Tenerife – COVID-19: Day 3

Day three of our COVID-19 adventure on the island of Tenerife started with the massive breakfast buffet at the Iberostar Grand Mency hotel. Unfortunately, the patio was closed so we were forced to eat at a table inside. I started to get nervous being in relative close proximity to so many people during an outbreak, irrationally or not. I calmed my nerves a bit by ordering an omelette from the waitress in Spanish…although I’m still perplexed that the Spanish word for “omelette” is “tortilla”.

Due to the lockdown, there wasn’t really anything to do after breakfast except pack and wait in our room until it was time to check out. Plus, since we both packed light, we didn’t have a whole lot to stuff into our backpacks.

Eventually, we made our way down to the reception desk. Unfortunately, the hotel we were supposed to stay at near the Teide volcano had closed so we didn’t have anywhere to spend the night. We asked if we could simply stay one night longer at the Grand Mency, but they told us that the hotel didn’t have any rooms available. I found it pretty hard to believe since numerous guests had already checked out and there were definitely not that many people checking in.

Regardless, the hotel let us stay in the lobby after we checked out. Another guest mentioned that she had booked a room at a hotel just up the street. After a bit of searching, my traveling companion was able to book the last available room at the Hotel Taburiente just a few hundred meters from where we were.

However, there was a time gap until we could check in to the hotel. There wasn’t anything to do in the lobby except sit around and wait. We still hadn’t been able to get any information from various airlines about repatriation flights back to Germany, so my girlfriend thought we should drive down to the airport and ask the staff there. I wasn’t particularly keen on that idea since I work at an airport and have a general idea of how they’re staffed and operate…and I was pretty sure that our quest would be fruitless. Although, it’s not like we had anything else to do, so I agreed to drive down.

The freeway again seemed to have light, but fairly normal traffic. It wasn’t until we passed a Hearse that things started to seem surreal. Although thinking back, I feel like there were proportionally less people walking through the city of Santa Cruz than there were driving around.

We arrived at the airport and it was overcrowded with nervous and anxious passengers. Numerous people were just sat up on the sidewalk out front while others packed lines for check in counters and security gates inside. I got very nervous myself thinking about so many potential COVID-19 carriers crammed in such a small space. We weren’t able to find any representatives from Condor, and obviously no one from Lufthansa was there since they don’t typically operate that route. We did manage to find several people wearing TUI uniforms, but they were affiliated with the TUI travel agency rather than the TUIFly airline. At the end of our investigation, I managed to find a few staff members manning the Ryanair ticket counter and asked if they knew if the flight out the following Sunday would operate as normal. Unfortunately, they couldn’t confirm anything except for the flights that took place on that particular day (as expected). In the end, the trip was a bust.

Well, it wasn’t a complete bust. It did give us a way to burn a couple hours. Also, on the way back north to Santa Cruz, I pulled off the freeway to get some snacks out of our gear in the trunk. I parked next to one of the many greenhouses found along the coastal areas of the Canary Islands. Looking inside, it was pretty much exactly what I expected…a massive greenhouse with a literal field of crops inside. However, that didn’t mean it wasn’t impressive.

Arriving back in Santa Cruz, the city traffic had noticeably thinned out. We managed to find a parking spot near where we had previously parked which was great since every other space had already been taken up by that time. It was then a short walk before we were standing in the lobby of the Hotel Taburiente. Check in was fairly quick and it wasn’t long before we got into our room.

The room was a fairly large suite with a pseudo-separate living room area. Two flat-screen TV’s stood back to back at the division of the room which was pretty cool until I couldn’t turn one TV off without turning the other on (they used the same remote). The room itself was spacious but there were only two small windows, both of which opened to a micro-courtyard so there wasn’t really any natural light entering the room.

The hotel also featured a pool on the top floor. We decided to investigate, hoping that at least we could lounge outside. When we reached the top floor, everything had already been taped off and we couldn’t get much further than a few meters from the elevator doors. Once the drizzle started, that was our cue to get back inside.

