Day 11 - Wednesday - United from Munich to Dulles

I found it surreal that I could awaken at 7 am on a riverboat on the Danube in Passau, Gernany, board a bus for the Munich Airport at 8 am, and be back in Shady Side by 8 pm the same day. And a long day it was. First a fun photo:

As seen in the Munich Airport. We wondered if he had to pay for a second seat.

While I understand that no one should expect international travel to be a walk in the park, but recalling the hoops and waits that we had to manage makes me wonder if it is worth it (it was!).

• The bus from our boat arrived at Munich Airport at 10 am, a two-hour ride, it is raining, and the Viking person who was supposed to help us navigate the airport was not up to the task
• We had to ask several people where to find the United Airlines check in desk, so we could drop off our luggage and get our boarding passes
• We found the United Airlines check in and were greeted by a young man at the start of the line (thankfully short as we were flying business class), who said that he was a security official and interrogated us about our travels and our destination in a manner unlike any I had experienced before when trying to check bags and getting a boarding pass - we passed
• Then we had to go through the security check, where I was patted down and was made to turn my camera on and was chilled by the hostile manners of the security personnel
• Then we had to go through customs - at least this process was fully automated; first you scan your passport and then you stand in front of this giant camera which does a massive facial scan; when it decides that you are not a terrorist, you are allowed to go have your passport stamped!
• Then we had to go through a United Airlines passport and boarding pass check to be allowed to go to our gate
• Then, after confirming that our gate was HO1 not HO8, we were blocked a very nasty woman who would not allow anyone to proceed past gate HO8 because passengers from another flight were disembarking, and for some unexplained reason many of us on either side of the line of passengers coming out of gate HO8, were blocked from moving for 20 minutes with no place to sit
• Then we waited standing, now going on 4 hours since getting off the bus, to board the plane
• We walked at total of 1.5 miles and remained on our feet on one line or another for over 4 hours after arriving at the airport!
• I had a scotch on the rocks at 12:30 pm.

And then there was going through customs at Dulles! The last time I saw that many people snaking through a maze to clear customs was the last time we had to clear customs at Dulles. I think we shuffled along for 45 minutes before being asked if we had any fresh fruit or vegetables or liquor or cigarettes. And then we had to hunt for our luggage which had arrived well before we made it to baggage claim and had been thrown into a large mess of other bags from our flight! And then... well we made it home 4 hours after our flight landed, exhausted and starving.