I don’t always have the mental energy to write profound thoughts or reach important conclusions, but I know that some of you enjoy keeping up with what I’m doing, so here’s a sort of travelogue about my recent move to the US.
Mar 31 Departed Milan. Enrico drove me to the airport in heavy traffic, from which I concluded that I should never again try to get to Linate during rush hour. Made it with a comfortable margin in the end, but it wasn’t worth the stress.
Transited through Frankfurt and decided never to do that again, either. Security has been relaxed, I suppose – we didn’t go through the full body pat-down I’ve experienced in Frankfurt before, but we did have passport checks at the gate. This is fine when your passport is checked just before you get on the plane, but in this case we were required to be checked before going into a holding area just outside the gate. This area had insufficient chairs and no bathroom, so it got very annoying when the flight was delayed.
The delay was due to severe overbooking (so much for German efficiency…). Lufthansa offered a business class upgrade and 500 euros to anyone who would take a later flight through Chicago. I considered it, but was worried about arriving in Denver around midnight, tired, with lots of baggage, and needing to drive an hour over unfamiliar roads to reach my new home.
The flight, of course, was full to the last seat. My seat neighbor was returning from a business trip to India, and had loved it, so we found plenty to talk about. Plus I watched some decent movies from the wide selection available on the seat-back video screens, and read the latest Montalbano book.
…and didn’t have time to write any more!
