West is Best

Saturday, November 16, 2024

I cleverly woke up before my alarm this morning. I am often feeling like I am on fire, and it wakes me up. Today it was just before 4am – “conveniently” before my 4:30 alarm. Keith and I were ready to roll at 5:25. The tiny elevator took only him and the suitcase. I was faster down the steps to the front door of building. After standing there a moment, our taxi driver jumped out from the side of the door and waved a scary hello. We both laughed. We rode in a brand-new Tesla – it was very comfortable. We had to check in at the airport because Italy wanted us to. It took two minutes. We had a slow line at security that took about six minutes. We were set to go to the gate, except that it was 6:10am and they wouldn’t announce our gate until 7:15. Keith asked if I wanted to go to the lounge. Silly man. I always want to go to the lounge.

We had a lovely breakfast of bacon and eggs and the best chocolate croissants. At exactly 7:15, they told us our gate and we wandered along. We had an ITA flight to Amsterdam (2.5 hours). Keith was boggled that there was no in-flight entertainment. I had looked it up. I read a little, slept almost 45 minutes, and read some more. I think he just stared at the seatback in from of him.

We landed at Schiphol (and passed my favorite clock) and went to passport control. It was surprisingly quick. Keith pointed to the escalator and said we could lounge. Lounge life! I said I didn’t think we had time as we escalated. He said our plane left in an hour and ten minutes. We went in the lounge, had a Coke Zero, some cheesy breadsticks and nut mix (me) and curry chicken bites and pickles (Keith), then zoomed to our gate. They called for zone 4 as we walked up. At passport check at the gate, they asked if we had been to Rwanda in the past two weeks. That was a new question.

Onboard, we learned it was our captain’s last flight. Retirement. Exciting for her!

We started watching Dog and Robot. There is no dialog, so if you close your eyes, you lose the thread very quickly. I suggested we switch to a sleeping movie, because it was so tired out. We were going for Guardians, because that is a good sleeping movie (seen it so many times), but we saw Avengers and clicked on that. Then we were immediately captivated. I know for a fact we have seen it at least twice, but neither of us remembered anything about the beginning, so we were watching and not sleeping. Keith suggested switching to Guardians, but the drink lady was coming and I didn’t want to miss her. We switched back to Dog and Robot (OH! I just remembered: it is actually called Robot Dreams) (Is it? I have been up for over 24 hours at this point and know nothing for sure anymore). After we got whole cans of Coke Zero, we had to wait for lunch to be served, because we wouldn’t want to miss out on that. We finished up the dog and robot story after lunch. We gave Guardians a shot and I slept for 90 minutes! Yay. Then we watched Avengers. Then we watched the Love Book. Then we watched Feeling Through – an 18-minute film that was just right. I watched the beginning of UP until we got off the plane. It was just short of 9 hours from Amsterdam to Minneapolis. I think they went around the block a few extra times, because I don’t remember it being that long of a flight.

Dave O. was there to scoop us up. Thanks, Dave! Keith went to visit Sophie and Colby because Alexander is out of town. We watched two Survivors. We are tired and yawning now. G’night.

Oh, heard from Simon – he and Keith won trivia with only 14.