6/18: Headed home.
Up at 4:00 with a headache. Raining. Bags in hall at 5:15 and taxi at 5:30.
Hotel gave us some breakfast items since the buffet isn't open yet. At the airport bought some Americano coffee (not like Folgers!). Everyone around us is eating subs. Typical in much of Europe. Many Italians only have coffee and croissants, we have been told many times.
Walked to the train to go to another area. A young woman was looking around frantically and then ran up to me, asking if I was flying to Istanbul, Turkey. I said no and she started to run to the escalator and I said, here, let us help you. She needed to get on the same train as us and go to G-8, where ours was G-1. Her boarding pass said they had started to board 25 minutes earlier, so I thought oh, no, she'll probably miss the plane. When we got off I pointed to the G gates and told her to run fast. About five minutes later that gate employee was paging one last passenger, so it was either her or someone else, and she made it. We hoped so.
We showed our passports three times before getting on the plane. We had some crackers with us, so bought a small package of salami and green olives. 11 days of running around and never had any olives that grow everywhere here.
We'll fly three hours-over Genoa, Paris, and into London.
A 14 year-old boy from San Francisco sat by me. He and his grandma (chaperone) had just completed a one week educational tour to London, Florence, Paris and Rome, Had never been anywhere but San Diego. I thought he might have been of Italian descent and he said yes, and Portuguese. His parents have never traveled to Europe. His step-dad designs war tanks.
They served us breakfast at 8:45-ham and cheese sandwiches. But I've been up 5 hours, so it felt ok.
Landed in London, walked to an area where a bus will take us to another terminal after one security guy asked us several questions. At that gate went through security again. We get so tired of the people who don't read the explicit signs and aren't ready, with jackets and watches off, shoes, etc., to go through the lines and hold everyone else up. People ahead of us acted like they had all day and were the only ones there. Walk to the gate and show passport, walk about 8 feet inside and have to show it again!
4,820 miles from here to Dallas-9-1/2 hours. We have 3 seats for the 2 of us-wonderful! Fussy 18 month old and 3 yr old. Duh, bring something for them to play with, or a stuffed animal or doll for the baby, at least. Tom suggests tranquilizers and stuff 'em in the overhead! My ankles are very swollen again. The stewardesses gave me bags of ice to hold on them and lots of bottles of water.
Dallas-showed our passports 3 times, got bags, went through customs, re-checked bags. Escalators, train to the domestic terminal. Gulped down a burger and realized we had more time than we thought. Then a thunderstorm hit and we had a one hour delay-so spent almost 4 hours there.
Maury and Susan picked us up. Home at 10:15. Bed at 10:30 with ice packs and elevated feet. Awake 30 hours!
Tom was wide awake 4 hours later and me 5-1/2 hours. Unpacked, threw everything in the wash. A pot of good coffee! (The next night I only slept 2-1/2 hrs and did 5 loads of wash between 11:30 and 3.)
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