The ‘Zoo’ @ BLQ

Not a literal zoo, of course.

We’ve flown in and out of BLQ before … all but one flight all non-Schengen. The one time we arrived into the ‘Schengen’ side, it was in the early evening. We went directly to baggage claim and then left the airport. All good.

Today we got to experience what the Schengen side is really like. Total controlled chaos until we got to the security checkpoint. That was the easy part of our morning … even with Mui’s carry-on bag detouring to the hand-check lane of the conveyor belt for the charging brick he had packed. Of course August is “ferie” time in Italy … the exodus for summer vacations may have had something to do with our experience.

The good news is that we were ready ahead of schedule, so left the apartment before 7:30a. Half an hour later we were exiting the taxi at BLQ … with plenty of time before our scheduled departure.

There is no bag drop off per se for Lufthansa passengers … which is all that we needed to do since I checked in for the flight online yesterday. Five or six check-in counters were open to handle a mixed queue of Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, and Air Dolomiti passengers. The line stretched way back and around the corner. At least it moved steadily. A lovely check-in agent with a great sense of humor efficiently took care of the formalities when our turn came.

Next step, up the moving sidewalk to the first floor of the terminal to go through security. All in all, it was an hour from the taxi drop off to our gate.

Since we had an early start, we skipped breakfast at home. So, we found a café and got ourselves some caffè — cappuccino for me; doppio espresso for Mui — and a couple of cornetti. Not the best pastries … but they’ll hold us for a while.

Waiting for boarding to be called. More later.Read more