So, today started really early with only half a night's sleep to boot. I woke up at 5 to get a carpool to the airport. My flight wasn't til 10:40 but the other person getting a ride had an early one. I had packed a fair amount of food to get through the day but perhaps do to the lack of sleep, I was a little queasy for a lot of the morning. I had a really smooth and easy time aside from buying a book at the Relay in the airport and then leaving it somewhere on the other side of the security check. There was time to go get it and go through security again, but I didn't really want to do that unless I could have left my bag under the guard of someone else and then just booked it with my passport and boarding pass in hand.
The views of the Alps from the first flight were amazing. I got my phone out and turned it on (the battery was low, so I kept it off for most of the time in the air) and immediately took more than a dozen photos. I wish I had kept it on the rest of the flight because as we approached the airport the fall colors took my breath away with the pines showing sporadically in between.
When I arrived in Birmingham, Border Control stopped me and asked all the normal questions but then told me to wait while they go consult with their manager. When he came back, he wanted evidence of my bank balance and the number of the people I was staying with. It is a bizarre story, I'll admit.
I met several people on the Camino and one of them really took me under his wing and he said he knew people who might be willing to put me up while he spends a few more days in Majorca (my Visa was running out and today marks day 89 of 90). So I left on cheap Eurowings flights with a brief layover in Dusseldorf, Germany.
So, yes, that is a weird thing to hear from someone, but at 124 lbs or 68 kilos, I'm hardly any threat. No one would look at me and think, ah yes, here's a terrorist. Anyway, it was an unnecessary stressor in my opinion but I got through o.k. and the arrangement is perfect here.
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