Sunday, 10/24 - Getting Home
Remember, I said we
had to get up by 5:30 on this morning? And that that was the equivalent of
11:30 the night before at our hometown? This truly was to be a lo-o-ng day.
We went to the only
place to eat that early; the Irish pub in the casino. We got there before the
big rush as others came in to eat before getting off the ship. After eating, we
left the ship and claimed our luggage. The Barcelona port actually had luggage carousels for claiming your luggage.
After that, we took
our bags outside and got on a bus to go to the airport. It was, of course, very
dark. The bus dropped us off outside the ticketing center for the airport. We
went inside and had visions of 'Grand Central Station' in our head, though we've
never been there. I'm not sure 'Grand Central Station' does the place justice.
Each airline had 1-2 windows to take luggage and issue tickets, and hundreds of
them were packed into peninsulas sticking into the lobby. But we couldn't
figure out where to find the window we needed. Thankfully, John wandered off to
the restroom, and when he came back, he had found the window we needed! Hooray!
I honestly don't
remember how we got to the gate to wait for our airplane. From the time we left
that window until the time we boarded the plane is a big blank spot in my
memory. Did I fall asleep? I doubt it. I vaguely remember getting up out of a
chair to try and figure out if it was time for us to get into line to board the
plane. It's hard when you don't speak the local language, but the airlines made
it easier by holding up signs as to what group could now get in line.
The economy class of
this plane had 9 seats across; 3 on the left, 3 on the right and 3 in the
middle. John and I were in the middle seats. I wanted to sleep, but I don't
think I did. Shows I had been watching on one airline going over were not
available on this airline coming back. In fact, there was very little of
interest for me to watch. I know they fed us once, but I don't know if they fed
us twice, like the trip over. Maybe it was a meal and a snack.
Anyway, we got on the
plane about 11 AM, and we got to the Atlanta airport about 6 PM. We had about
an hour to get to the gate we needed for the next leg of our journey, and it
seemed to be on the opposite side of the airport. Before that, we had to claim
our luggage, take it to the next room and turn it over to catch our next plane,
then we had to go through another TSA checkpoint. Then we walked forever (with
memories of Rome going through my head) and then I finally convinced John to
take the train, or we would never make it to our gate. We barely had time to
sit down when we reached our gate.
Times are approximate
here; I've thrown out the paperwork that would have confirmed them for me, and
we were very tired, having been awake for about 18-19 hours. But we got on the
next plane about 7 PM and probably got to the Orlando airport about 8 PM. It
probably took us an hour to claim our luggage and grab the bus to where we had
parked the car. I remember it was rainy in Orlando, and when we got to where we
had parked our vehicle, it was standing in at least 4 inches of water. The
'pond' was bigger than just our vehicle, too, there were several cars sitting
in it.
So about 9 PM, we got
in our car with our feet all cold and wet, and the windows quickly steaming up,
and we started home.
We stopped for
hamburgers to go on our way, and ate them when we got home, then watched a
little television to relax. We finally got to bed about 11:30 PM - 24 hrs after
we had gotten up!
And that was our trip
to Spain and Italy, mostly Italy.
PS. Remember when this journey began, and we were rushed to
get through TSA, and lost John's shoes and my belly bag? We couldn't claim them
when we got in on this day, because the Lost and Found department had already
closed. But we drove back the next day about noon, and I was able to claim both
items. Phew! What a relief!
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