Well, Judy is home from her trip to Italy and Greece. She and Christopher arrived safely in Minneapolis in the early hours of this morning after a gruelling and exhausting trip from Athens. I have to be honest and say, while tracking her journey last night on line and hearing about the long enduring layover at Frankfurt airport, that I thought to myself there is no way that any trip is worth this.
The layover of more than 6 hours in Frankfurt was anything but a pleasant experience, but then what layover is? Airport staff though and the way you are treated can make such a layover either a nightmare or slightly tolerable. Certainly having to vacate your seats when you are comfortably settled, to await the long delay, to make way for travellers catching an earlier flight is something I have never heard of in my life.
I contrast this with my stopover at Chicago when I was returning home from Minnesota. Two aircraft left from the same gate as ours before our flight was due to depart. Was anyone asked to vacate their seats to make room for the passengers boarding those flights? Heck no!! There, airport staff were kind and courteous and went out of their way to make everyone comfortable. And remember, this was Chicage O'Hare, the largest and busiest airport in the world.
I'm sorry for venting about this, but it upsets me when people I care about are treated with less courtesy and dignity than they deserve - especially in Europe which is my neck of the woods. I live in hope though that perhaps I am not considered a European yet. I'm quite happy to remain an Irishman - thank you!!
Well that said, I talked to Judy earlier today and she is somewhat the worse of wear from her trip and suffering from jet lag and a cold. I hope a good rest will soon have her right.
She shared some of her marvellous pictures with me of the places visited on their trip. I have to say it forces me to reconsider my earlier observation. To hear her talk about the places they visited on the tour and the quality time she spent with her grandson Christopher, plus the wealth of pictures which she captured and which I hope she will soon be able to share with everyone, must surely have made the whole trip worthwhile.
Welcome home Judy. We all missed you.
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2 comments:
thank you joe....I am glad to be home and you are right, the journey home was rigorous and had some stress to it..I think as we counted up the hours it took us to get home the other travelers and I came up with around 32 hours or so..on planes and in airports with our layovers..I am so glad to be home and I missed all of you too..it felt good to know you were tracking our flight...it felt really good!
That is a sweet post. We all love Mom, don't we?? I can't wait to see the pictures and hear the stories when she's up to it!
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