Home (Semi) Sweet Home

Sunday, June 20

Match 27
Mangaung / Bloemfontein
Slovakia 0 - 2 Paraguay
Place watched:  Did not watch

The longest flight of the 4 return legs went fairly well.  Time passed quickly even though neither of us really slept much.  We had room despite not being in an exit row.  We arrived in Madrid and easily made it through Customs.

We encountered some issues with finding our departure gate.  There was a sign that those of us without a Spanish visa should proceed down a certain hallway that seemed to disappear into an office area.  No one else was going that way, so we stopped to ask.  We found out that even though our flight was leaving from a gate 28 minutes by foot away, we should proceed to a gate which was less than a 5 minute walk.

When we arrived there, not only were there no passengers there, no staff was present, either.  Further inquiries found that we would be shuttled to our gate at a certain time.  It was a highly unusual method, to say the least.

After that, we had no troubles.  The 2-hour flight to London was uneventful and I even got in a little sleep.


Match 28
Nelspruit
Italy 1 - 1 New Zealand
Place watched:  Did not watch

London was a different story.

We arrived 3 hours before our next departure, so we felt we had plenty of time.  It turned out we needed just about all of it!  The queue for Customs seemed to stretch on for miles.  After making it through, we had to pick up our checked bags.  The process was fairly simple, but it took time.  Then we had the matter of checking into our next flight.  We had not pre-checked in due to timing with internet availability and being more than 24 hours out the last time we had been online.

The desk at Iceland Airlines was not inundated with customers, but each seemed to take a very long time.  We eventually made it through with boarding passes in hand.  Since we had not checked in prior to then, our seats were less than fantastic.  The flight from London to Keflavik (as Reykjavik is called locally) is just over 2 hours, so that was not a complete disaster.

After checking in, we made our way to the outgoing gates.  This involved another trip through security and the fun involved in that process.  I had read that in Europe they don’t make you remove your shoes.  For the second time in two stops, I had to remove mine.

Arriving on the right side of security, we made our way to the main concourse to read the gate board.  They had not yet posted our gate when we picked up our boarding passes and the woman at the desk told us not to waste too much time since some of the gates are a good distance from the airline booths.  Of course ours was just about as far away as possible, so they were just about to start the boarding process when we made it to the gate.


Match 29
Johannesburg – JSC
Brazil 3 - 1 Côte d'Ivoire
Place watched:  Did not watch

Landing in Reykjavik went smoothly.  We finally had a little time to breathe.  My friend and I each ate a sandwich and something called Pringles.  They are little fried potato pieces in a curved oval shape.  Outrageous!  Those crazy Europeans and their funny food…

We boarded our last leg smoothly and had the best two seats in the house!  It was an exit row with just 2 seats and no seats across the aisle from us.  There was plenty of leg room and loads of space for our carry-on luggage.

As I write this, we are less than an hour from Minneapolis.  My battery is about to die and I won’t be able to post this until Monday morning.  My plan when I return to Kansas City is to post something about the trip each day until the later round of matches start.  I also plan to place pictures into previous posts, and label them as picture posts so you can easily find them if you so desire.

This has been a wild ride; I am completely exhausted and ready to sleep in my own bed!