Finishing Up

June 23 2019

With three days left of our vacation, Chris and I spent more time doing stuff around her place.

Thursday was a national holiday (Corpus Christi) so everything was closed.

Friday, we visited Christina's childhood friend Ildi, who I met on my last trip here. We also shopped for a laptop to replace Chris' 9-year old one. We found a bargain Acer on sale.

My cold continued to act up at night, but was mostly just a sniffle during the day. I worried a bit about congestion and ear-clearing for cabin pressure changes. Didn't happen.

The Return Trip

I am very glad this is a short section!

Chris always rides with me on the train to Stuttgart. We got up at 6 am and caught the early commuter train and arrived in Stuttgart in plenty of time to catch the early ICE to Frankfurt. It's always sad when we separate here. The next time we'll touch is when Chris comes to Florida for our wedding. A sad goodbye.

The ICE got me to Frankfurt in 90 minutes, and I checked into my flight and dropped off my luggage at the Lufthansa desk in the train station. I was at the airport security by 10:30 and at my gate by 11. The flight was scheduled for 1:55 pm. I listened to my audiobook. The plane boarded late and ended up taking off about an hour late, but still got us on the ground in Orlando on time!

Flying business class is such an indulgence! The big seats and pampering are great, and you get pretty good food and wine. I scanned the menu for this flight. I never sleep on airplanes, so I enjoyed rum and coke and 3 movies crossing the Atlantic.

The border security in Orlando Airport has gotten slower. I waited about 30 minutes to show my passport and get waved through. Baggage claim was no problem, and I was soon in a cab and headed home. I got home at 7:00 pm.

Epilogue

I don't think I've ever kept a blog running thru an entire vacation. This one either. As the end of this one approached, I found I needed more sleep, and couldn't get it done promptly.

Jet lag is a strange condition. I seem now to need more sleep to feel rested, and that's not helped by my post-vacation lethargy! I take about a week to adjust to the changes. As I get older, this adjustment seems to go slower.