Dinner at the hotel was…strange. We booked half-board so we were served dinner in the hotel restaurant. We were served bottled water and started with soup with crackers. The main course was a baked skinless chicken breast and white rice. I think the sauce on the chicken was supposed to be curry, but it was hard to tell because there wasn’t much flavor. We weren’t even offered a vegetarian option, it was chicken or nothing. For desert, we were served a pear and banana each. Obviously, the lockdown and impending closure of the hotel had a lot to do with the meal preparation, but it still felt like something between airline and prison food.

And then it was time to go back in the bunker and ride out the corona storm until the morning. Although, it was a really nice bunker.

Nepal: Day 0

The start of my trip to Nepal began much like any other. Since we’d be flying from west to east, the flight was scheduled in the afternoon. I spent the morning cleaning my apartment and finishing packing before heading out to meet up with my girlfriend at her apartment.

When I arrived, we had lunch and made a few last minute packing adjustments. I also insisted on taking a shower before I left. It made sense at the time with my warped logic. I’ve transitioned to a night bather, taking a shower before bed instead of when I get up in the morning. With that in mind, I knew that we would arrive in Kathmandu the following day and so rather than stretching out the time between showers to something like 48 hours, I opted to wash up before departure.

Traveling light and using amenities like digital boarding passes means skipping long lines at check in and/or baggage drop counters. That also means the recommended arrival time of three hours before an international flight is much more fluid. We arrived a little more than two hours before departure and breezed past all the frustrated faces directly to the border control. Luckily, I preregistered and am able to use the automated passport checks normally reserved for passengers with European passports which makes things even faster. Since there was no line, we were finished in just a few minutes.

Our Qatar Airways flight QR068 departed from the C concourse of terminal 1 at Frankfurt Airport. It’s a place we’d call in German, “am Arsche der Welt.” So we were also able to go through the security check relatively quickly because of our timing. After maybe 30 minutes from entering the airport, we were already at the gate with well over an hour to kill.

Although the C concourse doesn’t have much in the way of food or entertainment, it does have a small room for yoga. So, obviously, that’s what we did. I mean, how do you not do yoga right before an extended flight to Nepal?

We got back to the gate in time for the start of boarding. We hit a snag, though, when our digital boarding passes weren’t accepted and we had to get printed boarding passes from the gate agent. However, it wasn’t long before we settled in to our seats on board the massive Airbus A380. It was actually our second time on the huge double decker since we had previously flown on an A380 from Frankfurt to San Francisco with Lufthansa.

Qatar Airways was ranked number 1 in the world by Skytrax for 2019 and has consistently ranked in the top 3 since 2010. So, obviously, I was excited to see what all the fuss was about. I wound up being rather unimpressed. The experience wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either. The legroom on the A380 was pretty standard and the food was average. It was…you know…a flight.

During the 6 hour flight, we had the chance to watch two films. There was a pretty large selection. Although it was pretty tempting to watch a Bollywood film, we opted for It and Late Night. The challenge, of course, being to start the films at the exact same time on two different screens.

We reached Doha’s Hamad International Airport in the middle of the night. When we deboarded, the place was empty. We made a quick pit stop and I filled my water bottle before we continued on in search of our next departure gate. We had to pass through a security checkpoint to reach the departure area which meant I had to empty the bottle that I just filled, but I figured I would just fill it back up near the gate.

The main concourse was much more lively than where we arrived and all the shops and restaurants were open at 2:00am. However, we didn’t stop anywhere and proceeded directly to our gate. For the outbound flight, QR652, we had to pass through a boarding pass check and then to the waiting area. However, once you are through into the waiting area, there is no bathroom and nowhere to get water. I would’ve liked to have both of those things before departure since I tend to get dehydrated on long flights.

