The Best Of Times, The Worst Of Times

My view of the taxi ride to the hotel.
Things didn't go very well today. Probably the worst day of the trip, actually. It could have been much better, really. But little things kept creeping up and ruining what should have been a great day.

It started right off the bat – at 1 a.m., actually – when I couldn't get online for a conference call (via) Skype for the Nature Valley Grand Prix. I had paid for 15 hours of internet, rather than the standard four (or even one). So when I woke up from a brief nap, I wasn't immediately aware there was going to be a problem. Well, there was a problem. And doing everything to trouble-shoot it, even walking to a nearby hotel to try and get wifi there (the desk was a closed) didn't fix the problem.

The next downer was an e-mail I received from my mom about my dad's twin brother and his failing health. This certainly hit home and made for some emotional hours as I tried to go back to bed. Next up was the town bells. I should have gotten some video, but I didn't realize the bells on a nearby church (pictured at right) were going to ring for five minutes. At 6:30 a.m. Not that I wasn't already up, but it was a bit annoying.

This would be another big travel day, so there was the stress of getting to the airport, two flights and then a taxi ride to the hotel. First, the ride from airport to hotel in a shuttle. No problems, actually. Once at the airport, I got in a slow-moving line at the ticket counter. Fortunately, they weren't surprised this time with my two bags. Ticket in hand, I was off on my first flight on GermanWings.

Now a funny thing about GermanWings is its marketing campaign. It's three "sexy" flight attendants who are on brochures, the Facebook page, Twitter page, etc. Apparently, this is to disguise the fact that they are Germany's equivalent of Southwest Airlines. (But they do have reserved seating, thankfully.) My first flight had me in seat 1-A. Yes, right up front, looking at a plastic divider. This meant not having access to my backpack (it was in the overhead bin), so I decided to sleep a bit.

The flight from Zurich was to Bonn/Cologne. Not being a geography major, I didn't immediately realize were were flying away from my final destination. It was equivalent of flying to Chicago out of Omaha to get to Los Angeles. Yeah, about 75 minutes in the wrong direction. But that was OK, because I'd never been to Germany.

One bad (or maybe good) thing about connecting through another country is you don't go through customs. Which means no stamp in your passport. (And no long lines waiting to get it stamped). But I did enjoy some nice aerial views of the beautiful German countryside. It's really neat how certain European countries really have a flavor and look to them.

Once at the airport, I took a quick look around for souvenirs. Then it was off to my connecting flight. That's when more trouble arose. It turns out boarding passes for connections aren't issued at the gate like they told me in Zurich. No, they're at a kiosk somewhere else in the airport. Fortunately, it wasn't that far. But the kiosk wasn't manned, though there was a phone that said to call "extension 2141." Of course no one answered (it was lunch time). So I went back to my original connecting gate. A second attendant was there with the first one I'd asked about the boarding pass. She told me I'd have to go all the way back to the main ticket counters to get it and asked when I was flying out. "On this flight (in 35 minutes)," I told her. She looked at me like I'd never make it there and back. The other (original) attendant took my name down, I guess, so he could page me and let me know I'd be missing my flight.

So I ran off to find the main ticketing counter. Have you ever gone backwards through airport security? Now I have. Have you ever run through the airport like you're competing in the 1,600 meters on a track? I have. Have you ever wanted to stop and eat at an airport Burger King? I did yesterday. (Wanted to, but didn't have time, of course.)

Anyway, I got my ticket, then sprinted back to go through security. Thankfully, I didn't have to take my shoes off (must be a U.S.-only thing) and got back to the gate just as they were beginning to board. Now another thing that's different from flying in the U.S. – the exit row seating. On GermanWings, you can't place your bags beneath the seat in front of you if you're seated in an exit row (which I was). So my bag went up in the bin. But here's the kicker. The tray tables in the exit aisle (shown at right) can be used. That's really different because U.S. airlines bolt them shut so they can't come down and block the aisle as you're rushing out the emergency exit.

One nice thing on my flight (90 minutes) to Italy was my "Happy Picnic." I had a coupon (shown at right) for a cup of coffee (or water) and a turkey (or cheese) sandwich. So that was terrific considering I hadn't eaten anything since my pizza lunch the day before. The other nice thing on the flight was the view of the Swiss Alps. (No photo, sorry.)

Once on the ground in Italy, I grabbed my bag (and was disappointed there was no clearance of customs because I wasn't flying in from abroad) and hailed a taxi. By this time, the race I was supposed to cover was well underway. So all the way to the hotel, I was monitoring developments on Twitter. I arrived (in the rain) at the hotel only to find out its wifi was down (and would NOT be coming back up).

I scurried to my room (which was in another building) and switched on the TV just in time to see Cadel Evans going to the top step of the podium (pictured at right). I'll spare you the dreaded details of how difficult it was to have to type my entire story on my Blackberry. Let's just say that when I finally get Internet service, I'm going to work very hard on tethering my laptop to my Blackberry. (Thanks for the tips, Matt Davio.)

From the Notebook:
- It was great when the guys from Tirreno-Adriatico pulled up at the hotel. Seeing them after a big win was a nice bonus. We had a terrific dinner to celebrate, too.

- It rained all afternoon here in Italy, adding to the dreariness.

- I ended up writing two news releases today. One on Cadel Evans's victory and the other on him achieving (a tie for) the world No. 1 ranking. Impressive (him, not me writing about it).

- In the airport in Zurich, I came across a hand dryer just like the ones at AksarBen Cinema (pictured at right).

- One of the lighter moments today happened as we were de-planing in Cologne. We went down the stairs from the plane out onto the tarmac, where a bus was waiting to take us to the terminal. We crowded onto this bus and it pulled away. Not more than 10 seconds and 100 feet later, we stopped – at the terminal. Yes, we rode in a bus for 100 feet. I should have snapped a picture, but I was in a bit of a rush.

This is what a "Happy Picnic" looks like on GermanWings.

My view from seat 1A.

After the first stop on the transit bus, nearly everyone was gone.

View of my plane for the flight to Cologne.

Cool Zurich airport shot. Reminds me of "Up in the Air." (below)