March 14, 2020 - Saturday

Azamara Quest Cape Town to Athens 

THE END DAY 24 -HOME

We arrived in Amsterdam an hour late due to not being permitted to enter air space over Iraq. We still had a 5-hour wait in the first-class lounge. We avoided food because we had a nice breakfast before arrival, and we knew KLM would feed us well on our flight to Chicago. We were not wrong.

In Amsterdam 

Oh To Be Young Again

Our Ride Home

Our plane arrived late and we would be slowed further by strong headwinds as we crossed the Atlantic. The flight was smooth for the most part. Turbulence was limited to whenever food was served. I told Alice there must be a light on top telling the air that food was being served so crank up the bumps. We did not let that stop our consumption. it did not seem to phase the excellent flight attendants.

We also managed to watch some movies, follow our progress on our monitors and get some needed sleep. We arrived at O’Hare less than an hour late at 4:00 PM. We were anxious to get home. 

When we entered the terminal we proceeded down many ramps followed by escalators down to the arrival hall. What a shock waited for us. We had barely gotten off of the escalator when we joined a long line of passengers. We were not sure where the line was going and no one was there to tell us. We were in line butt to belly and shoulder to shoulder. We were not touching, but we were close.

On our way, the group of passengers around us noticed that many others had health forms in their hands. We did not. Repeated attempts to ask personnel monitoring our line for them yielded nothing. Finally, one compassionate employee went to find forms for us. We filled them out in line. 

An hour and a half later we stood before a customs and border patrol agent. This agent did not want the forms. They were for health screening at the end of the process. He reviewed our customs declaration, asked us some questions as he returned our passports, and directed unto another line.

Again, we had no idea what the purpose of this line was. We followed the leader through a maze of aisles like those at Disneyworld. We wondered what ride would be at the end of this. It took us 2 hours to find out. It was another customs and border patrol officer. He swiped our passports and asked several questions. The routine seemed familiar. Then he asked for our address. A first. 

We chatted with him as he worked. We learned that they were all working 16-hour shifts. The mass of humanity assembled here was consistent throughout the day as Americans returned from abroad. He also admitted to poor training and planning to accomplish this with such short notice of the travel ban from Europe.

Now he directed us to another line. At last, this was for the actual health screening. Half an hour later we had our temperature checked. We both read 97.1. We passed. Then we were given charts to use for recording our temperatures in the morning and evening for 14 days. He strongly suggested self quarantining. He did not say because of the mess we had just gone through, but we certainly felt that was reason enough. 

The Nonsense at O'Hare

We proceeded to the luggage area. We had arrived so long ago that our bags had been removed from the conveyor. No Surprise. The bags were segregated by flight. In 5 minutes we had ours. The last customs agent took our declarations and welcomed us home. Now we were out of there.

Once outside the hall, we found a place to park our luggage cart, and I called for a taxi. Usually, we have to wait 20 minutes or more. Not tonight. The app said 8 minutes. Our cab arrived in 7 minutes. We walked in our door at 9:00 PM. Just 44 hours since we got up on Friday. 

Soon we were in bed.