We eventually boarded our Airbus A330 headed for Kathmandu. Although the A330’s (and A340’s) are relatively old (first entering service in 1994), I tend to like flying with them over some of the newer aircraft in use. The airliners are the only longhaul widebody aircraft that have a 2-4-2 seat configuration in the Economy cabin as opposed to 3-3-3 or 3-4-3. So if you’re flying with a traveling companion it’s great because someone gets the window and someone gets the aisle, there’s no awkward middle seat when sitting on the left or right side of the cabin.

Unfortunately, someone decided that instead of serving breakfast toward the end of our flight they would serve dinner toward the beginning of the flight. That meant we were served a hot meal at about 4:00am Doha time. It wasn’t until after the dinner service that the cabin lights were turned out and we could finally try to get some rest. I was able to get some sporadic sleep during the last few hours of the flight, using the onboard music selection and some cartoons to help turn off my brain.

I really missed my full water bottle during the flight. Normally I would raid the tray of water and juice laid out in the galley, but Qatar only offered water in small 200ml bottles and I didn’t feel like producing excessive waste.

When my girlfriend woke up, we burned the rest of the flight playing games together on the inflight entertainment system. Since the plane was relatively old, the games were also pretty old. She crushed me in Bejeweled, but I gained my confidence back by consistently outscoring her in the trivia game.

Scotland: Day 1

The first day of my recent trip to Scotland started out like pretty much all of my trips (both for work and for fun)…I was scrambling around my apartment trying to simultaneously clean and finish packing. I was amazed when I found myself at my girlfriend’s apartment with over an hour before we had to leave for the airport.

Normally I’d rush in at the last minuted and we’d dash off, so the relaxed pace was a nice change. It helped because I needed to add my sleeping bag and our tent to my bag and also remove a few things I had over packed.

Since we were travelling with only carry-on luggage, we allowed ourselves to arrive at the airport a little later than recommended. However, the lines at security and passport control were pretty short so we actually had a lot of time to burn once we were inside the terminal. Luckily, the Z concourse at Frankfurt Airport has a small area equipped with five XBoxes to play during your wait. We settled in on one that offered a racing game and our competitive impulses took over. I am by no means a hardcore gamer, but I do really like to play video games so this was a great way to spend the downtime rather than at the gate. It also helped that I consistently won every race we ran (however, my girlfriend will quickly point out that she won the LAST race and thus is somehow the overall winner).

We wrapped up our contest and made our way to the departure gate about 10-15 minutes before boarding began. However, I was so caught up in playing video games that I forgot to charge my cell phone before the flight. My phone does charge pretty fast, so I was able to load up about 30% before the boarding line started to move, but I really should’ve been better prepared since there was no telling when I’d be able to charge the phone next.

Our Lufthansa flight from FRA to GLA was…average. I’m never really impressed with Lufthansa but I’m also never really aggravated by them either. We received a notice that, due to a shortage of catering ground staff, they wouldn’t be able to offer us their typical selection of food and drink. That meant no tomato juice, and a flight without tomato juice isn’t really a flight.

Flight time was around two hours and about 90 minutes in I realized that I forgot my camping mat. It was a pretty big gut punch for a while since we had bought the mats explicitly for this particular trip due to the ultra-light weight and compact packing size. However, sometimes you just have to keep moving forward…especially in this case where there was no way they were turning that plane around to go back and pick up the mat.

As we descended below the cloud cover, we got our first good look at Glasgow. It wasn’t long before I noticed an excessive amount of golf courses in and around the city. Yes, I know that Scotland invented golf and has the highest concentration of golf courses in the world, but it was crazy how many I saw. It turned into a game after a while and I eventually lost count. If I were to guess, I’d say that I probably saw 8 to 10 golf courses before we landed.

