Travelogue – A dash across England

Monday, August 19

Niece had a small breakfast, then came back with a bit of news – the hotel had found something that could be used as a tuning wrench for the harp. She got her phone and its tuning app and set to work. Of course, she then had to sit and play it for a while. She looked so happy sitting there. And so we sat to listen for a while.

Our main task for the day was to get back to Munich. The first part of that was to get back to Heathrow. Based on time estimates compared to reality when getting to Exeter we thought we should allow a lot of extra time.

We left Tintagel at about 10:15 with an estimate of four hours of driving (including known backups on the highway). I monitored routes for which was fastest (or if scenic only a couple minutes slower). We had about six hours of time. We did stop a couple times, including to buy lunch to eat in the car (Brother declined lunch, saying he had a big breakfast and wanted to drive on). Total stopped time was probably less than an hour. It still took all six hours.

We turned in the car and took their shuttle to the terminal. Lufthansa has tried to automate as much as possible, so it was up to us to stop at a kiosk to print our baggage tags. Brother knew about this effort, so downloaded all three boarding passes to his phone. But shifting from one pass to another was too cumbersome so an agent intervened and printed our passes. We got through security smoothly (the nail now in my checked bag). We had time for a snack and for Brother to have lunch.

Our gate was announced at 5:10. Signs to the gate said it was a 13 minute walk. Our boarding pass said we needed to be at the gate by 5:25. Something doesn't quite add up here. So, yeah, we were still boarding at the 5:50 departure time. Then had to wait in line to take off (there were 12 jets behind us when we flew). We still got to Munich at about the stated arrival time.

In most airports (and from my flight from the USA) the walk from the gate to customs control was pretty spartan and direct. This time there were many shops and lots of other people heading to other gates. It didn't look right. We followed the signs for baggage claim and just before we got there was passport control.

A train ride into the city. A walk in the rain to the apartment. And then to bed.