Home again, home again, hippedy-hopNov 2, 2011
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| Marilyn's Musings Normally the trip back home after a vacation has only one high point -- walking in the door and having the cat be glad to see us. Everything between leaving the hotel on our last morning and that is forgettable. But this trip was different; our journey home was really quite pleasant. There are no pictures to accompany this entry since we packed the camera in the bottom of Bob’s carry-on. Use your imaginations. All of our purchases found homes in various suitcases, none of which were over the allowable weight and we were able to divide them in a way that was relatively comfortable for both of us. The walk to the train station/airport bus stop was short, on even terrain and in decent weather; the bus left on time and dropped us very near the door for United. Now , here’s the really memorable part. . . . We were able to 1. Check in, drop our luggage and get our boarding passes from United 2. Stop at the Tax Refund desk to get our paperwork stamped for the VAT refund 3. Have a quick cup of coffee and a stale roll 4. Do a quick browse in the duty free shops 5. Go through security (without being wanded or x-rayed and with shoes on) and passport control 6. Find or gate in less than 35 minutes. And this was at Charles DeGaulle. Security was interesting; there is obviously profiling going on. Before we could check in, a nice young woman chatted with us and asked us some questions while scanning our passports. Later in the process at passport control, we were also asked some questions and the passport was scanned. Just before security, a third person checked our passports and directed us to a line. But no one patted, wanded, invaded or got nasty. Very cool. By the time we booked our return flight, we had used up most of our frequent flyer miles and, so, had to fly economy (I know, poor us). I paid a nominal amount to put us in United’s Economy Plus which gave us about 5 more inches of knee room. However, it was the flight attendants’ service which really made the trip pleasant; they came around about every half hour with something -- drinks, lunch, water, nibbles, more water, snack, more water. Very impressive. Our limo was on time, there was little traffic on the roads, I remembered to bring a key to the house with me, and, yes, the cat was glad to see us. And thus ends another Weaver trip. We may add a last entry with some reflective comments, but that won’t be for a few days. In the meantime, many thanks to our readers; there are seven of you who are very persistent. We sure would like to know who you are, so feel free to leave us an email message on our trip journal site. |
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