Homeward Bound

Monday 7/26

Got up early to have breafast with the rest of the group and make sure my bike would make the flight back to the US with my friends. One last breakfast of croissants, proscuitto and cheese, runny eggs and almost raw bacon. The hotel itself was nice with no complaints there. After seeing my sleepy compatriots off I went back to the room and took a leisurely time getting showered and my stuff packed for the flight home. The final bus to the airport left at 11am. I thought about maybe taking a cab or the train and discussed it with the girl at the desk. It would be a long train ride and after my experience the night before didn't sound so appealing and the cab ride was like 60 euros ($80 or so). I saw Stan and Patty in the lobby and we all decided to go ahead and go to the airport early and hang out there until our 3pm flight. Fortunately that was the right call. First, the bus driver dropped us off at the wrong terminal so we had to take the tram to the correct terminal. Then the line to the ticket counters and check-in was pretty long. The good thing for me, I only had my one rolling duffel since my bike was with the earlier group and flight. I would help Patty with her bike and we finally made it through to the counter and got our boarding passes. We had a few hours to kill so we decided to get something to eat for lunch and look for some last minute souvenirs. We met up with a few others who were on our flight. Everyone was upset that Delta was charging them 200 euros ($240 approx.) up front for their bikes. At this point everyone kind of resigned themselves to fighting it out with Delta once they returned home. We had a decent lunch and did some shopping. I bought a map, a Tour du France program, some t-shirts and a few other things then headed to the gate and the flight home. The flight itself was uneventful and arrived pretty much on time. The customs check-in at Atlanta Airport is messed up but I finally made it through and my son Matt and I made our connection and I headed back to the house. It would be 10pm or so before I got home. A fantastic trip in all. A trip of a lifetime.

Here endeth the blog.