I left my cozy home on Saturday (3/14) afternoon for yet another business trip. This one was a little different since I am traveling overseas to Germany. I got to Dulles International Airport about 3 in the afternoon. Said the tough good byes to the wife and kids and went in to meet up with my coworker whom i would be traveling with and check in the bag. My plans were to travel from Dulles to London Heathrow and then on to Stuttgart Germany. I checked my bags in just fine. My friend went to go check his in and an announcement came up stating that the plane was placed on a maintenance hold (broken plane). The agent reccomended that we re-route our flights since the one we originally were on did not appear to be able to take off on time. GREAT ! The re-route was through Zurich, Switzerland and left earlier than the original flights and would get us to the final destination earlier. So we booked the flights and went on to go through security. Security was uneventful. We sat down in the concourse since we had about an hour wait and grabbed some snack food from TGI Fridays. We were walking back to our gate when the first delay was announced. Our 5:05 departure was now set at 7:30. There was a chain of thunderstorms that rolled through the area apparently which were worse in the higher altitudes than it was on the ground. The plane that was slotted to take us to Zurich was stuck in Philidelphia due to the same weather.
okay… So we went down the concourse and had a seat in a little eatery place and had a beer and Cheesburger. Shortly after we began to eat the next announcement came out the the plane was going to be delayed till 8:30pm. sigh… We are bouncing back and forth to the customer service desk asking if there is something more that can be done, but unfortunatly there was nothing more to do other than wait. Right about 8:15 the new update hits and the delay is announced just as that. “Delayed”. There is no update of time given, and when we asked all they could tell us is when we know we’ll tell you. How frustrating this is.
During the 9 O’Clock hour there was a surge of planes able to land which enabled alot of the delayed flights to prepare to take off (including ours). The sudden insurgence of planes created a backup with getting the planes fueled and prepared. We boarded the plane about 10pm and finally took off about 11pm.
With the delay in taking off, this meant that we were too late in getting into Zurich and had to have a 4 hour layover. The flight from Zurich to Stuttgart was great. It was about a 30 minute flight. A quick on and off. We got to Stuttgart and by the time we got to the bagage claim, our bags were circling the belt and we were off.
Nothing too interesting to report for today. We got to the hotel about 7:30 / 8pm this evening and pretty much crashed. I am getting ready to try and fall asleep since it is 11:30 local time and 5:30 EST.
I will upload pictures and events from the trip as my 2 weeks here progress.
Cheers!
JB
Jet Lag!
Jet lag is a lot of fun from Germany to the states and back again. I’m sure others have mentioned it, but here’s your reminder:
Drink lots of water. For whatever reason it helps your body to adjust to a new sleep pattern in your current time zone.
Have a good time!–
Christy
I wonder…
Since I’m about to start a night job, I wonder if that advice could help me in my transition of sleeping schedules?
For loyal barnson.org readers, I may be a bit “out of it” the next 3 weeks. I’ll be going to nights on May 23, working nights for a week, then moving to days for two weeks, then back to nights permanently for a while.
I’ll also be working part-time (mostly from home, thank goodness!) on a contract job while they find a replacement for the contract. And working on a soundtrack for a horror film. And working on the soundtracks for two video games. While being a Dad and a husband 🙂 So I’m going to be pretty wiped out. I’m sure my friends can take up the slack while I’m exceedingly busy.
If water’s the way, I’ll be drinking gallons a day!
—
Matthew P. Barnson