If Only We Could Have Skipped the Airports

Dallas, TX –

Something will always go wrong. You just don’t know what until “it” happens.

There was one trip where everything was great, except when we were dealing with airports. Yes, most people hate dealing with airports to begin with, but this trip stands out to this day.

It started out on the small, insignificant side. Our itinerary was to fly from Dallas/Ft. Worth to London, then change airports and fly on to Paris. Then reverse this path on the way home.

So, Dore and I were sitting in one of the airport restaurants, getting a bite to eat before our overnight flight to London. As we were sitting there, Dore got a strange look on her face, and then started digging into her backpack with a worried expression on her face. She had left her Baggie of carry on liquids at the security checkpoint.

Not a problem, I calmly got up and walked back to the checkpoint we had come through, found the supervisor, and explained to him what had happened. He smiled, went into a room, and returned with two baggies of liquids.

Luckily, I recognized the over-stuffed Baggie with all of Dore’s flower essences and essential oils. Crisis resolved, we boarded our flight and started on our trip.

Early the next morning we landed at Gatwick airport. Once through Customs and Immigration, we took the shuttle bus to Heathrow.

An hour or so later, we entered Heathrow to find complete chaos. Just as we were getting into line to check in for our flight, airport security stepped up and asked everyone to leave the check-in area.

It seems the baggage handling system was out of order, and they were so backed up that they could not accept any more luggage.

So, out we went to the parking lot where a tent was set up for us to take a number and wait our turn to be called. We waited and waited, until our number was finally called, just as our flight was leaving.

We were able to be rebooked on the last flight of the day, and arrived in Paris several hours later than we had planned.

Once we made it to Paris, we had a couple of weeks to enjoy jaunting around Northern Europe (and enjoy it we did).

At the end of our trip, we arrived back at Charles de Gaulle airport for our return flight to London.

At de Gaulle, as with many airports outside the U. S., the security checkpoint is at the boarding gate. So, Dore handed her boarding pass and passport to the security officer to check, put her carry-on backpack in a tray, emptied her pockets, and proceeded through the metal detector. The officer put her boarding pass and passport in the tray with the contents of her pockets and sent it through the x-ray machine.

Now it was my turn.

I followed the same procedure, handed over my boarding pass and passport, emptied my pockets in a tray and waited for the signal to proceed through the metal detector. On the other side, I started removing my belongings from the tray and putting them back into my pockets, including my passport, and realized that my boarding pass was missing.

I asked the security officer about my boarding pass, and they stopped the entire process while everyone searched for it. Finally, he told us to go on into the boarding area and that someone from the airline would issue me a new one (I was somewhat skeptical about this, but I didn’t want to argue.)

Eventually, after all the passengers had been screened and were in the boarding area, he came over to me and asked to see my passport. He examined it and, once satisfied, produced my boarding pass, enabling me to get on the plane.

Once in London, back at Gatwick airport, we arrived at our boarding gate, only to be greeted by another security officer.
I had been selected for a further, more thorough security screening.

As the officer rifled through my carry on bag, he examined the books that I was reading. This prompted him to ask me if I had read anything by some similar author. Soon, we were chatting like old friends as he examined every nook and cranny in my bag.

Once he had satisfied himself that I wasn’t carrying anything undesirable, we ended our chat and I joined the other passengers waiting for our flight.

Now, I admit, compared to the two middle airport experiences, this was rather mild, but about the same as at our starting airport, and thus a fitting bookend to the whole trip.

In the end, it had been a very enjoyable trip. If only we could have skipped the airports…

Sorry, I rarely take photos in or around airports, so I don’t have a gallery of photos to link to for this story. If you want to view a variety of my photos from around the world, click here.