Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Day 15, travel day home

I loose 6 hours today going west to east.
We left at 3:15, 1 hr. Bus ride to airport and we got there before the desks opened.  My luggage, thankfully, came in 1/2 lb. under the 50 lbs., plane to Rome was fine.  Funny thing happened, I figured I wouldn't be in a rush to deplane so I started a text message and all of a sudden the hostess was there asking me to get off.  It was one of those planes that disembark down an external staircase onto the Tarmac.  When I got there I felt like a star as I was the only one and the bus was waiting with everyone on board waiting with the doors open. OMG.  We drove a ways to the terminal.  Nice how they land planes like in a big parking lot and they drive you to the terminal. From there you progress through the various gates and public areas, quite nicely styled and renovated.  Since I had several hours, it was a nice walk for me. Upon reaching my gate, I wandered around through the shops and food areas, had coffee and croissant, did emails, wrote in my blog and journal,bought a book to read and something in the duty free shop, ate lunch, listened to blog talk radio for a couple of hours, and as I'm writing this now, I have my alarm set to board in 3 more hours, and I'll start to read my book.
I'm sitting here practically in the same seat in the restaurant where my traveling buddy, Carol, and I have sat before on a previous trip.
I did a quick pen drawing of this couple.

Day 14, rest and packing day AND misc people photos

Packing day. 
We had our last regular breakfast since we are getting on our bus at 3:15 for the airport tomorrow. 
Its a day of settling accounts and packing.
After cutting the cheese many purchased some to bring home so it was ready today, vacuum-packed for travel.  It started out hot again so we were "resting", had lunch, the weather started to cool down a bit so I had my last walk-about.  We packed, napped, ate supper where everyone said goodbyes, endless toasts, just like summer camp.
We had our short night of sleep before the journey homeward.
Some of the gang.
Charles' underwear keeps popping up. :) 
Our wonderful host family.
The toast--champagne.