While we were waiting for the taxi, Chase jogged by. It was a nice, final nod to our tour companions! At that time of day, there were very FEW tourists out, so he could actually jog without running into someone every 6 inches!
The water taxi arrived, and took us to the airport. A brief word about water taxis...they are EXPENSIVE!!!! The 20 minute ride to the Venice airport cost 120 euros (roughly $200.00!). We balked a little bit at paying it (and left Venice with EXACTLY 1/20th of a euro to our name), but the ride from the hotel to the airport was one of our FAVORITE parts of our trip! It was early. The sun was just coming up. It wasn't crowded. It wasn't hot. We got a private tour of some of the canals and the lagoon...TOTALLY amazing!
We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare (we were worried about getting there in time, which is why we opted for the private water taxi, instead of the "public water taxi"), and boarded our flight for Rome on Alitalia.
The flight was smooth, and we arrived in Rome around 7:30 a.m. Our flight to the states wasn't until 11:30, but we couldn't print my boarding pass from the computer at the hotel for some reason, and needed to be there early for an international flight anyway, so were glad we had the time.
There was no one at our departing gate when we arrived, so I sat on the floor in front of it until someone DID arrive, and was finally able to get my boarding pass printed. Bonus...we got business class from Rome to JFK!
The flight to the states was tediously long, but I DID get to watch four movies ("Life of Pi", "Jack Reacher", "Jack the Giant Slayer", and...something else (and which TOTALLY escapes memory right now...must have been good...!))!!
We arrived at JFK a few hours before our flight to Minneapolis, and New York proved to be a TEDIOUS leg of the journey! If possible, I will NEVER fly through JFK again...
We boarded our flight on time, but the catering cart for 1st class (of which we were not a part) was stuck in another part of the airport. The 1st class passengers voted to leave without the food and beverages, and we began our HOUR LONG journey down the jetway to the runway. Forty five minutes into the jetway ride, the pilot informed us that the cargo door light was on, and that we needed to pull off the jetway to check it out. Thirty minutes later the pilot came back on to report that the door was fine, but that the indicator light was still on, so we'd have to go back to the gate to have it checked out.
Thirty minutes later, we were on our way back to the gate. After another thirty minutes of waiting, the pilot came back on to say that the door was fine (except for a dime and a quarter that had somehow become lodged in the door frame), but that something else was now wrong with the plane.
We got off the plane to switch to ANOTHER plane...or tried to. No one in the terminal knew what was going on, so they wouldn't let us back out of the terminal. THAT finally got straightened out, we boarded a DIFFERENT plane, and were told that it would now be a TWO HOUR taxi to the runway.
We EVENTUALLY got to the runway, took off, and arrived in Minneapolis at 2:00 a.m., Wednesday morning (we were originally scheduled to arrive at 8:20 p.m. Tuesday night!)...TWENTY SIX HOURS from door of hotel to door of "home"!
Duane had to work the next day, but LUCKILY took the morning as "work at home" time, and was able to pull himself together to go in at noon. I was REALLY glad I didn't have to work that day. I spent most of it wandering around in a fog!
Wow...what an AMAZING trip! UNBELIEVABLE cities and sites! FABULOUS tour companions! A STUPENDOUS travel company through which everything was booked. TRULY the trip of a lifetime!
Here's hoping YOU were able to enjoy the sights, smells, and sounds of an INCREDIBLE place recently too!!!!
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