Travel to Rome

September 8, 2015

Flying internationally is painful enough and the added baggage of a bike is something we must endure if we want to enjoy this sport. Mark and I had done a trial pre-pack the weekend before and did the final pack this past Sunday. But we left the boxes open until Tuesday morning, the day of our departure, just in case we had any last-minute adjustments.

We did an excellent job packing, mostly because Mark, being a newbie, did a lot of upfront research, whereas I am an old hat and just did it the way I always have, right or wrong. So Mark taught me some new tricks, and we were both very happy with the results. Best job I've ever done, IMHO. I also trimmed down my luggage requirements and expect to go pretty minimal given the good weather and short duration of our trip.

Two panniers, no cargo trunk. Mark's is similar, although his panniers are slightly larger.

Mark had also arranged to have his brother, Luke, transport us to National Airport for the flight to JFK. Luke arrived early! 9:30 AM, in fact. But Mark had arrived at 8:30, and the boxes were taped up by 9:30, so we were good to go. Drop-off was a little after 10:00 for a 12:30 flight. Plenty of time to negotiate check-in and security. And all we were checking were our bikes. The panniers were our carry-on luggage.

But the big dread is always the bike check-in. And the exorbitant fees charged, upwards of $200 each way. But we had a British Airways flight number even though we were on an American Airlines flight. BA is currently flying bikes for free; however, American charges $150. So, like our negotiations through the construction zone in Florida (see my prior trip!), I said to Mark, "Let me do all the talking."

:-)

And I did. I never know how these things happen. Distraction. Pleasant personality. Convincing argument. Whatever. But after being informed there was a cost, five minutes later we were checking them in for free. Et voilà, we were on our way!

So it wasn't long before we were through security and on the flight to JFK, where we had a nearly three-hour layover before the direct flight to Rome.

On the puddle jumper to JFK. My head touched the ceiling!

We had better accommodations on the leg to Rome. This was an old 767 with two seats against the fuselage, so we were not encumbered with a third party!

You can see by this interior shot that it was a vintage aircraft. Only a couple of center screens for the movie, and the volume controls were dials! Mark had never seen that before!

Finally, sunset over the Atlantic. Next stop: Rome!

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