If you read our Egypt blog, you'll remember the clusterfuck with the luggage. Foreign country and all. Understandable. But here in the US!? Yup. More than the one in Egypt. Grab some coffee.
We fly from Barcelona to JFK. Bumpy ride and the hardest landing ever but we did walk away from it. So then we walk halfway across the airport to get to Passport Control and Customs, the people who protect us from all the dangers out there. Since we were late those who had a short amount of time to get to connections were given orange cards (OC) to get them to the head of the Passport Control line. Sounded like a very thoughtful idea. All of us, orange or not, went to the same large room where there were queues set up. One lady sends the OC's to one line, which was full of non-OC people. We all wound around and then someone pulls out the OC's and send them to a different line which was actually moving slower than the non-OC's. After all of us went to automatic kiosks to get our picture taken and we answered the same questions we did on a form on the plane, we were all sent to different places to join others who were a mixture of OC's and non-OC's. Then someone else pulls out the OC's and puts them in another line that was being helped by one person while those of us non-OC's had three helpers! Those of us with the most time to make our connections were passing those who had the least amount of time. Then it got real interesting. Those four people who we stood in line to see took one look at the paper that was printed out at the kiosk and our passport and just sent us on. No questions, no acknowledgement. The queue was hundreds of people long for this. They then herded us to pick up our checked bags to go through Customs, which we all did. We got in another line and this time the OC's bypassed all the rest of us and went straight through Customs. And at Customs we rolled our bags up to the counter and the guy asks "How long were you gone?" We say a month and then, without examining at our bags,he tells us to put the bags on the belt to get put back on the plane. And it wasn't just us. Before we went through I told Belinda to watch what happens. Not a bag was examined. Your government at work! One lady in line next to us said she was going to write Senator Chuck Schumer. He was a "local boy" who would fix this mess. I assume he's Amy's father. I think I'll write him too. (Done)
We fly into Seattle and have to wait about an hour and half for our 45 minute flight to Portland. So good to be back in the Northwest. But that doesn't mean those of you who are not in the NW can come here. If you do, make sure you have a round trip ticket. Another bumpy flight on a puddle jumper. A small turbo prop actually. And finally we land in Portland. Our luggage made it as did we. We walk out to wait for the HUT shuttle about 12:45 am. The only good thing I can say about HUT is that it was there on time. But it was also the worst of the transportation methods we took. Noisy, smelly, uncomfortable. If it hadn't been a 28 hour day already I would have cared. We just wanted to get home...but really, can't Oregon do better than HUT. It's a truck with flat seats ! The driver was nice and called to have a taxi ready for us, which it was, Probably his shortest fare of the day. But he got a nice tip. Next time I'm going to look into a limo. HUT is that bad.
Ahhhh, our little home looked so good, even at 2 am. And it was happy to see us.
SOME FINAL THOUGHTS:
As usual, Belinda came up with a great trip. And Alice really was a life, or marriage, saver. There is no way on God's green Earth that I would have gone to all the stores they went to. And Alice is a breeze to travel with.
All of the transportation we used worked well, with few exceptions. The worst was our local HUT shuttle. A couple of trains got cancelled, which made it all the more interesting and we saw some things we might not have otherwise seen. Everyone was willing to help us find the right train in the right direction.
Our accommodations were excellent, with the exception of the one AirBnB we used. It was not as advertised in the pictures nor in the description. We would give it a 1/5 only because it wasn't a zero. The interesting thing is that AirBnB will not let you post a review without first setting up an account and emailing them a copy of a government issued photo ID. They seemed to take our credit card info and communicate with us by our email just fine, but I think it's a way to discourage reviews. What they did was discourage our use of AirBnb. Now I know some folks really like AirBnB, but this was our first, and last, use of them. We stayed in 11 different places. Nine were from Rick Steves' guidebooks, one was recommended by Alice's daughter Angel, and then we had AirBnB. All but AirBnB were great. In all our travels we have never had a problem using recommendations from reputable guidebooks like Rick Steves, Lonely Planet, and Moon. Twice we strayed and we were sorry for both of them. Most guidebooks you can get at the library but even if you buy one or two it's a pretty small price to pay for the information.
We had no problems with using ATM's although we only used ones at banks. The one issue we did have was they offered to "convert" our withdrawal to US dollars during the transaction. Of course it's going to get converted when it hits our bank account, but in checking on the internet this was a method for the ATM bank to charge more so we always selected Euros.
