Germany to the USA!

Travel today, we are on our way back home. We are scheduled to catch a flight at 11:40a and have arranged through the office to have a taxi meet us downstairs at 8:30a. We cleaned up the unit and made sure that all our stuff was packed. At 8:20a, we closed up and went downstairs and good thing! Five minutes later a taxi pulled up and whisked us off to Tegel airport. Our taxi driver is saving for a trip to the USA, funny how we each save for a trip to see each others country. He will be going to the west coast, and then to Miami. The ride to the airport was actually quite short and traffic was not too bad so we got there quite early. We found the customs, then over to the "Tax Free" to get our tax refund You have to have in hand what you bought and he asked to see the handbag and I took it off my shoulder and placed it on the counter. Next time, it needs to be in the package but he let it go. Security and Customs at Tegel were very good with one at each gate. I walked right by the Zoll counter (Customs) and then realized and came back (he was waiting for me!) and handed my passport and ticket over. No problem and this time my passport didn't have wings! We boarded the plane and had some champagne while the rest got on board. We had a great flight and the food was very good. Seems like the flight back was easier than the flight over.

We got into JFK on time and headed for the Crown Room. A gentleman that got off the plane came up to us speaking in German. Evidentally we pass for Germans as this is not the first time! Anyway, he had some time before his flight and wondered should he go out of the airport to eat or was there something good here. We explained that if he went out of the airport that he would have to go back through security to get back in so staying in the airport would probably be best. On to the Crown Room where we relaxed for about an hour and then we headed for our gate. It was a mad house at the gate! They called for zone 1, the scanner machine wouldn't work so they took tickets by hand. People from all zones were trying to board and the Gate agent finally got on the intercom and came down on the crowd. We finally got on board, managed to get a bloody mary and sat in to relax. JFK around 5p is a nightmare! We sat on the runway for over an hour waiting to take off which made our flight an hour late getting into Atlanta and that was already with an extra hour allowed in our flightplan! When we hit the runway people in coach actually stood up and started getting things out of the overhead bins before the seatbelt signs went off. The head flight attendant became quite cross and finally got everyone back in their seat. When we finally pulled up to the gate it was like a herd of people from coach rushed up to the door. Mark and I had been in transit by this time for over 14 hours so I said the hell with it let's get up and go. I have to say the flight from NYC to Atlanta was nicht gut, we had quite a bit of turbulance, rude passengers that didn't obey basic flight rules. We were finally glad to be back and going home after such a long day!