Keystone Cops Adventure

Awoken early with news we were leaving an hour early because you needed to be at airport 3 hours before the flight.

Left our beaut little Air B and B which had proved to be the ideal launch pad for our daily adventures.

Onto a crowded airport train, only to be off loaded after 3 stations because it got redirected mid journey. Luckily only a short delay and we we soon doing the terminal marathon to find check-n 

All worked out ok and our luggage was being sent through to Denizli , even though we had a 2.5 hour stopover programmed.

At least we knew where our gate was because it was next to where we started our journey. Security and Customs were a breeze and we were at our gate well before the 1120 takeoff time.

Quick brekky and we were soon on board ready to head off to Istanbul.

As has been the case in Europe we were ready but plane wasn’t,’. 

It was I 2 or so hours of incessant repairs to he engine outside my window before we took off. We were a bit concerned as we had only factored in a 2.5 hour cutover.

Gods old Captain made up exactly no time and seemed to tease us even more with a never ending taxi to the gate,

We got off with 27 minutes left before flight took off with a 1500 metre gap between the two planes and needimg to go through transit, customs and security. 

Ran about 500 metres to transit area where woman waved us through saying ‘I think they will hold for you’ . Another 500 metres to Customs  where we scooted through into Security. 

After removing nearly everything I had on and shoving everything  back into the backpack and having no time to rethread the belt the next 500 metres could only be from a Keystone Cops script.

Here is a fat 70 something backpack in one hand and holding up pants with the other , ducking and weaving people on the travelator. At some stage it involved  runnig on one in the wrong direction and wondering why progress was so slow and people were waving  and pointing at me.

I can’t imagine what tailgunner Jane was thinking of her fearless leader. On top of that neither of us had run that far in years.

A last ditch sprint down the gangway and on with about 3 minutes to spare, 

Thank God we could sprawl out in the extra legroom seats. With breath caught we spent most of the flight wondering if ground staff were so nimble and got our bags on board.

Whilst getting darker we were starting to see the terrain we were likely to tread in the coming days wondering if Sherpa Tensing’s relatives might like a job.

Arrived in Denizli and found the non existent Customs or Security and  a baggage carousel full of bags except ours.

Time with airline staff established they were still in Istanbul and might come in the next couple of days . Not news we wanted but nothing we could do.

Found our shuttle and enjoyed a quiet trip with our two fellow  Russian passengers.

Arrived at our Pammukale hotel and got some great support from the hosts. Our room was great and had a perfect view of the Tramentine cliffs and the ruins of Heraklion where Apollo had resided.

A couple of beers calmed the nerves a bit and went to bed to toss and turn thinking of all the plans we could put in place if baggage did not arrive ,