Posted on 08/09/2005 8:02:21 AM PDT by NYer
With her indominatable spirit, GipperGal's adventure continues. Just a reminder to all, that GG is accompanying a group but has not met up with them yet. Fasten your seatbelts, you're in for quite a ride! Enjoy the adventure!
Aug. 8, 2005 7PM
All I can say is somedays you're the pigeon and somedays you're the statue. Either that or I could fall back on my old excuse. One of my ancestors must have spit in the eye of the village witch. Ever since then my family tree has suffered from Dutch Elm disease. (Or at least some Maronite variation of that disease -- perhaps involving Cedars). That explains why I am now sitting at a food court in Jersey instead of flying high over the Atlantic on my way to the Eternal City.
Well, then -- getting back to my misadventures. Perhaps I should begin my tale of woe from the top. First there was this mornings shower. You see, my Shuttle van pick-up this morning was at 4:55 am. At about 1:00am I decided to take a little snooze before continuing my packing. I set my radio alarm and quickly slipped into oblivian. I'm used to waking up every morning to the Laura Ingraham Show -- which tends to be rather loud and lively, what with the "lie of the day" and "what's he smoking" moment of the day and Laura's other antics. But instead, this morning I woke up--or rather DIDN'T wake up--to Bill Bennett's "Morning in America" show. The man is a natural soporific! His voice is so deep mellow he ought to be announcing love songs on a Saturday night! Well, suffice to say, I slept right through it and then woke up in a panic with only one & a half hour before my pick-up and all my gear is still unpacked (and truth be told, in disarray). Just when things couldn't get loonier, my shower rod just out of the friggin' blue decides to fall down. I'm trying to
a) put the damn thing back up;
b) keep my backroom from becoming a rain forest; and
c) wash up real good 'cause who the hell knows what kind of medieval hygene they have across the pond (yes, I admit I am a bit Howard Hughs-ish when it comes to cleanliness).
Well, having abandoned as futile all attempts to make the shower rod stay in place, I washed as best I could while trying to keep my bathroom relatively dry. And then the fun began.
Packing! I was instructed in no uncertain terms by the Pilrimage Group that I'm a part of that we are not to pack more than 40 lbs. We have to be able to Sherpa our luggage up the hill for the Saturday night vigil and also from the Loreley to the docks for our boat ride up (or is it down?) the Rhine. They even told us exactly how many shirts to pack (2) and pants/shorts (2) and right on down to undies. We had to pack laundry detergent and wash what meager clothing we are allowed to bring. After negotiating yet again what reading material to bring and whether to pack this shirt or that, I looked up at the clock to discover that I had 15 minutes before the Shuttle got there. And my backpack wouldn't close. Remember what I said about my Howard Hughes like behavior? Well, let's just say that have a variety of toiletries is important to me. But the 1 lb bottle of Paul Mitchell mousse was just going to have to be sacrificed. But I refuse--refuse!-- to give up my moisturizer darn it! I have a beautiful historic travel guide for Rome. By far the best of the genre. But it weighs something along the lines of a harcover unabridged addition of the Gulag Archipelago. I refuse to give it up. But then there's the lovely leather travel journal some dear friends gifted to me a few years back. Too heavy. I brought a mini journal instead. I told myself that I'd just rewrite everything in the nice one when I get (yeah, I know that's laughable, but you tell yourself things like this when you're five minutes away from the pick-up time and still can't close your bag. Eventually I just frantically through everything in the back and pulled out some socks and the Pilgrim booklet provided by the pilgrim group (hey, if it's that important they'll have other copies when I get to the Loreley!)
Well, I run out in the nick of time and then forget where I put my house keys, delayed the Shuttle for 5 minutes while I located them. And then we were off! Okay so my bags were packed a little haphazardly shall we say. At least they closed!
The flight to Newark was relatively easy. The trouble came when I realized they were running awfully late and I just might not make my connection. Apparently United (which I was flying this morning) and Ailitalia (which I hope to fly tonight) don't have a partnership. So the United folks couldn't issue me an Ailitalia boarding pass -- or really even tell me anything of use. When I politely mentioned to the flight attendant that I was in danger of missing my connection and could she please allow me to get off the plane first (you know with the first class people) she blew me off and said we're landing now so there's no hurry. Twenty -- yes, TWENTY--minutes after she said we'd be landing right now, we finally landed. I hoofed it over to the Ailitalia counter to get my boarding pass only to be told that it was too late and the next plane to Italy is at 9pm to MILAN! So now I'm waiting to board a flight for Milan in order to board another flight from Milan to Rome, which will bring me into Rome tomorrow at about 7:30 Rome time.
