Europe 2009: PreTrip

week of March 26 - 30, 2009

We left San Diego on March 30th after spending a wonderful week at Frank's house getting ourselves ready - and last minute shopping: what did we buy???? insect repellent, camping utensils (wine corkscrew) to use on the road in France, Italy, Austria and Czeck Rep., hand sanitizing liquid, Les's special shampoo.... and I got great plastic thin cuttingboards for all the cheeses we will eat !!

we felt ready and went off to visit with KariNina for 2 days ......
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March 31, 2009

Well, I was very excited about seeing KariNina ! Her directions were perfect and we arrived just as she was getting home from picking up dry cleaning and some food - as you can see from the picture, she has soooooo many plants and flowers and i was mesmerized ....The garden is pure Nina.

So, we spent time talking and had a wonderful italian meal that night. Rick is calm, interesting and special and i think my friend has found a true life mate. Then Nina flew to Seattle for some art courses and the next day, Nina's mom arrived from Norway. It was wonderful to see her, so young at heart and so fit at 75! gorgeous woman.

The night of the 31st we packed for the next morning flight...

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April 1, 2009

A shuttle arrived at 9 AM to give us a ride to the airport. Our fellow passengers were an Australian family of 3 who had spent 10 months traveling around Italy and were on their way to Canada. They gave us some good tips, not to fear pickpockets and to buy the gold from the artisans in Florence. We arrive at the airport 3 hours early ( I hate stressing over delays) and the bags cannot be checked in at the curb. Hitch number 1. why ?? who knows .. Les cannot lift any suitcases due to his back, so the man outside kindly loads the bags onto a huge trolley and we wheel it in. There is one person ahead of us, soon gone. I load a suitcase. good. I load a 2nd one and suddenly a man comes in yelling at me to unload the suitcase from the trolley cause he needs it. i slowly tell him that Les cannot lift the bags and that I need the trolley for a couple more minutes. The woman at the counter quickly finishes with the 3rd bag in record time and the sweet yelling man hauls the suitcases to the side of us, where there are maybe 30 suitcases already lined up for inspection xray. The girl tells him to take the bags to other side. He refuses and unloads (read that dumps) the suitcases and leaves while she is yelling "these bags are NOT going to arrive, you wait and see!" JUST THE WORDS I WANT TO HEAR, right ??? noooooooot. so, i ask her - do you want me to remove these and take them elsewhere ?? she assures me everything is OK. OK then. Les tells me not to worry and trust that there is plenty of time for her to handle our suitcases. i don't believe a word of it, but leave them anyways.

Now we go to the terminal and I am not still at ease, I assure you ... we sit around, get coffee but I find I cannot log onto the internet with the laptop !! Not even the new toy I got for us (I Touch) is working. I beg Les to let me use the paid internet to send an email to Coca in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to contact Denise Reardon in Atlanta, Georgia and ask her to call me, since I cannot email her and we are going to try and see each other at the airport in Atlanta. I was a little stressed, worried that she would be waiting for us at the airport waiting for my phone call .... having Rio call on Atlanta - talk about a small world !!!!

Now it is time to board and we are area 8 - Number 1, number 2, number 3, number 4, number 5, deap breath, number 6, number 7 and yes, it is our turn and ............... the computer will not accept the boarding pass ..

why not ???? this is Delta to London, right ????? well..... little glitch in the system says that you cannot have a return ticket when your passport will expire first...Les's American passport expires in July and we return in August. I had noticed this the night before, but a bit too late to do anything about it. The woman, who was pale already by nature, turns a whiter shade of pale and says " I am afraid you cannot board." Deep breath, Blanca, take another breath, Les....

Everyone is now on board and the flight is already about 30 minutes late without our little snafu...

Luckily, 3 days before, when we were in San Diego, Les's daughter happened to mention that she has his British passport from about a year ago when it came via parcel and just stayed at her house ......... ignored by all...............so she gave it to us at lunch ...

So Les says "I have a British passport". She looks puzzled at first but takes it and asks the question "Why aren't you traveling on your British passport in the first place ?".... right ...whatever ....

To make this story shorter - we were the LAST to enter the aircraft although I think we were the FIRST to arrive at the airport!

The flight went flawessly only cause they didn't require any more docs while we were on it !!!!!

In Atlanta i am in a quandary as to whether Denise is outside waiting for us but I cannot log on (what's new) and I don't have a phone number...and i let it go...(turns out she wasn't there ..whew...)

It was April 1, April Fool's Day and the joke was on us !!

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April 2, 2009

Arrival at Heathrow Airport in London - quickly off plane - staright to the EU line since Les is on his British passport and I am his wife. Man at post is not pleased that we are staying 5 months according to les. Are you surprised ?? At this point, nothing can phase me. All I know is that he begins qustioning me as if I am th next Mata Hari ! Les is standing open mouthed in slight jet lag no sleep shock as the man tell him NOT TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE. THE QUESTIONS ARE FOR THE LADY ONLY. Well. he asks where we are going. I tell him England, France, Italy, Poland. He asks how I am going to pay for everything. I point to Les. Aren't you going to work ??? Well, miss honest says that I intend to try to work in Poland. (Les rolls his eyes, but i cannot lie). Man yells: ON WHAT PASSPORT ??? On my French one. Can I see it? Well....slight problem, it wasn't ready before i left and it is in Mexico. Sound bizarre, even to my ears as i write, but it is the truth and eventually he let us go with the admonition: DO NOT WORK IN THE UK.

hell, i may never work again anywhere after all that !!!!

So.....

Time for the suitcases. One comes. Second comes. Third comes. No more and we are missing one. We wait. and wait. and wait. and after a loooooooooooooong while realize, no suitcase coming. (I am conviced the girl in LA jinxed the suitcase). Deal with the man at the counter to file a report. Well, Today is April 7 and it just arrived !!!!!!!!!! Poor Les has worn the same shorts and exchanged 2 shirts for 5 days now !!

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