On the way home - Wednesday, 30 October, 2013

Sorry no pictures  in this post, unless you want me to lift up the iPad camera as I saw someone do earlier and take a picture of a lot of seat backs not in the upright position.

Our last night in a Venice, and we took a very interesting and informative walking tour through sound of the less touristy areas of this unique city. Our guide from Dark Rome Tours lives in a Venice, and told us about living in Venice.... Living and walking, walking... Walking. No cars. No bicycles.. No motto scooters. Just feet and good shoes.... And boats. But the boat traffics is governed by the tides. At high tide, many boats cannot pass under one of the almost 400 bridges. At low tide, the propellers can get stuck in the mud. Somehow they manage emergency services. 

Venice has a declining population... Now about 57000. Many of those who work in the city commute in from the mainland. And, ad we have heard, Venezia is slowly sinking. It doesn't feel test way walking on the solid stone streets and alleys, but when you look at the many staircases that go from the street down to the canal to board a water taxi, you notice, that 3of the 5 stairs are now under water and covered with seaweed.

Our tour ended with a gondola ride... 6 to a gondola... A bit tippy sort of a like a big canoe, but very enjoyable. We were chatting with an American couple who had been on a Dark Rome Tour at the Colisseum in Rome. To make a long story short, it seems they had he same excellent guide at the Colisseum that we had at the Vatican. She was an archaeologist and very personable. Small world.

The wake up call came as requested at 3:00am... Ugh. The porter arrived to collect the cases at 3:50. We were in the lobby at 4:00am with another couple from Savannah, Ga.  This elderly couple ( more elderly than we ate) were alsoon the Queen Elizabeth. But their luggage did not not arrive until well into e cruise... Like more than half way through. They managed and were given a clothing allowance. 

Our escort, Julia arrived and we boarded the water taxi which took us down to the train terminal where a minivan was waiting for us. By 4:30 we were checked on. Our flight to Amsterdam was a little late in taking off, mainly due to the sorting out of Hans luggage. We actually checked my carry on duffel for free.  Nice flight over the alps, which were hidden by clouds... Over Austria and Germany. Landed on time in Amsterdam with plenty of time to make the connecting flight to Detroit.... But not without hassles... Very confusing airport. Then there was a long line at Passport Control... Then we got to the gate and found that Gate e5 had its own security checkpoint, and not enough seats for the 300 passengers. But we had plenty of time, and finally found our seats on the plane.

I am writing at this point on Delta Airlines Flight no. DL620. It is 3:00pm Europe time. We have now been up for 12 hours, but have gotten some sleep time. We are almost 1/2 way to Detroit which is our port of entry into the US.

12:22pm EDT... I set my watch a while ago. In the home stretch now. We are heading southwest from Canada and should arrive early in Detroit. Sleeping and movie watching as well as meal breaks sure helps the time go. The noise canceling headphones and the iPod help, too.

We have to go through customs in Detroit... I think they are now calling it Passport Control.i understand that we claim our bags in Detroit, go through Customs and then recheck the luggage. It will be interesting to see how that works.

And it went smoothly... Still annoying, though. Flight across the pond was early. So we are relaxing and waiting for the short flight to Columbus.

B.