Home again, home again, jiggity jog (Travel Log part 6)

Yesterday

I check my watch. It's 20 till 8, 19.40 to be exact. My body thinks it's 00.40 and I've been up since 05.00 the day before.

I've been expelled from my seat so I've been walking laps, or "U's" when aisle is crowded. We're due to land at JFK in about 25 minutes. For the first six hours of the flight the kids sat next to each other and I got to sit next to my husband for the first time all trip. Then, as teen-age siblings do, I traded places with Fern and sat next to Kevin to end a elbow shoving match.

I get up to visit the lavatory and Kevin claims my seat too, sprawling his lanky legs across my spot, so I go for a walk. My laps around the cabin give me views of the cabin and my fellow passengers, those sleeping, playing cards, and even those who choose to kiss each other just as I walk by. Lovely. I'm not terribly impressed with Iberia Air Lines, the aisles are littered with remnants a long flight. The food has been fine, the attendants have been attentive, but I think other carriers are a bit more polished.

Our flight out of Venice was about 45 minutes late so our connection in Madrid was very tight. Since we were leaving the European Union we had to go through passport control instead of just going on to the next gate. Our flight was loading when we finally got there. I worried about our luggage, especially since Iberia lost one of our suitcases on the way over with a full amount of time for the layover. Luggage that didn't make the connection would have been par for the course after the day we'd had. I had.

When Kevin and I went through security in Venice, his backpack full of his plastic letters and legos won the lottery and was pulled for a chemical check. Except Kevin didn't understand what was happening and took his pack from the xray belt and bolted. In a split second I was afraid the Italians wouldn't understand his autism and pictured myself getting pulled into an interrogation room for hours. But they ran the test on my bag instead and no fears materialized.

The four of us were supposed to have seats together, but Dan and Fern got an A and a D seat on one row, and Kevin and I were several rows back and got two aisle seats. Close enough together, but I couldn't be the buffer between him and other passengers.

Then, when I went through security in Madrid I set off something and got pulled aside for a frisking, even under the center of my bra strap. The front center. At the gate my boarding pass wouldn't give me the green light when it went through the reader so I had to wait until they could look me up in the system. I was the last one on the plane.

Our luggage made it, pretty close to the first bags off, since they were probably some of the last bags on to start with.

I'll post more about the rest of the trip and pictures tomorrow.