September 24, 2014
A Day To Forget: Airport Nightmare!
I am four days behind on this blog, so time to catch up. Since we have not biked for several days, and this is a biking blog site, I probably shouldn't be using it, but we will be biking again soon, in Portugal.
Now, back to Wednesday, the 24th. We had a leisurely morning in Bordeaux, starting with a delicious breakfast delivered to our door. We took a walk down the fascinating streets for one last look at the sites, and purchased our lunch for the flight to Lisbon. When we went to put our belongings in our van, and repack the bike boxes, etc., the electronic key would not open the doors. Crap! Why does this have to happen on the day we are catching a plane? Ron went back to the B&B, which fortunatly, was close to the parking garage, to see if our hosts could help. As luck would have it, there was a service garage right next door, and our very kind hosts, got the owner to come with his jumper cables, and gizmo to open the van door. Apparently, someone had left the lights on??!! Lucky for us, our host's car was parked right beside ours, and he used it to jump start ours.
We rushed to repack all our gear and stuff as much as we could into the bike boxes, for the flight. The Easyjet website clearly states that only bikes in the boxes, no clothes, no bags, NOTHING else. Surely they won't open them and check, and most of all, not weigh them. All of a sudden our "leisurely" morning, was not so leisurely. Time was ticking!
Once we got underway to the airport, we were now on the lookout for a gas station to fill up the rental van. As we were cutting it close for time, and we did not pass any gas stations, we decided that we would have to let the rental company refill it and pay the extra fee. Easyjet is a discount airline, and is not located in the main terminal, but it is right beside it. After circling around the airport a few times, we discovered that one of the "discounts" is you cannot drive up to it. You must pay to park in the main parking lot, and then figure our how you are going to get your luggage to the terminal. The day just keeps getting better! We find a spot and then proceed to get these humongous, two bike boxes onto a tiny trolley, and wiggle, turn, and shove them through doors. Woo, that's done!
I wait with our processions, getting strange looks, while Ron walks over to the rental company to return the keys. They want 100€ to fuel up, so Ron decided we will get checked in then he will go back and find the gas station, which the girl told him was only two round-abouts back from the airport. We push and shove our wide load up to the check in counter, and they did not weigh them. Ok, maybe the day is getting better! They checked in our two duffle bags, but we were told we had to take the bikes over to the main terminal, as they did not have oversize luggage belts. No problem, we still had quite a bit of time. That's when the day really went to hell!
Unfortunately, the oversize belt had sides to it, unlike the ones at home, that have no sides. Our boxes were about 6 inches too wide, and the agent said they must go on flat! #*%@!!! She was actually very kind, and called several people to see if there was any way they could go as they were. We held out waiting, and waiting, and waiting for someone. Finally she brought out nail scissors, to cut our 1/2 inch, heavy cardboard and tape. Those things are not going to do it!! We finally found a knife, and Ron went to work cutting and taping, trying to protect the precious cargo, that didn't really have any room to be cut shorter. The tape was hardly holding, and there was no hope that it would hold-up to the luggage handlers, but at this point it was a matter of getting on this only flight of the day, or not. Our flight was at 3:00, and they cut of security at 2:30. It was now 2:27, and we still had to get back to the Easyjet terminal. The agent called over for us, and they were waiting for us. We were not expecting to see our bikes and day soon, and when we did, we were sure that all the tape would have exploded, and all our gear would be gone.
Back to the van, and the rental company..... Of course we had run out of time to refill, so when Ron sprinted over to return the keys, they now said they were going to charged us 178€! We had no choice, at this point, it was just one of those days, that keeps getting better. What robbery!!
Anyway, I apologize for the extremely long story, and in fact there was more to it than I have written, but we did arrive, AND, by some miracle, so did our bikes, completely intact. The joys of flying with bikes!
The end!
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