Going to Airports used to be one of my favorite things. I used to love to go early, have a few drinks, watch and talk to people. I would volunteer to pick people up. One of my favorite memories is spending about eight hours in Louisville, KY with my wife waiting for your flight. We met a bunch of people and discovered Booker's. Sadly, the events of 9/11 made the experience disappear. Can't get in unless you have a ticket.
Anymore I would rather have the flu than get on an airplane although it's a weekly adventure. Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk
If it takes less than a day to do it, I drive........ By the time we get ready and loaded to go, drive the 1 hour to the airport, spend 2 hours there waiting to get thru security and leave, fly to our location, deplane, get our bags, get our rental car and leave - it will take almost the same amount of time to just drive.....and I guarantee you it's less expensive. Cross country is another matter of course....but here to Denver, or Chicago or Dallas, driving makes about as much sense. I also used to love to go to the airport, it was fun, a sense of adventure heading off to a new place and so on. Now it's a chore, and I dread it......people are surly, uncomfortable and wary, the cops give you the evil eye, it's definitely a hostile environment. I avoid it whenever possible. I used to fly 6 - 10 times a year, now they're lucky if I fly once.......
Lots of surly folks, workers and passengers. Sitting on the harbor with a beer is making it all good. Mark
When I was a little kid I loved airports. It was the sense of adventure, and excitement, the idea that this place and these machines only existed in the farthest reaches of some lunatic's imagination 100 years ago. I was proud to live at the peak of human achievement, of course every human has. But this, I thought, this is the future people dreamed of many years ago. To actually fly and be somewhere very far away in a matter of hours. This idea fascinated me to no end. I would think about the physics of flight and watch the flaps on the wing move. Also, I liked the smell of airports. Turns out it was coffee, which tastes bad. But the smell still reminds me of airports and everything above.
Frankfurt International, 1983. Police walking in twos and one had a sub machine gun straped to their chest. Talk about feeling uneasy. Jim
In Greece there's one of those on every corner in and almost every town or village - they call them the "tourist police", the idea is they're there to help you.......yeah, OK......just like the TSA inspectors..... Coming into the train station in Munich in late november 1979 (the date is significant) two long rows of Uzi armed police lining the dock as people got off the train, bags being searched and people hassled right on the dock. They never even looked at us - two disheveled "kids" carrying backpacks! (we were in our 30's actually, but dressed like the students at the time due to our travels) We were very relieved, not because we had any sort of contraband or weapons - we didn't - we just did not want to be "interviewed"... Significance of the date? Right after the students seized the American Embassy in Iran and took hostages......
Different culture over there. The normal citizen just deals with it and moves on, knowing it is for their own good over all. No blasts to the media or the like. I worked with a German Police Detective often who still had the faded tatto on his wrist from his days in the "SS". Jim