Not wanting to leave you on a such a sad note in my Munich-trip-recap, I do have one final story to tell... about planes.
Feeling slightly smug that we had caught our flight to Germany without any glitches, Bill and I thought that we had finally mastered the art of flying across Europe... well, at least that's what we thought. The German subway system is an ingenious work of technology that is actually quite well-planned and easy to follow -- if you know what you're doing. Knowing which line we needed to grab in order to bring ourselves back to the Munich airport, Bill and I felt no stress about catching our flight since we had allowed ourselves plenty of time to arrive at the airport before check-in. Unfortunately, we made two fatal mistakes. The first was hopping on the right train going in the wrong direction. The second was not realizing that we were traveling directly away from the airport until we were 20 minutes outside the city. (YIKES!)
When it finally hit me that we were traveling in the wrong direction, I frantically told Bill that we needed to jump off at the next stop and wait for the next train heading back into the city. Waiting anxiously for the next train to arrive 15 minutes later, I watched minutes tick away on my watch as we began the hour-long trek back towards the airport. Feeling completely defeated by my inability to read German subway signs, I had begun to accept the fact that Bill and I were going to miss our flight back to the U.K.
By some miracle of high-speed German subway technology, however, we arrived at the Munich airport just 10 minutes before the check-in ticket counter was scheduled to close for our flight. Dashing across the large airport, Bill and I darted left and right without ever completely knowing where we were supposed to go. By the grace of fate, I spotted the EasyJet ticket kiosk with just a few minutes left before boarding. Expecting long lines at the customs gates and security checkpoints, Bill and I grabbed our boarding passes and ran to the metal detectors. Surprisingly, there were no lines! Thinking that our boarding gate would be located remotely far from the customs officials, I briefly thanked the customs officer as I dashed to the gates only to discover that I only needed to walk 20 feet to my waiting area. Such amazing luck!! Ironically, Bill and I arrived at the airport only 10 minutes before boarding was scheduled to begin, and we still managed to grab a few minutes to catch our breath before passengers were allowed to board the plane.
The best lesson that I have learned from this nerve-wrecking experience is:
Feeling slightly smug that we had caught our flight to Germany without any glitches, Bill and I thought that we had finally mastered the art of flying across Europe... well, at least that's what we thought. The German subway system is an ingenious work of technology that is actually quite well-planned and easy to follow -- if you know what you're doing. Knowing which line we needed to grab in order to bring ourselves back to the Munich airport, Bill and I felt no stress about catching our flight since we had allowed ourselves plenty of time to arrive at the airport before check-in. Unfortunately, we made two fatal mistakes. The first was hopping on the right train going in the wrong direction. The second was not realizing that we were traveling directly away from the airport until we were 20 minutes outside the city. (YIKES!)
When it finally hit me that we were traveling in the wrong direction, I frantically told Bill that we needed to jump off at the next stop and wait for the next train heading back into the city. Waiting anxiously for the next train to arrive 15 minutes later, I watched minutes tick away on my watch as we began the hour-long trek back towards the airport. Feeling completely defeated by my inability to read German subway signs, I had begun to accept the fact that Bill and I were going to miss our flight back to the U.K.
By some miracle of high-speed German subway technology, however, we arrived at the Munich airport just 10 minutes before the check-in ticket counter was scheduled to close for our flight. Dashing across the large airport, Bill and I darted left and right without ever completely knowing where we were supposed to go. By the grace of fate, I spotted the EasyJet ticket kiosk with just a few minutes left before boarding. Expecting long lines at the customs gates and security checkpoints, Bill and I grabbed our boarding passes and ran to the metal detectors. Surprisingly, there were no lines! Thinking that our boarding gate would be located remotely far from the customs officials, I briefly thanked the customs officer as I dashed to the gates only to discover that I only needed to walk 20 feet to my waiting area. Such amazing luck!! Ironically, Bill and I arrived at the airport only 10 minutes before boarding was scheduled to begin, and we still managed to grab a few minutes to catch our breath before passengers were allowed to board the plane.
The best lesson that I have learned from this nerve-wrecking experience is:
People plan. God laughs.
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