On the road again

Anne’s plane back to  Rome (via Athens) left at 6 am, and ours left at 6:40, so we were up early with final preparations. She was bussed off to the airport before us, but we did manage to see her and wave across the terminal before she hopped on her plane. I watched from the outside terrance as the sun rose and her plane took off.

Then our turn. Santorini to Athens--about 45 min. door to door. Quite uneventful; we had to claim our bags, get another set of tickets (this time we could check all the way through Philly to Minneapolis), and we had one last coffee as a group before going our own way.

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On the plane, Jane and I were lucky enough to have no one next to us, so we each had a bit more room to maneuver during our 10 hour flight to Philly. Though I slept a bit (this cold is giving me fits) I watched three movies: Lady in the Van, Eddie the Eagle, and Whisky, Tango, Foxtrot (Tina Fey). Finally during the last hour of the flight I learned from watching gal to my right with stiletto nails, how to manipulate the screen in front of me--not like an iPad where the pad of the finger changes the screen, but rather a simple tap of the nail. Poor guy in front of me was probably a bit tired of my pressing hard on the screen attached to the back of his seat.

Once we landed, we put our Global Entry classification to use and zipped through customs.  Then we had to grab our bags, take them to "re-check," go through security again (though we had TSA Pre-check), and we made our way to the gate to Minneapolis.

But then...nearly an hour taxing the runways of the Philly airport.  Goodness, but we taxied, stopped, taxied, stopped.  Finally, an hour late, we soared toward Minneapolis.

Son Paul fetched us from the airport and we literally fell into his Mazda for a 75 minute ride home. So good to be home.