Today was to be the ultimate transit day: the entire goal was to get from Italy to Scotland with no mishaps. We awoke to a cloudless sky – a bit mocking given that it was our last day – spent a few minutes rearranging the suitcases (again!) and then headed down for the hotel breakfast.
I always find breakfasts in foreign countries to be the most entertaining meal because it’s where cultural differences seem to be most apparent to me. For example, we saw many cafes in Rome advertising “American breakfasts” which had things that the Romans obviously thought that Americans eat but didn’t quite hit the mark. Like würstel – a sort of hot dog or Vienna sausage. It is probably trying to approximate link sausages that we do eat for breakfast but kinda misses the mark. Especially when advertised as würstel which most Americans wouldn’t recognize.
Travel tip #29: Go with the flow for breakfast. Even if it means eating what you think of as salad both other see as a fine way to start the day.
So our hotel had würstel as well as the obligatory eggs, cold meats and cheeses, fruit and yogurt, and cereals that are pretty standard fare for European hotel breakfasts. Along with cucumbers and tomatoes which aren’t things that I think of as breakfast items. Two things did jump out at me: they had ingredient lists posted for EVERYTHING. The pastries, the eggs, the yogurt, the fruit. Everything. It was mostly in Italian with a few bad translations sprinkled throughout but it was good enough for me to make the relevant choices. Second, one of the hot dishes was Cantonese rice. Hmmmm. It appears that our hotel gets enough Chinese visitors that they added things to the breakfast buffet to accommodate them. I can’t say if this is something that Chinese people eat at home or if this, like the würstel is a close approximation of a local dish, but it was interesting just the same. (And pretty tasty!)
Once we were suitable fueled, it was time to head to the train station. We were taking the 9:50 Leonardo Express to Rome’s Flumicino airport where we would catch our budget flight to Glasgow. Though we usually fly the dreaded Ryan Air for such hops, this time we were trying Jet2. I generally prefer the more standard commercial airlines they didn’t offer any nonstop flight and it didn’t make sense to change planes in Paris or Amsterdam for a 3 hour flight.
So we boarded the express train to the airport and found our way to the check in desk. FCO is one of the busiest airports in Europe and it was pretty chaotic but we got the bags dropped off (including one that we were going to carry on but they checked for free making it so much easier to get around the crowded terminal.) We were just heading to security when the Polizia started clearing the terminal for a security issue – a suspicious bag I think – and we just made it through the chaos to the security lines before we had to be herded outside.
And then it was standard “hurry up and wait” airport stuff before boarding and taking off on time. The airline reminded me a little of Southwest albeit a bit stripped down: plane was a 737-700 (and we had an empty seat next to us – Score!) where the seats didn’t recline, there was no entertainment system, and everything had to be purchased. But it was clean and efficient and it landed on time and the bags were with us so score all around.
Travel tip #30: manage your expectations about airline travel. In fact, have very low expectations and then you may be surprised. We had high expectations about our Alitalia flight and were disappointed. We had no expectations of Jet2 and were pleasantly surprised.
We headed out of Glasgow airport into the cloudy grey day to pick out the rental car and head west to visit my family for a few days. If you’ve seen this episode before, you know that there was excellent food enjoyed, much wine consumed, and many world problems analyzed with no suitable solutions found but that doesn’t stop us from trying!
Dubious data for today:7151 steps and 2 floors (to get to the food hall for something to eat in FCO before boarding). There’s not much walking when you are shuffling through lines. Number of nuns: 4 Number of currencies juggled on the plane while preparing to land: 3 because apparently I still have some Icelandic króna from last year. Number of photos taken: None of interest. Just pictures of the rental car scratches because Frank refuses to be held responsible for someone else’s bad driving.
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