Overnight
The hotel was surprisingly nice, but I did spend the money I’d saved in room at the hotel bar having a small meal and two pints of Pale Ale.
I didn’t sleep particularly well and had set my alarm for 07:00. The flight was to depart at 10:00 and I thought a quick shower and walk to
the terminal building would get me there with sufficient buffer. I woke up early, most likely due to the 1-hour time difference between
Germany and the U.K., and showered before putting on fresh clothing and departing the hotel. I did have to take the shuttle train from the
north terminal to the south one, and then failed at the luggage check-in. The automated system told me to “Wait for a representative” who
failed to materialize until I flagged one down. All they could do was scan my boarding pass as I’d done and then directed me to the traditional
check-in counters. Of course, those had a not insignificant queue lined up in front of them.
When I presented my paperwork it turned out that I’d been flagged by the computer as travelling with an expired passport. It had failed to
register my new passport, but that problem was soon sorted out and I got rid of my bag and had a real boarding pass in hand. The security line
did not exist at that hour of the morning and I by 08:00 I was running the gauntlet of duty-free shops and realized that I had an hour to spend
before the departures board would even show the flight gate number.
So I had a coffee and waited until 09:00 came around and the gate was announced. I checked the map and it was indeed the furthest possible gate bar
one from the departures area. But I was in no hurry and I wanted to rack up some steps on the fitbit so I walked the whole way and ignored the
horizantal escalators. I didn’t quite make it to 5000 steps. My seat was midships, an aisle one. The flight was supposedly fully booked and I’d
not been able to rebook the seat for my preferred window position. Boarding proceeded as usual with people blocking the passengers behind them
while standing in the aisle for no discernable reason. When boarding completed there was an empty seat beside me – and after takeoff it turned
out that the person who’d booked it had ordered a glass of champagne, which I managed to inherit!
Arrival
We arrived in Grenada 5-10 minutes early. Which meant, in true Caribbean fashion, that there was nobody there to push the arrival stairway to the airplane for 10-15 minutes. The arrival hall had colourful balloons and decorations to celebrate the upcoming 50th anniversary of independence, but that didn’t make the single line at immigration go any faster. I soon realized that they had one booth open for Grenadian citizens, and one booth open for others. Note, this was an almost full Boeing 777 with over 400 passengers.
Others had noticed that they’d opened up 2 electronic booths and I saw that EU passports were accepted there. I was sceptical, but when I noticed that people behind me in line had skipped over to there and cleared through there while I’d not moved a step forward, I defected as well and was soon past immigration. This had taken close to an hour so far. My next surprise came when I saw that many were still waiting at the luggage carousel, and that my bag hadn’t yet arrived.
Off to the hotel
But at least when it did arrive and I emerged from the airport there are a guy from the car rental agency waiting and soon I was off, heading (vaguely) to my hotel.
The map shows only one coastal road, but despite that I was worried that I’d taken one or perhaps even two wrong turns. The trip took much longer than I’d remembered and darkness had set in. The big block of government housing in the middle of nowhere failed to materialize and I was debating turning around when I saw a small sign for the hotel! It turns out that the housing wasn’t occupied yet, so there were no lights for me to see at night.
I soon had my bag in the room and was enjoying a cold Caribe beer while listening to the surf churning the sand on the beach only a few feet away from the hotel restaurant and bar.