Our flight from Rome to New York was uneventful and actually
fairly comfortable, largely due to the nearly empty flight. Being so unaware of the impending problems
with the rapidly spreading threat of COVID-19, we had no idea at the time why
there were so few travelers from Rome to New York.
When we arrived at JFK in New York, we had to make the very
long walk to get through customs.
Everyone was hustling to get through the process, and we guessed that we
probably walked about a mile to get to customs.
When we got there, we saw a tremendous line of travelers entering the US
and waiting to get through customs. We
saw the place for Global
Entry card holders and diplomats.
There was no line at all. We
scanned our passports and had a biometric photo taken. A slip printed out that we carried to the agent
who asked if we had anything to declare, then stamped our passports and sent us
on our way. The process took only seconds making us very happy that we opted to
obtain Global Entry status, and this one trip made the $100 fee and the trip to
the TSA facility worth it.
We had plenty of time at JFK to walk around and stretch
before our short flight to Cincinnati.
We made our way to the correct terminal, found some recliners looking
out over the gates and relaxed as we did our German lessons, checked email and
made calls to home. Text messages and
emails from Cindy indicated that their travel wasn’t quite as trouble free as
ours, but they arrived home safely and on time.
The flight from JFK to Cincinnati was not as empty as the
one from Rome to New York but certainly wasn’t full. By that point we were just anxious to get
back to our own beds and to get our biological clocks on Eastern Time which
would change to Daylight Saving Time in just a few hours after we arrived home.
After deplaning in Cincinnati, we picked up our bags and
walked the short distance to the pick-up point for the Hilton shuttle van
taking us to get our car through the OneStopParking. We called the Hilton to assure that the van
was still making rounds, and the shuttle arrived to get us in less than 30
minutes returning us to our car. As with
many shuttle drivers we have had in the past, this driver was a character, telling us how ancient aliens assisted the ancient Egyptians and other cultures
in the constructions of their cities.
Since we knew that we would be arriving in Cincinnati after
10 pm and that we would be exhausted from the flights, we had considered
booking at room at the Hilton
or other nearby hotel then returning home after a good night sleep. However, because the flights weren’t terrible
and we were both longing for our own bed, we opted to make the hour drive south
on I-75 to Georgetown arriving home around midnight.
We slept well then started to learn about the dramatic
changes that were taking place at home and all around the world because of the
coronavirus.
When we travel, we like to make note of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites that we
visited. On this trip we went the
following four UNESCO World Heritage
Sites:
- Memphis and its Necropolis – the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur
- Historic Cairo
- Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis
- Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae
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