I now sit in the food court at the Newark Airport. I'm now tired, achy, and ready to throttle the little kid who keeps kicking my table. My luggage is someplace in this airport, but the United people still have not seen fit to deliver it to the Ailitalia people. The Ailitalia people apparently have no recourse to ask the United people for my #@",! luggage because they don't have a partnership with each other. As part of a final excercise of the absurd, I've been trying to contact United to tell the idiots to walk down the terminal and give my bags to the friggin' Italians. But I can't seem to get the voice regonition software on the United baggage problem hotline to understand my rendition of those oh so difficult sounding words "yes" and "no"!
If things keep going as they are my luggage will remain in Jersey while I go to Milan. Oh well. I was way over the maximum weigh allowance anyway...
Aug. 9, 2005 - 8am
Well, here I am in Milan at the airport waiting for my fligjht to Roma. Apparently United came through and finally delivered my luggage to Alitalia.
As for Alitalia, I must say that Mark Steyn is right! If I were at my computer I would.post a copy of Steyn's article a from a few months back in National Review lamenting (or praising?) the fact that foreign airlines are so superior to their American counterparts in service. Damn if that ain't the truth! The dinner served on the Alitalia flight was better than the high end restaurant grub at the Newark airport. And better still, they were delightfully negligent about enforcing the safety "rules" (as in keep your seat belt on at all times --even while asleep just in case we hit a pocket of turbulance and you bump your head and decide to sue the airlines like a good member of John Edward's America). I got the feeling the Italians could give a rat's rear if you bump you decide not to wear your seatbelt and then go "flying" mid-flight. As long as your well fed, they feel they've done their duty by you. And the little bottle red wine with dinner is free! I'm in love.
They didn't even care that I had my blackberry on (with the wireless turned off of course). On American or United flights (the two airlines I know the best; well actually I know America West pretty well too but I try to forget them) they'll demand that you turn off your Cassio caculator watch least it "interfer" with inflight "communications". But hey, those watches are probably more high tech that our Space Shuttle (speaking of which, did the old clunker land yet?). All this to say, Alitalia rocks. And the Italians are a remarkably attractive people. They dress wonderfully. It's like I stepped onto a Gucci photo shoot. Most of the passengers were Italians. When the plane landed they clapped and cheered. I wasn't quite sure if I should find this endearing or frightening. I guess we Americans are used to considering plane flight as no more remarkable than taking the Grey Hound, which would also account for our meager flight service.
Just to make my arrival onto Italian soil more memorable, the very first thing I did upon arriving in this charming country is lose my watch. It might have been pinched. I took it off and set it on top of my jacket in a little bin next to my bag when I passed through the airport scanner (which I had to do because I was departing the international terminal and entering the domestic terminal). I put my jacket back on but never saw the watch again. I was so focused on trying to find the right terminal that I didn't notice that my watch was missing. In truth, I was more concerned with making my connection. I was sure of the local time and was afraid I'd miss another flight. I didn't see the flight listed on the departure/arrival kiosk; so I asked the bemused lady at the "Informazion" desk for help. She looked at me as if she were French and I was the personification of a Jerry Lewis film. She calmly explained that my flight wasn't departing for another two & a half hours. I asked her what the local time is, and it was only after she told me that I noticed my watch was missing. There really was no way for me to easily go back and find it because I had already passed through and got my passport stamped, etc. I just bought the stupid thing (a timex indigo "Explorer" style) last Saturday at the Kmart. I wanted a cheap ("unflashy"), durable watch which had military time (you know, 13:00, 14:00, etc.) in addition to standard time because all the trains here seem to be listed that way instead of our good 'ol American AM/PM distinction. But oh well, it's gone now. I went in search of a new one and discovered a "Swatch" shop. I tried to find one with military time just like the one I lost, but could't find one and couldn't explain myself to the store owner. So I bought the cheapest watch she had. A little nondescript navy thing for 35,00 euros.
I then went in search of something cool to drink. Like the good Yank I am, I was delighted to see the sale of our "national beverage" -- coca cola. I asked for a bottle of diet coke and got a smaller (smaller than our bottles at least) bottle of "coca-cola light". Whatever. It wasn't the different name that made me choke, it was the 2,50 euros price! That 2,50 eros mind you. You do the conversion. I mean, daayum!
Well, that's all for now. I better go and find my terminal.
Ciao,
Still waiting for confirmation of GG's arrival in the Eternal City. Be sure to check back during the day for more updates.
Thanks!
My daughter just enjoyed the services of Iberia (the Spanish national airline.) She had a very good time. A much better time than she had with Delta, which (1) cancelled her connection, causing her almost to miss Iberia (they held the plane for her!) (2) lost her luggage and (3) really didn't care much.