After landing at Glasgow airport, we were able to beat the crowds and pass through border control relatively quickly and, without any luggage to wait for, were out of the terminal in less than 15 minutes. We just missed the express shuttle bus into the city, but luckily during the day they run every 10-15 minutes. Unluckily, though, when I tried to pay for our tickets with the cash pounds I had leftover from my last trip to London, I was denied. The agent told me my cash was no good there and I initially thought it was because of the difference in English pounds and Scottish pounds. However, she quickly informed me that it was due to a newer version of the 5 of 10 pound notes (bills) being printed (fortunately, larger denominations were still usable at the time).

On the drive from the airport, we noticed the road signs were all posted in both English and Gaelic. It’s fun to see the Gaelic names for things even if you never really hear anyone speaking that language. It was also interesting to see a small sign just outside the airport in multiple foreign languages reminding drivers to stay on the left side. I’ve ridden in cars in the UK and Japan where they use the “other side” of the road, but I’ve never actually driven in either of those countries. I have to imagine it takes a little bit to get used to, especially if you’ve spent your entire adult life driving on the right side of the road.

When we arrived in the center of Glasgow, we had a couple hours to kill before our bus to the highlands departed. First, we stopped by an Army surplus store to try and find a camping mat. What I found wasn’t ideal. It was both too large to fit in my backpack and too small for my entire body to fit on, but the price was right and we didn’t have time to be picky so I stuffed it into an exterior pocket on my backpack and continued on. Second, and vastly more important, was finding the nearest Taco Bell. Yes, I know it’s garbage…but we don’t have them in Germany and it’s a hardcore guilty pleasure for both my girlfriend and I.

With our guts properly bombed, we set off to catch our Citylink bus to Fort William in the highlands. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to bring our road burritos on board with us, so we hid them in the luggage compartment with our backpacks. The driver told us that there was no hot food allowed on the bus. However, by the time we reached the station, our food was more warm than hot. Also, I’m fairly certain a sandwich would make more of a mess than our burritos (and in this scenario, I imagine cereal is also allowed…which would make a huge mess).

On the way out of Glasgow, we passed by an old blue police box posted outside the Botanic Gardens. I excitedly tried to take a photo as we passed by but it didn’t turn out. The box looked very much like the TARDIS from Dr. Who. I had actually seen two other old police boxes while we were walking in the city but one of them was pretty dilapidated and the other had been painted red and was being used to sell…let’s say…”herbal” supplies. It was also interesting to see Glasgow’s suburban sprawl. It felt like we were driving through several interconnected towns for over an hour (and that likely was the case).

Until about halfway to Fort William, other riders got off at various stops along the route. After the halfway point, as expected, more riders got on as we neared Fort William. Eventually a group of rowdy citizens boarded the bus with their speakers playing the not-so-soothing sounds of British club music. The riders were obviously in party mode and had been for quite some time based on their loud slurred speech (not to mention the clinking of glass bottles). Eventually, though, the bus driver pulled over, went to the back of the bus, and scolded the passengers for drinking and being obnoxious. Since alcohol was also forbidden on board, the driver told the riders that if they didn’t put their drinks away he would throw them off the bus. It felt very much like the typical father pulls the car over on a family trip scene…but with drunken grown ups instead of children (which, let’s be honest, is pretty much the same thing).

By the time we reached Fort William, the weather had changed to a constant drizzle. We grabbed our bags from the luggage hold and the burritos tucked underneath them and took a moment to orient ourselves before setting out on foot to walk to our campground in nearby Glen Nevis. The burritos were cold after three hours under the bus, so I’m fairly certain we could have eaten them on board.

Our walk took us a little more than half an hour, but we arrived at the campground after the office had closed. We had already booked a space and paid ahead of time, so it wasn’t a huge deal. The lady at the office did quickly give us a map and tell us where we could pitch the tent for the evening.

The constant wetness made it a little frustrating to set up and keep everything dry. We were pretty much tent noobs so it was a bit awkward. However, we managed to get everything set up and keep the inside of the tent relatively dry despite combating swarms of midges. After a quick visit to the showers, we turned in for the night to rest up for the long trek ahead of us.