Saturday, October 15, 2022

Part of Being There is Getting There

 

I have the time

Traveling can be frustrating.  Flights are late, lines are long, and people are annoying. I traveled for my work about 100,000 miles a year and it was hard.  I wanted to either be home or at my destination.  I ended up creating a little mantra; “part of being there is getting there.”  This meant I needed to enjoy the travel experience and be productive and comfortable on the trip. I have the time now that I'm retired.

When I go on vacation, I try to make my travel and airport time part of the fun. Last month, we went on one of our longest journeys.  Yes, we have traveled farther; Japan, Australia, and New Zealand-but this was our longest trip ever.  We went on an 8-day Viking River Cruise on the Rhine River that goes from Basel to Amsterdam and spent 14 days away from home. It started with a simple flight from Orlando to Basel, Switzerland which you can do in 12 hours, but we ended up spending 34 hours.  

The first extra 12 hours was because the parking garage was full at the Orlando Airport and we ended up spending the night at an airport hotel to guarantee a space for our van.  We don’t like using airport shuttles and don’t have any friends or family to drive us to the airport; thus, we got to start our vacation early.  I enjoyed myself; it was a lovely hotel and I took a couple of hot baths because hotels keep their room much colder than our house. 

Next was the problem with labor shortages at all airports.  I had been reading on a couple Viking Cruise groups that people were missing their flights due to tight connections and slow passport control and security.  I changed our flights to provide us with a six-hour layover in Washington Dulles and four hours in Munich.  Yes, you read that right – 6-hour layover! 

Most flights to Europe leave the Northeast in the early evening and most connections like the Orlando to Washington Dulles leave in the afternoon.  But leaving Orlando in the afternoon means troubles with thunderstorms from May to November and after 2 PM.  I found a nice flight that would get us to Dulles leaving at 9 AM.  But since the overnight flight to Europe leaves around 6 PM – that this a long time in Dulles.  But when you think about that – what’s the problem? Airports are fun places if you let them be. 

Since we hadn’t had a vacation in decades, I had saved up enough for the United Polaris lay-flat seats and that included access to the amazing Polaris lounge at Dulles.  This isn’t like a normal crowded United Club, instead, it had a restaurant, bar, buffet, coffee/tea/juice stations, and lots of open space for walking, reading, and napping.  If you want a serious nap, you can take a hot shower and then get a private napping room.  It was probably the only time I’d experienced this level of luxury on my retirement income, but it was fun. We enjoyed the Lufthansa lounge in Munich and sampled German food and treats.

I did a pre-cruise extension to enjoy the city of Basel and to make sure we’d arrive at our ship in time and planned 2 extra days in Amsterdam that turned into 3 days when a hurricane hit Orlando.  I didn’t need to worry, because I had prepared our house for the hurricane and my neighbor regularly texted me updates.  

I keep in mind that “getting there” is part of the vacation and to make it fun.  You can either be upset with a delayed flight or be thankful that you have more time to look around the airport and explore the shops, and food, or merely people-watch. It is not important to “be there” anymore.  I have the time.

I had so many stressful years when I had to be somewhere on a certain date and time because there were clients waiting for me, but now, I don’t worry about it – or build in plenty of “buffer time.”  Preparing, planning, and enjoying is my travel mantra as I start working on our next trip.

If you would like to read more about this Viking River Cruise trip, I’m writing a free e-book

https://sandijerome.com/free/ActThreeTravelSandiJerome.pdf

I’ve also created YouTube videos for my travel playlist

https://www.youtube.com/sandijerome/playlists

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