A rather short night

The main challenge with flying east (at least from any time zone of GMT – ) is the loss of time. In our case, it was nine hours that effectively vanished in the blink of an eye. Or not, as the plane flight takes the same length of time regardless of what the clock might be telling me.

As I mentioned, we were a bit late in taking off. As it turned out, the plane was a 747 that had obviously been recently upgraded. Our seat were on the upper deck When I thought about it, it was obvious why first class is not the upper deck. There is a rather narrow stair case that connects the upper deck with the main passenger area. It is not even remotely accessible to anyone with mobility challenges. But it was quiet and the food was good. 

But that nine hours, just gone. My body was telling me in no uncertain terms that it was 0200 in the morning when we landed. Not that anyone around me would have agreed. I voted for the lounge, coffee and maybe a snack before we headed to baggage claim. Taking that break was followed by one of the longest terminal walks it has been my misfortune to experience. before we finally arrived to a completely empty Passport Control. I got my stamp, George pulled out his visa and was waived through. From there it was just a short jaunt to baggage claim. 

In spite of my delay, our baggage wasn’t yet on the carousel. From there, it was out the door, across the street, up an elevator and another walk before getting to the long distance train station. Not sure why I was surprised at the markedly increase in train prices. Perhaps I am just used to the relatively low price of BART as a senior. Anyway – jammed ICE to Mannheim, local train to Heidelberg. Taxi to the hotel. 

I crashed, George went to Aldi….

And tomorrow we will visit with friends, hand over yarn and fiber, find some DHL boxes to mail off fabric to the Netherlands and pass along a book to a friend. 

Sounds like a fun day. 

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About Holly

fiber person - knitter, spinner, weaver who spent 33 years being a military officer to fund the above. And home. And family. Sewing and quilting projects are also in the stash. After living again in Heidelberg after retiring (finally) from the U.S. Army May 2011, we moved to the US ~ Dec 2015. Something about being over 65 and access to health care. It also might have had to do with finding a buyer for our house. Allegedly this will provide me a home base in the same country as our four adult children, all of whom I adore, so that I can drive them totally insane. Considerations of time to knit down the stash…(right, and if you believe that…) and spin and .... There is now actually enough time to do a bit of consulting, editing. Even more amazing - we have only one household again. As long as everyone understands that I still, 40 years into our marriage, don't do kitchens or bathrooms. For that matter, not being a golden retriever, I don't do slippers or newspapers either. I don’t miss either the military or full-time clinical practice. Limiting my public health/travel med/consulting and lecturing to “when I feel like it” has let me happily spend my pension cruising, stash enhancing (oops), arguing with the DH about where we are going to travel next and book buying. Life is good!
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