I have flown Delta all my life (even met Mr. Woolman the then-president of the airline while flying at age 7! He gave me a little gold DC-7 lapel pin, which I still have!) but I have been VERY disappointed with them the last several flights I or my family have taken. My time limit for driving as opposed to flying just expanded.
Ah, the charming world of travel.
Gipps has me very jealous! Good luck to her!
My daughter departs via Iberian tomorrow from O'Hare--a one-hop, then to Cologne. I told her that she would enjoy the service on the flight
In the meantime, you can find on the 'net a VERY comprehensive tour/overview of the Cathedral of Cologne..which may be of interest.
That's airport capitalism for you. They know that they've got you. It's not like you can go to the next block and find a store that sells it cheaper. They figure if you're wealthy enough to be flying, you can probably spare a few extra bucks here or there. I have never been to an airport where the shops weren't overpriced.
Thanks! Is it Cologne, or Köln?
Your spelling is correct in German.
Use Google: Germany. There are tourist info sites--take any one of them and find Koln, click there, and find the Dom site.
BTTT - and a reminder about why nothing beats The Travel Channel!
thanks!
First off, apologies for not posting sooner, it's a veritable zoo at work and will continue like this for the next few weeks. I'll do my best to keep this dialogue current. Thank you for your patience!
GG encountered some problems with Cingular wireless. She specifically requested international calling and called them today to reconfirm this. Ooops, they goofed. She's expecting a call from the Manager in Louisiana tomorrow assuring her that this has been cleared up. I'll spare you the commentary ;-D.
"I'm going to try to russle me up some grub from the market around the corner (just heard the bells chime from Santa Maria Maggiore -- again, more on how it is I happened to be around the corner from Santa Maria Maggiore instead of at the quiet little hotel on the other side of town).
Ciao for now,"
God willing, the worst is behind her and the best is yet to come. Please remember her in your prayers. She's had a rough start to the trip. I see she is already learning Italian. Bless you all!
My niece was in Charles de Gaulle in Paris just recently and all the gendarmes were surrounding a tiny woman on the floor who would not stand up when told to. Kath listened for a moment and realized that the French were trying to get her to comprehend to "stand up" but she was responding in a language they didn't understand. Then, my niece, realizing the woman was speaking Italian told the gendarmes in French that the woman was speaking Italian and could she translate for them. The French police officer said, "Mais Oui!" My niece asked the woman why she refused to stand up and then told the French police, "She says she is sorry but she has fallen and thinks both her ankles are broken." It turns out they were. An ambulance was called immediately.
The pleasures of travel!
Frank
Great News for GG! Spread the word!
Special indulgences for World Youth Day
Aug. 09 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) has granted two special indulgences for World Youth Day, which will be held in Cologne from August 16 to 21.
According to a Latin-language decree of the Apostolic Penitentiary dated August 2 and made public August 8, a plenary indulgence is available to the faithful who attend the sacred functions of World Youth Day and also "attentively and religiously" participate in its solemn conclusion on Sunday, August 21. The decree lists the additional conditions that must be fulfilled in order to gain this or any other plenary indulgence: sacramental Confession, reception of Holy Communion, prayer for the intention of the Holy Father, and a soul free from attachment to any sin.
A partial indulgence is available to all the other faithful, wherever they may be during World Youth Day, if, with a contrite heart, they pray fervently that Christian youth
#1 be strengthened in the profession of the Faith;
#2 be confirmed in love and reverence toward their parents; and
#3 form a firm resolution to follow "the holy norms of the Gospel and Mother Church" in living out their present or future family life, or whatever vocation they are called to by God.
The decree was signed by Cardinal James Francis Stafford and Father P. Gianfranco Girotti, OFM Conv., the major penitentiary and regent of the tribunal.
And thank you for the informaton regarding the indulgence. I will email it to GipperGal who is hopefully filling the hotel room wiht the resonance of deep zzzzzzz's.
Well that's cool! We will put this intention in our morning prayers for the next week. The kids are so thrilled that we finished reading "Ecclesiastes" that they won't object to additional prayers :-). It was a downer, to be sure.
If you don't want to mess with the umlauts, you can also use Koeln. That spelling may be more common on the web. Here is a link to the Koelner Dom web site: http://www.koelner-dom.de/ . Click on the English flag at the top for the English language version.
What a wild ride, thank goodness GG made it to Roma!
Here's hoping the rest of the trip is a lot more smooth! At least, she's in The Eternal City...and in great company!
But I do notice the use of the substitute 'e' more on the internet. It just looks funny to me, though.
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