Euro trip #1
The adventures of Matthew and Dave attempting travel to France.
Ironman France Part 1
June 19, 2016
The American Triple-T left me very excited for Ironman France. Fitness showed to be higher than ever, but only two weeks between races left a tricky recovery/taper period. It was further complicated by travel plans, and FURTHER complicated by travel delays.
I was traveling with a friend, Dave, and our plan was to fly to Geneva with a short layover in Iceland, spend Sat and Sun in the Swiss Alps, then on Mon drive down to Nice. Arriving at the airport for our first flight, we saw it was delayed an hour. Our layover was only an hour. Considering it was a small airline with few connecting flights, we hoped the second flight would wait. Nope, stranded in Iceland. Dave and I were rebooked for a flight to Amsterdam, and then different flights from there to Geneva, Dave's flight earlier than mine.
Icelandair delayed flight -> missed flight. Gaining 6 hours in air & airports, missing a day in the alps. #mystopover @Icelandair
— Matthew Shanks (@Matt__Shanks) May 28, 2016
2nd delayed flight. Issue disconnecting "toilet tube." At least more humor in this one. #mystopover @Icelandair #ironmanfrance
— Matthew Shanks (@Matt__Shanks) May 28, 2016
Geneva is pretty! Now, where might my baggage be? Not in Geneva. #mystopover pic.twitter.com/cNo906Re8w
— Matthew Shanks (@Matt__Shanks) May 29, 2016
We got on the plane for Amsterdam, waited two hours, and then they de-boarded the plane, still in Iceland. Something about not being able to get the "toilet tube" disconnected. It was becoming apparent that Dave was going to miss his Amsterdam to Geneva flight, making a scary possibility that I could still make my later flight and arrive to Geneva without Dave (when our hotel for the night was two hours away from Geneva.)
Luckily(?) the flight departing Iceland took quite a while longer and eventually got us both to Amsterdam, about 5 hours after we should have been in Geneva. So we both missed our flights out of Amsterdam and there weren't any more for the day. After many hours of waiting in various lines we eventually ended up in some hotel out of town... So no we didn't even get to see Amsterdam. We got ~3.5 hours of sleep before bussing back to the airport, and finally flew into Geneva.
Of course our checked bags weren't there. After much more time and more lines and the airlines only being able to track half of our bags and bikes (which had flown through Stockholm somehow) we eventually got our bags/bikes. And of course TSA or someone along the way had opened my bike box and closed it back so loosely I could lift the side up 3 inches. Awesome. But we made it, in Geneva, with all of our stuff, 22 hours later than scheduled and hardly any sleep.
And probably worst of all, the stress and lack of sleep left me with a full-blown cold. AWESOME.
The remainder of Sunday we drove around Switzerland. Overcast weather limited our sights but there was still lots to see.
Monday we left Switzerland, and drove through Italy to get to Nice. Lots of great views here despite being overcast again. Took the car on a train, wandered through an old Italian town unsuccessfully searching for pizza, eventually finding pizza in a different town on the Mediterranean.
That night we stayed in a tiny hotel out along the single loop bike course of the Ironman. Going into the race I was concerned about losing a lot of time on the technical descents of the course. To help with that, Tuesday we drove most of the bike course with me getting in and out of the car with my bike, to ride down all the descents. They were definitely scary. Fast and sketchy. But also exhilarating with breathtaking views! And I liked it. After the course preview we finally made our way into Nice... Dave and I were very ready to settle into a place for more than a night.
That night Rachel was flying out from DC to join us in Nice. She had the same scheduled flights through Iceland to Geneva, and then taking a different airline to Nice. I was super nervous about her trip after ours had gone soooo terribly. She arrived at Dulles... And her first flight had been delayed an hour. NOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Ok, keep calm. Think of all possible solutions. Best option: second flight waits for Dulles passengers. How can I help make that happen? Well I can tweet...
Ok @Icelandair flying dca-gva, Fri-sun was miserable. But I made it through alive. Now my gf is flying tonight dca-gva & flight is delayed.
— Matthew Shanks (@Matt__Shanks) May 31, 2016
@Icelandair Pls don't let same happen 2 her! 4 goodness sakes if dca flight is 45 min late, hold flight 2 gva 30min 2 save 22 hrs of travel!
— Matthew Shanks (@Matt__Shanks) May 31, 2016
@Icelandair 27 min layover.. Pls pls pls make sure fi564 waits for passengers on fi644! She knows to go as fast as possible through terminal
— Matthew Shanks (@Matt__Shanks) June 1, 2016
Next option: search all flights leaving Dulles tonight that can get her to Nice. For $3.5k I could buy a flight that got here two days later. Hmm no good. Next option: all flights out of Iceland: to Amsterdam? Ha that doesn't help. To Lyon? Well that would be expensive and a long drive for Dave and I to pick her up. Ok so she reaaallly just needs to make this connecting flight. Meanwhile she's freaking out too, but eventually she takes off for Iceland and I go to sleep at like 2:30 am... Continuing my amazingly calm, relaxing, and restful week into the race.
I wake up pretty early the next morning and start tracking her plane's arrival time. 6:54 it finally lands. Her connecting flight was boarding at 6:50, leaving 7:20. She just needs to go through long passport/customs line, travel through terminals, and take a bus to get on the flight. She didn't have service in Iceland so I'm just sitting there shaking in overwhelming anxiety hitting refresh every 10 seconds on the airport's departure info page. 7:00 Boarding... 7:10 final call. 7:20 still final call. 7:30... 7:40... 7:42 gate closed. Deep breath in some sense of relief. 50 min seems long enough to have made the connection. I didn't hear from her and Iceland did have Wifi, so after a little more time in the dark I became fairly confident she made the connection.
So then began a peaceful few days in Nice. We didn't do a whole lot. Swam and ran some, little bit of sight seeing. But mostly we just ate baguettes.