Take a cell phone with data access. We bought an $85 package through Verizon that gave us 250/250/250 minutes/texts/data MB. We used most of the data and very little phone and some texts but when we needed a phone or GPS, we needed it. It was worth the $85 for the month. You can get a sim card when you get there but your number changes and updates from the airlines or notices from the bank for ATM or credit card usage won't get to you.
For those of you who take a tablet or phone with you, you probably won't need any converter as such. Most of those chargers are 110/240 volt and will work in Europe. All you need is a $3 adapter that changes the flat plug to a round one..
Also, if you don't like to wait in security lines at the airport, look into TSA Precheck. No taking off shoes, no opening bags or setting out laptops or phones, and the lines are very short. I think there is an $85 fee, but it's worth it.
I'd be glad to share any other info if you like. Just send me an email. Now I have to make sure all our receipts and withdrawals got processed correctly so I'll sign off. Until the next blog, safe travels to you all.
Good night Alice. Good night Scotty. Good night Belinda. Good night Scotty. Good night Belinda. Good night Alice. Goodnight everyone.
We fly into Seattle and have to wait about an hour and half for our 45 minute flight to Portland. So good to be back in the Northwest. But that doesn't mean those of you who are not in the NW can come here. If you do, make sure you have a round trip ticket. Another bumpy flight on a puddle jumper. A small turbo prop actually. And finally we land in Portland. Our luggage made it as did we. We walk out to wait for the HUT shuttle about 12:45 am. The only good thing I can say about HUT is that it was there on time. But it was also the worst of the transportation methods we took. Noisy, smelly, uncomfortable. If it hadn't been a 28 hour day already I would have cared. We just wanted to get home...but really, can't Oregon do better than HUT. It's a truck with flat seats ! The driver was nice and called to have a taxi ready for us, which it was, Probably his shortest fare of the day. But he got a nice tip. Next time I'm going to look into a limo. HUT is that bad.
Ahhhh, our little home looked so good, even at 2 am. And it was happy to see us.
SOME FINAL THOUGHTS:
As usual, Belinda came up with a great trip. And Alice really was a life, or marriage, saver. There is no way on God's green Earth that I would have gone to all the stores they went to. And Alice is a breeze to travel with.
All of the transportation we used worked well, with few exceptions. The worst was our local HUT shuttle. A couple of trains got cancelled, which made it all the more interesting and we saw some things we might not have otherwise seen. Everyone was willing to help us find the right train in the right direction.
Our accommodations were excellent, with the exception of the one AirBnB we used. It was not as advertised in the pictures nor in the description. We would give it a 1/5 only because it wasn't a zero. The interesting thing is that AirBnB will not let you post a review without first setting up an account and emailing them a copy of a government issued photo ID. They seemed to take our credit card info and communicate with us by our email just fine, but I think it's a way to discourage reviews. What they did was discourage our use of AirBnb. Now I know some folks really like AirBnB, but this was our first, and last, use of them. We stayed in 11 different places. Nine were from Rick Steves' guidebooks, one was recommended by Alice's daughter Angel, and then we had AirBnB. All but AirBnB were great. In all our travels we have never had a problem using recommendations from reputable guidebooks like Rick Steves, Lonely Planet, and Moon. Twice we strayed and we were sorry for both of them. Most guidebooks you can get at the library but even if you buy one or two it's a pretty small price to pay for the information.
We had no problems with using ATM's although we only used ones at banks. The one issue we did have was they offered to "convert" our withdrawal to US dollars during the transaction. Of course it's going to get converted when it hits our bank account, but in checking on the internet this was a method for the ATM bank to charge more so we always selected Euros.
Take a cell phone with data access. We bought an $85 package through Verizon that gave us 250/250/250 minutes/texts/data MB. We used most of the data and very little phone and some texts but when we needed a phone or GPS, we needed it. It was worth the $85 for the month. You can get a sim card when you get there but your number changes and updates from the airlines or notices from the bank for ATM or credit card usage won't get to you.
For those of you who take a tablet or phone with you, you probably won't need any converter as such. Most of those chargers are 110/240 volt and will work in Europe. All you need is a $3 adapter that changes the flat plug to a round one..
Also, if you don't like to wait in security lines at the airport, look into TSA Precheck. No taking off shoes, no opening bags or setting out laptops or phones, and the lines are very short. I think there is an $85 fee, but it's worth it.
I'd be glad to share any other info if you like. Just send me an email. Now I have to make sure all our receipts and withdrawals got processed correctly so I'll sign off. Until the next blog, safe travels to you all.
Good night Alice. Good night Scotty. Good night Belinda. Good night Scotty. Good night Belinda. Good night Alice. Goodnight everyone.
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