Johannesburg: Cradle of Humankind & The Apartheid Museum| South Africa, Day 17-18

Monday, October 1, 2018 - Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Our trip was now officially in wind-down territory, so we started with breakfast at one of our fave South African fast food places, Steers.

Next we went to the Cradle of Humankind, the world's richest hominin site, home to around 40% of the world's human ancestor fossils.

I don't always love museums, but I tend to be more fond of them when they include rides, like this boat ride to an underground lake; plunging through waterfalls and past icebergs, travelling into the eye of a storm, passing erupting volcanoes and dipping into the depths of the earth before arriving at the beginning of time.

Next up was the Apartheid Museum. I thought the history of racism in the US was bad, but it was really something else to learn about the history of racial relations in South Africa.

After our time spent museum-hopping was over, we headed over to fill up the rental car with gas and spend the rest of the day at the airport. Our flight didn't leave Johannesburg until 7:25 PM, so we were able to take our time. After getting gas, we went into the convenience store there to stock up on some of my fave candy bars we'd tried - Chocolate Logs and Astros.

This meant we even had time for a sit-down meal at Diner Piece a Pizza, where we shared The Pacman and a Strawberry Cheesecake Shake.

Overall, the airport was nice, and the time went by fast. And then it was time for marginally appetizing airplane meals on our nearly 11-hour flight to Switzerland. We were flying Swiss Air this time, and the food seemed slightly better.

Once we'd landed in Zurich, I got my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season.

The smallest size ended up costing $8.84 USD, so that is definitely the most expensive seasonal latte I've ever had!

Our layover in Zurich was from 6:10 AM - 9:40 AM, and then we had an almost 10-hour flight to O'Hare. Unsurprisingly, we were selected for "Special Security Screening". I was directed into another line where they swabbed my hands, waistband, feet, and the inside of my luggage. Francisco was thoroughly interrogated by the US interviewers where they asked him where he lived, what he does for work, where was he traveling from, what was his room number at Kruger(!). He obviously had no recollection of that last one. I'm sure it's more about seeing how he reacts to some of the questions vs. actually having memorized the room number of a place we'd stayed at days prior.

During our lengthy flights home, I finished reading The Wonder, started reading Trust No One, and started watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (deciding I would pick that up at home). I dozed as much as I could, but I will always despise sleeping on planes.

Our flight to O'Hare left at 9:40 AM. I watched Tully, Blockers, and a Wrinkle in Time.

When we arrived at O'Hare, we and a handful of other passengers were met at the gate with Connection Service tickets. Apparently, this was a service that launched in September 2017 at O'Hare that helps customers arriving at the airport to reach a connecting flight with another Star Alliance member carrier.  This Service activates if an incoming flight is delayed. Software monitors the transfer window for customers with an onward flight and flags any cases where a customer and checked bags appear in danger of missing a connection. You can then use the Express Connection lane to enable you to get through customs and immigration quicker. Checked bags are specially tagged so they are handled faster. Wow, color me impressed.

This was helpful, but it was still really tight. As we were going through Security, one of our carry-on bags got flagged. It turned out to be the candles that we got in Swaziland that were an issue, so I wish we had left those in our checked luggage. I was very antsy as we were waiting for the screening to be completed and anxiously asked for directions on how to get to our next gate, which was of course a good-sized walk away. We literally heard them paging passenger 'Lopez' as we made it to the gate for our final flight home. The gate agents asked, "Did you guys just get in from Switzerland?", so at least they understood why we were so late getting to the gate.

Because we were the last to board, they were out of carry-on space, so we had to check our small bags. Francisco had stashed his phone in his carry-on, so we had to wait until we got that back at the end of the flight to reserve an Uber.

We haven't flown out of CVG very often despite the fact that it's so close, and man, it is so nice to only have a half-hour drive home from the airport. Unfortunately, our Uber driver kept asking us all these questions on what was the best route to take, and I'm just like, "dude, isn't this what we're paying you for?" Oh, well, we were home, and I didn't have to fail at sleeping on airplanes anymore. We had survived the "wilds" of Africa!!

Use this link to save $40 toward your first Airbnb trip: www.airbnb.com/c/flopez157.