It’s time to settle the cliffhanger and to give due praise to Northwest Airlines. As I arrived at Memphis, the gate crew immediately tried to assist me with my passport issue. The final result: My passport was to arrive the next day and I was rebooked for the flights for that day. I was also given hotel and meal vouchers for Memphis.

I used the extra night to rest and change, and the next day I went so see Elvis’ mansion – Graceland. Later I arrived at the airport and got my passport at the gate.

The flight from Memphis to Amsterdam was on a brand new A330 which included a VOD entertainment system for all passengers. The system also allowed sending text messages from the plane for only $2.50 per message. I sent two.

The next flight was a short flight to Lisbon on KLM. The scheduled arrival time of this flight left little time between arrival and the time I should present my poster.
As Murphy would have it, this was the only flight that did not arrive early. We had a 5 min delay on departure and then during final approach, after the crew was ordered to sit down, the pilot had to abort the landing and perform a “go around”, which means take off again, circle the airport and re-attempt. The reason given: the runway was “occupied”. KLM had their share of problems using occupied runways, the most spectacular at Tenerife.

That, however, was not the end of my problems. My luggage did not show up at Lisbon. A quick check recovered my luggage which has been mistakenly labeled “RUSH”, which means it does not show up at the belt.

After retrieving my luggage. I had to wait in line for a taxi. The driver then took me to the wrong hotel and had to correct himself (I think he did it on purpose to make more money). I ended up paying €55, but arrived on time.

Later I took a taxi to my hotel, used the very small shower and reasonably priced restaurant and went to sleep.

Tomorrow: I fly to Germany on AirBerlin, seat 1-A. Stay Tuned.

… But what an eventful week it was! For those of you that don’t know, last week I have flown back from Israel, and this week I’m flying to a conference in Portugal.

Some people (ahem, ahem) have commented on the lack of personal perspective in this blog, and it being just a dry collection of facts. Hopefully this post will be an improvement in that regard.

I know I haven’t posted in a while. This is a result of a combination of two seemingly contradicting things: there was nothing to write about, and I was too busy. Well, now, from my first class seat on NW272 SFO-MEM, I can tell you all the news.

BREAKING NEWS: I was just notified by a flight attendant that I have left my passport in SFO. This is very bad since my next flight is international. I will check with the staff at Memphis about how to get it back.

Until we land, I’ll tell you about our planned German family reunion. It seems that 4 out of my 5 immediate family members will be at Saabrücken with me the coming weekend touring around and playing boardgames.

I’m now really worried about the passport issue and hope I could board the SFO-AMS flight without it and also pass the passport control at AMS, since my I-94 has already been affixed to my boarding pass.