The long road home

We left the hotel loaded into the ominpresent MB gray van, but it wasnt a taxi.  The patron saint of travel says dont get it in tell you know what it costs.  Rookie mistake on our part. We just loaded in and headed for the airport. 60 Euros is alot for a ride to the airport, but we got to the right terminal. Went through security, I forgot about my water bottle and decided to drink the water and keep the bottle.  The flight to Amsterdam from Paris on Air France was uneventful. It started with us finding that we did not have seats next to each other. Oh well it was only a couple hour flight.  I had an aisle seat and aisle back from her.  The three folks across from me appeared to be husband, wife, and mother in law.  Along came an American who wanted to oust the mother in law from her seat so he could have his designated window seat. So they had to move.  The husband moved to the seat behind me, Clarinda and I didnt have adjoining seats either, but she had one open next to her. So I asked the flight attendant if I could move next to Clarinda and then the fellow behind me could at least be across the aisle from his wife.  She said yes of course and we created some goodwill with the people that had always been kind to us.  The flight was uneventful, when we got to the airport we had to go line up to have our passports stamped by the Dutch immigration officials again. That went smoothly and there was no security on the other side. We went to a blue kiosk to key in our registration number since at the Paris airport it only gave us a ticket for the Paris to Amsterdam piece of the flight. We tried and tried but no luck, we decided to try again at some we saw in the main terminal. There was a nice lady there from KLM  one of the partners of Delta and Air France to the passengers who cant get tickets out of the machine department. When our number was called the lady found our reservations and issued us boarding passes. The ticket said the 11:30 flight was boarding at 9:30, that didnt make sense and the lady said we had plenty of time because their were long lines at security.  It turns out our gate was at the far end of the terminal. When we finally got there, there was a line of about 60 people or more waiting. This time it turns out waiting to go through a special security check set up at the gate.  We hadnt seen this before. They first checked your passport and as your luggage was being scanned in the traditional fashion, directed you to a person in a uniform standing at a podium. This lady had a striking resemblance to Lily Tomlin, but she was not Bernadine the telephone operator. She was serious. Question 1 where did you come from. Then who packed your bag. And a few more questions.  Then we were directed to the full body scanner. This thing looks like a large version of the Starship Enterprise transporter. Except you are inside a plastic cylinder. You are directed to put your feet on the yellow footprints inside and raise your hands over your head.  The doors close you into the cylinder and the scan begins. Then door opens and you are directed to two more foot prints to stand on while you are frisked.  We passed and were wondering what was up.  Now we find out there is an increased threat and the state department had issued a travel warning.  So I still don't know if the guys in the terminals, and at Nortre Dame that were full on military looking dudes with submachine guns were regular or extra.  Any way we loaded onto the plane and this time were in our two seats in  a two seat row as we had been before on the way over. Also as luck would have it one of the flight attendants was the same one we had on the way over. Her name was Paige and she was very friendly.  Anyway a mere 9 hours and 30 minutes later, because our pilot gunned it on the way home somewhere over Greenland, we landed in Pdx.  Now, given the security threat, I understand by the the Border patrol/immigration and customs folks sounded so sincere when they welcomed us home, while reviewing our passports. Alls well that ends well.