More Silver Linings in the Clouds

At various times on this journey, I've had to look for silver linings in the clouds, such as missing the train in Bruge, the delayed night train to Venice..... The trip home afforded me a couple more opportunities to look for silver linings, and I found them! As another passenger who missed her connection said, "Everything happens for the good." We may not initially see it that way, but if you look hard enough, you will see the good....the silver linings.

So, the "opportunities":

Although I boarded my Lufthansa plane on time, we sat on the plane for quite awhile before taxiing out, and then once we were almost to the runway, the captain announced we were going back to the airport. We were having a problem with the air pressure in the cabin and they had called maintenance. Our plane was worked on, fixed, and then more fuel was added so the pilot could "go faster and try to make up the time". This was my fifth trip to Europe, and each time I was aware that the flight path took us up by Greenland. But NEVER EVER have I been able to see Greenland from the plane. We were always flying too high above the clouds. This time, however, I don't know if the pilot flew lower because of the jet stream and trying to get the best time, but I just happened to wake up from one of my little naps, looked out the window, and saw LAND. I quickly turned on the map on my video console and saw that we were flying by Greenland! At almost that same moment, the pilot came on the intercom and said (first in German and then in English), "Ladies and Gentlemen, the turbulence I told you about earlier that we might encounter around Greenland, is here. Please be seated, fasten your seat belts...." And with that, we felt the turbulence and he climbed the plane above the clouds. But not before I was able to take a snapshot! Now, I know it probably doesn't seem like a big deal to you, but Greenland has just been a name before this happened. My fifth grade students studied about Northwest Passages to America, we studied about the Vikings and about their supposed settlements before Columbus in the Americas....So, we've studied Greenland, but I'd never even seen a sliver of it. Now I can say I have. :-)

The pilot made up about half of the time we were delayed, but since we were delayed 90 minutes, I missed my connecting flight in Dulles. The good news was that Lufthansa rebooked anyone who'd missed their connections before we even got on the ground.

Other silver linings:

I had a lot of time to talk with the passenger next to me who was a young man, a civil defense contractor, flying back from Saudi Arabia. Did you know (I didn't) that probably the wealthiest family and contractor that we deal with in the Middle East is the Bin Laden family? They are so wealthy, they fund all sorts of projects, not just in the Middle East but in Europe, such as roads! And, according to this young man, Osama is the black sheep of the family because he went into the military. (Something else I learned from this young man that I thought was interesting: His mother just retired as an assistant superintendent of schools from a district in Virginia. When I told him about our new superintendent coming from Fairfax County, Virginia, he filled me in on the way superintendents tend to operate in Virginia. And he predicted our new superintendent wasn't going to know what to do with a district that doesn't have a lot of money (our current economic situation) because Fairfax County is one of the richest districts in the U.S. We'll see...)

Back to the silver linings...

When you are in a situation like this, "misery likes company". You form quick bonds with others in the same situation. I met a very nice family from Los Angeles that I spoke with for awhile, and kind of assisted through Customs. I met a nice young lady returning from an internship in Moldovia who told me all about it and how Americans just don't realize the downside of the fall of Communism - the poverty, the struggles....

I did have to wait an additional 3 hours in Washington, but more silver linings:

Originally, I wasn't going to pay for the Economy Plus - extra legroom - for the final leg of my trip. Even though I am short, I do tend to feel a bit claustrophobic in airplanes, and the extra legroom does alleviate some of that. When we were rebooked on the next flight going to Orlando, we were given seats in Economy Plus, as they were the only seats available. I even heard booked passengers asking if they could pay the extra for the Economy Plus and were told, "No, they are all sold out."

I had the opportunity to act as an interpreter for a woman who spoke no English, to assist her in getting checked in and getting her seat assignment. A small deal, I know, but it made me feel like I was "paying forward" the assistance the Dutch woman gave me in Brussels.

When we arrived in Florida, we were put "on hold" patterns for 20 minutes, 2 times due to the thunderstorms over Orlando. The airport was temporarily shut down. (BTW, the storm we had to wait out....that's the one that made news today with the tornadoes that touched down in Orlando.) We were told that if they couldn't get us in after the 2nd hold, we would fly to Tampa or Jacksonville to refuel, then try getting into Orlando again. But thankfully, our pilot said after our 2 twenty minute holds, that we would fly in from the east and then the south and avoid the storm. And we did....with lightning striking all around us. Everyone clapped once we touched down! So, four hours after I was due to arrive in Orlando, I arrived safe and sound, and exhausted. But not as exhausted as the civil defense contractor sitting next to me who was flying in from Bahrain and had been up for 36+ hours. Goes to show, it's all relative. (Sorry, no photos of the Florida coastline we had 40 minutes to enjoy, or the lightning show. I was just too plum tuckered out to get out my camera. Besides, you all know what both look like!)