A Long Day, but a Lovely Reward

Dear Family and Friends, I often feel that one should anticipate the worst because chances are that in actuality it won’t be as bad as you thought. How true. On Wednesday morning at 6 am, we left for our extended “Last Grand European Tour.” The idea is to visit most of the wonderful people we have met over the last 4 years of phased retirement. So with that in mind, we headed off. First stop, Houston! Now we actually don’t know anyone in Houston and, at least politically, had no interest meeting anyone from Houston, or Texas for that matter. But the reality was that to us our free miles, the only seats we could find to Europe necessitated an overnight in Houston. So, to Houston it was.

Our first emergency occurred during our going from one plane to another in Seattle ( you must always go north to go south you know. Polley broke the thong part of her sandal, and was caught here trying to secure it with several band aids

Thank goodness for the old Johnson and Johnson shoe repair kit! Eventually, she abandoned shoes all together (all her other footwear was in checked luggage) which got us thrown out of some of the better airport establishments: “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service.” Once in the plane we were ready for our first trip to Houston. All went well We caught an airport shuttle to a Ramada Inn. It was one of about a dozen hotels that sit on busy JFK Boulevard, surrounded by absolutely nothing but other hotels. There was not a grocery store, a convenience store, a liquor store, anything. Even the hotels really didn’t have restaurants. There were these small areas that were set up for businessmen to get there Continental Breakfast in the morning and then they magically turned into small bars in the evening so the tired American professional could get his drink. Actually, we did find a restaurant at the Holiday Inn a couple of blocks down the boulevard. They had a place called “Good Eats,” which nearly lived up to its name. We had a wonderful cheese soup with bits of smoked chicken and roasted onion and poblano chile. It was very good. Also had a turkey/bacon Panini that could have served about 8. It was good, but I think we could choke down about a quarter of it before boxing it up and taking it back to the room where it sat in the refrigerator. Why we think we will eat the things we box up, I never know. I swear that nearly half of what I end up throwing out of our refrigerator is moldy containers of food we brought back from restaurants and forgot about. Anyway, our time in Houston was restful, but we did find that checkout time was 11 am, with a $40 fee for staying beyond checkout time. So, we found ourselves at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport at about 11:30 for a 4 pm flight. There we were at the practically empty Mickey Leland International Terminal. So a photo op with Mickey seemed appropriate

Our Air France check-in desk wasn’t even open. So we found a small bar and waited over glasses of wine for it to open at 12:30. Because of the nature of our itinerary, I was a little nervous about getting bags checked all the way through to Heraklion, in Crete. But a wonderful little Mexican girl made it work and with no luggage fees. So, the “Day from Hell” began. However, as I said, think the worst and it will most likely not be as bad. And it wasn’t. So starting at 4:10 pm on 9 August, we had a 9 hour flight from Houston to Paris. The plane was not very crowded and Polley and I had all 3 seats to ourselves. Air France does a lovely job of keeping you primed with complimentary beverages. We started with champagne, with a couple of glasses of wine with dinner and a little cognac for a digestif. Polley and I mostly read out Kindles and never even ventured into watching a film. We slept a bit, but mostly read and walked about a bit. We landed in Paris at 8:30 am (now 10 August) . with a leisurely 4 hour layover. The terminal at Charles De Gualle was a madhouse when we first arrived, but by the time we were to catch our flight to Athens all was very quiet. AT 12:35 we left for Athens. It was about a 3 hour flight and we were, in fact, a bit early in arriving. However, it was another lengthy layover (3 hours)

and the only bump in the long road of a day was in the final leg when our flight to Crete was about a half an hour late. That put us into Heraklion about 9 pm. In waiting for our luggage there was a moment of panic as I luggage failed to appear. I had been nervous as we had 3 luggage transfers on the day. But after failing to find our bags, I went to Olympic Airlines lost luggage and there they were! Apparently they had started to unload bags (ours) on one carousel and then switched to another. All was well, but now I was stressing about the rental car because I knew the small agency closed at 9:30. The girl, however, had hung on and with minimal fuss and bother(I do recommend Best Car Rental in Crete; run by two women who are very personable and prompt) we were on our way down the Crete National Highway, headed for Angela and Stuart in the little village of Sissi. It was nearly 10:30 when we arrived. You might remember that we stayed with the Sturgis’ last year for two weeks in June. They are great and we were thrilled to be back. They, of course, had waited up and we, in fact, chatted with them to well after midnight. It was one when we finally came crashing down. But what a lovely beginning. The night was warm and we just wanted to sit in the dark and take in the lovely breeze and the quiet country sounds of Crete. It is great to be back and I will keep you up to date on our 17 days here. More to come