Our triumphant return

• Jayneandmark's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Regina

Trip Start Jan 09, 2011 Previous
Entry Trip End Feb 06, 2012 Next
Entry

  Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Sunday, February 5, 2012

Our trip has come to an end, and it is time to leave Italy.  The three days of rain we endured had turned in to snow, and continued all night.  We rose early with the intention of grabbing a quick breakfast and heading out to the airport as soon as possible for our 1:30pm flight.  We got up, dressed and mostly packed and went to the kitchen to find...nothing.  No lights on, no food, no coffee!  I guess there is no breakfast today.  We finish our packing and go outside.  A good inch of soggy snow covers everything, and we drag our suitcases through the snow.  Their useless wheels clog up with snow and they act  like little snowplows, clearing a path behind us.  We get to the usually busy overpass, now devoid of traffic, and drag our luggage along the middle of the road, where there is less snow.  We arrive at the metro station and quickly get to Termini train station, and buy our tickets on the Leonardo Express to take us directly to the airport with no stops.  We should be there in plenty of time.  The departures board has other plans.  Half the trains are cancelled, and there are regular announcements in Italian.  One of them seems to relate to the train to Fiumicino airport.  Hmmm, this could be important.  It seems the train to the airport will leave from Ostiense station, not Termini.  We follow the crowd of travellers laden down with luggage through the metro and we find our platform.  Everybody piles on, and the crowd expands, slowly spreading down the narrow space between the empty snow-covered tracks.  One train sits in its berth, covered in snow, not moving.  
The departures board shows every train cancelled, save one, the train to Fiumicino Airport.  Anxiously,  we watch the minutes tick by as no train arrives.  Finally a train comes, and goes by.  The Leonardo Express.  What? Where did that come from?  Nobody knows, but it isn't stopping here.  Departure times, nears and no train comes.  Departure time comes, and goes.  The departures board moves the time back by 40 minutes.  No trains arrive or leave.  We search for other options.  There are none.  Finally a train arrives at a different platform.  Everybody crams in.  There is no space that is not full of people or luggage.  Yay!  We're going to the airport after all!  The flight is delayed and the airport is under staffed, but we do eventually get through the gate.  At the end of the corridor, there is no plane.  Nowhere to go.  We turn around and go back to the desk.  There is confusion.  Nobody seems to know why there is no plane.  Once again, we are sent down the hallway and loaded on to a bus.  The bus drives around to a plane far away. We see a cart full of luggage, including ours!  This is the last we see of it. The plane is delayed but we do get off and into Frankfurt just in time for our connection, and I mean just in time.  This was German efficiency at its best.  Anyone for the Toronto connection was collected to one side, put on a bus, taken through passport control, and sent to the connecting plane, which was waiting for us.  In under 20 minutes we were on our way.
The flight was long and tedious, but what can we do? We made it to Toronto and tried to collect our luggage to go through customs.  We watched the bags fall on to the luggage carousel and go round and round.  Eventually there were no more bags, and the empty carousel whirred by, taunting us.  Our luggage did not arrive.  Our connection time in Frankfurt was too tight, and our luggage didn't make it.  We will have to do the rest of our trip without it.  Nora slepth through the entire Toronto to Regina flight, and proceeded to sleep through being put into her snowsuit and carseat.  She slept all the way home, slept through getting undressed and being put to bed.  She was a tired bear. So were we. By this time we had been awake for over 24 hours. We are back in Regina, and have  been assured our luggage will be arriving at some point.  Fortunately, we had packed 4 outfits for Nora, so she'll just have to wear those until we get our bags back.  I have just the clothes I was wearing.  I'll have to remember this for future travel and always pack at least a spare shirt for myself.  Next blog will be the essentials for traveling with baby, for all of you who want to know, and those of you who don't.

Slideshow Share

Previous Entry Next Entry