Our Air France flight was delayed 15 minutes and we lost 10 minutes in the air, putting us 25 minutes less time to make our connection flight in Paris.
You have to understand that the Charles DE Gaulle Airport has been under construction for the past several years I have been coming to Basque Country. This is the first time our flight was that late. What complicated the connection process was the necessity to go through customs to get our passports stamped. The problem was we had to exit the plane on the tarmac, ride a bus for 5 minutes to the middle of the airport, stand in line with 50 people with 2 custom agents working frantically to get people through only to walk a quarter mile to the sign that pointed outside with no signs on the curb to give us direction. We saw two large tour busses unloading, but no N2 Bus to transport to us G2 terminal. We all went inside to see if we missed something. I remembered that this was what I did last time we were at DE Gaulle. Jane went to ask someone and I went outside to look for the bus. Sure enough, as soon as we were about to panic the N2 bus pulled up to get us to the G2 Gate.
The N2 bus was a 5 minute ride back to the same terminal we exited the plane. I looked at the LED monitor on the bus and it said Next Destination G2 Terminal – 6 min. The time was 10:01 and our plane was to depart at 10:15! But I said to Jane, but the building over there says G2 and we were passing by it. Then the bus turned sharply, the time on the monitor said 2 minutes till arrival. Boy, are we going to cut this close. We walked very quickly through the G2 Terminal doors on a mission. Jane asked, “Where do we go?” I said, “Turn left, we have to go through security again.” The government of France had really constructed a nice security area since the last time I visited. Fortunately, no one was waiting in line so we went right through, except for my suitcase caring the video projection unit for the classroom presentations. They had to screen it using the wipes to detect explosives. Precious minutes were ticking away. Finally, all clear.
Our fast walking turned into a slow jog and the slight decline down the walkway to the waiting area at Gate 23 helped speed us up a bit. If I was smart I would have told the King’s West and Olympic College track star, Irene Moore who is traveling with us, to sprint ahead of us and hold the plane. I turned the corner, with Irene right behind me, and saw two flight attendants down the stairs to the doors that led to the plane. One lady went out the door to the plane, the other lady told me as I was huffing and puffing that it was too late. “You will have to go upstairs and get a later flight”, she said. I couldn’t say anything because I was out of breath, Irene did not break a sweat and Jane and Marcy were just coming down the stairs to the waiting area. The flight attendant repeated herself about going upstairs to book another flight to Bilbao. Jane said we have four people waiting for us in Bilbao and we have no way of contacting them. I had may arms on the podium still breathing hard when the second flight attendant flung open the door after returning from the plane and said we can BOARD! I ran over and gave her the double kiss on the cheek thank you.
Unfortunately, our luggage did not make the flight. I am glad to say, we met up with Syd on the airplane. He was wondering what took us to so long. Ruth was on a later flight but because of all our delays she beat us to Bilbao. Marcy was able to meet her Basque daughter and family at the airport and everyone but me got on the 12:45 bus to Donostia.
I need to wait here for a couple hours to pick up Billy from Portland. I had time to write this introduction to our trip. I better go and see if he has arrived. I hope the rest of our trip is this exciting.
Agur
P.S.
Billy missed his connection and got on another flight which was to arrive at 8PM. I returned to Donostia. I received notification that our luggage was to be on the same flight Billy was on. So, I was able to pick up the luggage and Billy in one trip to the airport. Sweet!
