Homeward Bound

Monday, August 18, 2014

Before I write about our trip home, I want to add one humorous picture I forgot from yesterday. We came across this statue near Freedom Square. We had Terry and Frank pose with the statue. Thought you might enjoy seeing it.

Terry and a Frank were comparing their profiles to the statue's. Malcolm was not in the running for this contest. — Terry and a Frank were comparing their profiles to the statue’s. Malcolm was not in the running for this contest.

My phone went off at 6:00 am since we needed to be in our hotel lobby by 7:30 for our transfer to the Budapest airport. After I was ready, I heated a cup of coffee and ate the bun I had purchased the day before.

When Frank was ready, he sat down with a cup of coffee. First he ate his croissant, saving his strudel for last. Then I heard him exclaim, “Oh, this is horrible!” as he spit out his first bite of the alleged “strudel”. “Look, there’s a hot dog in here.” he said, showing me the offending brown circle within the dough. Heading straight for the trash can, he added “I’m not eating this.” Obviously, he had made a poor selection. I learned later that a similar scene had taken place in Malcolm and Sharon’s room. She, too, had chosen a plain roll.

After we checked out, Terry, Joyce, Sharon, Malcolm, Frank, and I waited a few minutes for our driver for our transfer to the airport. Here is Terry, our designated team leader, holding up the sign our driver had displayed as the driver and a bell boy loaded our suitcases into the van.

The rest of the day was long, but went smoothly. We flew to Paris and had a three-hour and forty minute layover before boarding our second flight to Philadelphia.

Our plane at the Paris Airport. Photo curtesy of paparazzi Joyce.

The ladies keeping busy while waiting at the gate in Paris.

All went as scheduled. The flight from Paris to Philadelphia took about 8 hours. It was a long time to sit. I watched two movies and started a new book. We were served a dinner, several snacks, and even a Dixie cup of ice cream. This sure is different from domestic flights which only serve drinks and offer meals and snacks for purchase.

Our plane landed at 6:30 pm and we were home by 9:15. Since we lost six hours coming home, our bodies could feel the Budapest time of 3:15 am. It was a very long day!

Malcolm, Sharon, Terry and Joyce in the Colonial shuttle back to our parked cars. Tired but almost home! — Malcolm, Sharon, Terry and Joyce in the Colonial shuttle back to our parked cars. Tired, but almost home!

While Frank and I were both happy to be home, we saw and did so many interesting things and made some wonderful memories with our friends. Who knows where we’ll be headed next? I still have lots of ideas and places to go on my bucket list. But I’ll wait a little while before I suggest them to Frank!

Thanks for following along. I hope you enjoyed my first attempt at blogging. And yes, I went a whole twelve days without a mishap or trip to an emergency room. I’d say that was a sign of a terrific trip!