First Flight

 

The last flight I took before this week was 1 January 2020. This week I flew from Toulouse to Amsterdam to Boston on an Airbus KLM.

Over the decades, I've been an almost frequent flyer on both business and pleasure trips. So many changes -- many because of automation, many because of Covid.

Where once flying was exciting and fun, now it has pitfalls, which my husband did much to circumvent. He found out we needed the rapid Covid test to get into the U.S. I suggested the local pharmacy rather than the next village. Once again my nose was subjected to Q-tip attacks. I think this was my 10th time. He's pushing 20 times. Negative.

One nice thing? If we hadn't been at the pharmacy, we would have missed seeing two friends and ended up in coffee and a café sit in the glorious sunshine.

He also found out about the multi-page form the U.S. requires. We had to hand them over in Amsterdam. Our Clean Covid Certificates were never asked for. 

In Toulouse, I've never seen such a short security line. It was the two of us, although some people followed us. One looked like a short version of George Clooney. Hmmm.

I limped ahead of Rick leaving the Toulouse flight only to see stairs leading to the tarmac. The pilot or co-pilot asked me if he could help. He not only took the suitcase down the stairs he carried it up the next set of stairs. His parents, although Dutch, currently live in the Boston area. 

Schipol Airport is still huge, but we noticed that many of the moving sidewalks weren't moving. Also the restaurants stopped serving around 2. Looking out the window we saw a field of tulips. Coming into and leaving the airport looked down onto large patches of yellow, red and purple tulips -- and of course, Rick spotted a golf course.

They did have a nice selection of English books. The woman who sold three to me was from Norway and we had a nice chat about reading in 2nd and third languages.

Rick and I have a different point of view about flying. On our first international flight I wondered why he wanted a meal right before boarding the plane. For me, airline food is fun. He isn't as enthused and prefers eating before the flight, but I just love peeling back that tinfoil to see what's there. Peek and eat. 

For me part of the enjoyment of flying is meals and movies. This flight had the new West Side Story. It might be interesting to watching them back to back sometime, except, the new one made me long for the old one and to change the channel. Rick settled into a Federer/Nadal charity match. Both of us napped.

 

A cheese packet wrote about how the cheese was made from healthy and happy cows. As a cynic, he was sure it was marketing, but I'd like to think the cow that produced the milk for the cheese was at least content. Maybe she modeled for the cow above in the store at the airport. Maybe a happy and healthy cow modeled for the statue.

On both flights, I asked for early boarding because of my hip that has left me limping. It made it easier for us, especially in getting things in the overhead. Also, we didn't slow anyone up.

While waiting with the other boarders, a woman remarked on how sweet the teddy bears that decorate my suitcase were. She lives outside Boston and her hobby is making doll furniture. I told her about my daughter's dollhouse. 

Of course, the best part of the trip was walking into my daughter's hug. A man in his late 20s or maybe early 30s stopped and said how seeing a mother and daughter hug made his day. It made mine too.