let some geezers out of Geezerville this week. Four of us are now in Barcelona awaiting a high seas adventure around the Mediterranean and North Seas. It will be a good time. Of course, the hardest part is in the details. Consider some of our details: 4 people, 1 electric wheelchair, 1 walker, and 2 "normies" who can't walk long distances anymore. Before we left the ground, we were asked "How much does the wheelchair weigh?" And, "How much does the walker weigh? Since we were at the airline counter that was equipped with a scale, I said, put them on the scale and weigh them...but that was the wrong answer so we guessed at the weights. Logic, was thrown out the window. Would you believe we had to answer the same exact questions in Heathrow? The info was not filed away I guess???
The long flight from Vegas to Heathrow was very nice. We were seated a sweet little cubicle (BTW the airlines have the audacity to call it a suite) with a TV screen and thousands of movies, TV shows, games and tunes to keep us entertained during our flight. Along the way we were served 2 meals. I had mystery chicken for dinner and a strange English Breakfast with Irish bacon, tasteless tater tots, and a vulcanized scrambled egg. Breakfast did come with a delicious fruit plate so all was not lost. BTW the coffee was lousy.
At Heathrow we were dumped (I mean we exited) at gate 37B with no assistance from the handicap helpers. The flight attendants took mercy on us and were able to get us the help we needed. We were frustrated the whole time we were at Heathrow. Gates were not posted until 5 minutes before boarding...not normally a big deal, but we are 4 people and 2 sets of extra wheels and it was a big deal as we could not plan. We finally left the quagmire of Heathrow and landed in Barcelona.
The "traveler's nickname" for Barcelona is Bark. We landed in Bark and the wheelchair brigade was wonderful. They picked us up, whisked us through the airport, collected our luggage, got us thru endless hallways till we were handed off to the folks from Viking, who took us to the cruise port and our ship. It worked as it was supposed to work. Kudos to Bark!
By the time we arrived at the cruise terminal, there were no other geezers waiting to board the ship. In fact, the check-in folks were expediting us through the hurdles. We checked in and walked about a mile (I exaggerate only a little, but it was a long way) to get to the ship. We were given the life-jacket lecture, told about muster stations and then we were free to find food. We hadn't eaten since we had English Breakfast on the plane.
We dragged our tired and hungry bodies to the dining room. The waiter seated us and gave us our napkins, and brought out fresh yummy breads and cooling sparkling water and wine...we could finally sit down and relax and enjoy a good meal in peace and quiet. We toasted each other on surviving the adventure of flying while handicapped.
We've not had time nor energy to explore our digs for the next 17 days, but we have17 days to do that. After we found our rooms and unpacked, we crashed on our soft white beds...it's time for a good night's sleep in Bark. Tomorrow we might (or might not) explore Bark before we sail away to our next port of call in Spain.
2 comments:
The older I get the less fun it is to travel.
That is true
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