June 3
Got up and thought that we had everything under control. Bags packed and separated for the trip to India and had directions to the Holiday Inn for the car drop off.
The husband of the hotel host agreed, by Google Translate, to help me get duplicate car keys made. He drove me into the city center, triple parked and then led me into the basement of a building that housed many repair shops. We had a lengthy panomine about the car's year, make and model and the price, which turned out to be 30 lari. The keymaker was a very stocky guy who kept pulling different tools out of his drawer to work on the new keys. He finally finished and we raced back to the hotel making a large number of turns. Alas, while the new keys opened the car doors, they did not start the engine.
By now I knew that with a return trip to the keymaker I would be late for the car
exchange appointment. Our host made a call advising that we would be late and this time the host drove our car to the keymaker and only double parked when we arrived. The second effort by the keymaker entailed lots of scraping and filing out on the street. When the keys worked there was lots of hugging and a few cheek kissings.
We then packed up our car and drove off to the Holiday Inn. Despite the directions I still missed a turn and we were about 45 minutes late. Fortunately the groom's parents waited for us. I then followed them to the parking space driving in a manner that prevented anyone from coming between us and my guide.
We got the car securely parked and since we had taken our luggage rather than leaving it at the hotel we faced the prospect of a lengthy wait at the airport. Took a 50 lari cab ride to the airport that took us right past our hotel. The airport has security when you enter and when you enter the boarding area. There is a single check in area for all airlines and we were not permitted to check-in until 3 hours before our flight. Since we could not check-in we could not get through passport control to the airport lounge.
When the Qatar Airlines window showed some light I made inquiries. No change in the check in rule, but I was informed of the weight limitations, 30kg for checked and 7kg for carry-on luggage. That set off a realignment of our luggage contents.
The check in went smoothly as did the passage through passport control (no mention of the fact that we were leaving by air after arriving by car) and we went to the airline lounge. Very nice lounge with good food and drink.
The Qatar flights were very good. Same plane to Baku and Doha (we flew over Iran). The service was very good and they fed us meals on both segments. I spoke with one of the flight attendants who said he enjoyed working for the airline notwithstsnding its reputation about overtaxing its employees.
Doha airport is huge and very modern. We had 1.5 hours between flights and needed all that time. Took a long bus ride to the Delhi fligbt. It was an overnight flight and when we landed at Delhi at 7:30am I was pretty exhausted. So it was with great relief when we were met by my son's girlfriend, who got a cab and got us to the apartment. We slept into the afternoon and then visited with them into the evening.
Got up and thought that we had everything under control. Bags packed and separated for the trip to India and had directions to the Holiday Inn for the car drop off.
The husband of the hotel host agreed, by Google Translate, to help me get duplicate car keys made. He drove me into the city center, triple parked and then led me into the basement of a building that housed many repair shops. We had a lengthy panomine about the car's year, make and model and the price, which turned out to be 30 lari. The keymaker was a very stocky guy who kept pulling different tools out of his drawer to work on the new keys. He finally finished and we raced back to the hotel making a large number of turns. Alas, while the new keys opened the car doors, they did not start the engine.
By now I knew that with a return trip to the keymaker I would be late for the car
exchange appointment. Our host made a call advising that we would be late and this time the host drove our car to the keymaker and only double parked when we arrived. The second effort by the keymaker entailed lots of scraping and filing out on the street. When the keys worked there was lots of hugging and a few cheek kissings.
We then packed up our car and drove off to the Holiday Inn. Despite the directions I still missed a turn and we were about 45 minutes late. Fortunately the groom's parents waited for us. I then followed them to the parking space driving in a manner that prevented anyone from coming between us and my guide.
We got the car securely parked and since we had taken our luggage rather than leaving it at the hotel we faced the prospect of a lengthy wait at the airport. Took a 50 lari cab ride to the airport that took us right past our hotel. The airport has security when you enter and when you enter the boarding area. There is a single check in area for all airlines and we were not permitted to check-in until 3 hours before our flight. Since we could not check-in we could not get through passport control to the airport lounge.
When the Qatar Airlines window showed some light I made inquiries. No change in the check in rule, but I was informed of the weight limitations, 30kg for checked and 7kg for carry-on luggage. That set off a realignment of our luggage contents.
The check in went smoothly as did the passage through passport control (no mention of the fact that we were leaving by air after arriving by car) and we went to the airline lounge. Very nice lounge with good food and drink.
The Qatar flights were very good. Same plane to Baku and Doha (we flew over Iran). The service was very good and they fed us meals on both segments. I spoke with one of the flight attendants who said he enjoyed working for the airline notwithstsnding its reputation about overtaxing its employees.
Doha airport is huge and very modern. We had 1.5 hours between flights and needed all that time. Took a long bus ride to the Delhi fligbt. It was an overnight flight and when we landed at Delhi at 7:30am I was pretty exhausted. So it was with great relief when we were met by my son's girlfriend, who got a cab and got us to the apartment. We slept into the afternoon and then visited with them into the evening.
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