May 28 – Sunday – leaving Amsterdam, without David & Natasha, and Marie & Kate
Last time on this coach. Up and on the road by 07:25. We are going through 4 countries today. Holland, Belgium, France & England.
We had our pee stop in Belgium, so we could say we stepped on Belgian soil, and buy souviners. Then onwards. We made good time because it was Sunday. Brian was worried that we would be behind a Polish bus, because they usually can’t speak English and the border people for England can’t speak Polish.
We were behind a Polish bus. After we got on the ferry, we sat with Dennis and Carol and snacked. I got some chips. It was a bit of a rough trip near the end, so I was getting a little queasy.
We found our bus and piled on for our last trip together.
They dropped most of us at the Marble Arch. We all hugged and kissed one another. We have lots of places to visit in Austraila and New Zealand.
Then up to the room to wait for the bags. After a while we got a phone call what did our bags look like. Vicki told him, and in a while they brought up her bag, but not mine. Then called down to see if my bag was there, then asked me to go down and check. I went down found my bag while 4 guys looked on, grabbed it and took it to the room myself.
We got ready and went down to meet everyone in the lobby. We all wanted to go out to a pub. The closest one was around the corner. They looked like deer in the headlights when we walked in. But after a bit they said they would take us, but they only had 1 chef on duty. We said no problem, we don’t care if it will take a while for supper, we can sit here and drink beer. Good beer and good fish and chips. We ate and drank and
talked for a while. Then wandered back to the hotel, saying our goodyes all over again.
We went Dennis & Carol’s room and chatted for a while. We gave then our extention cord. Then we asked at the receptions desk if they could print our boarding passes for us, they sent us to the concierge desk becasue they had a printer. She knew nothing. Back to reception, then they sent us up to the business center. We sat around for about 3/4 of an hour, then used the PC and printed the boarding passes.
We reorganized out bags again.
May 29 – Monday – All good things must come to an end
Cannes (we’ve seen that) Film Festval is over
Monaco Grand Prix (we’ve driven the course) has been run
Real Madrid finished second in Spain’s domestic soccer league, after losing to Seville (Seville’s team was in our hotel)
Italy elected a new president (we were there for that)
The Interier Ministers for each country in the Eueopean Union met in Nice, we were there first
Up about 05:30 and got ready. We have given away or garbaged a lot of stuff, so we have room in our suitcases, so we only have carry on luggage for the airplane. We went down to check out and grab a quick breakfast. Dennis & Carol were already in the dining room. We checked in at the door and they told us we had a full english breakfast. Vicki came back from checking out and had 2 breakfast boxes for us.
So I had a hot breakfast, and a bag to eat at the airport.
We caught the HotelLink bus at about 7:15, and the driver thought he was in a race. It only took us 30 minutes to get to the airport.
We dropped off our VAT forms, and got some pounds changed back into Canadian dollars. Then up through security – Vicki’s boarding pass worked mine did not, so I had to go back down to the Air Canada desk. I went to the executive checkin and she told me that they had been having a problem with the printed boarding passes for about 2 days. I got new boarding passes and then back up to security. I pushed through to the head
of the line and went back to the lady who had explained to me what to do, and she let me straight through.
Then we sat and waited, ate part of our box breakfasts (crap) – I’m glad I had some bacon and potatoes at the hotel.
On the plane first, we were in row 31. And away we go.
What a long flight, we flew up and over Ireland, and then down over Gander to get to Toronto. It took about 40 minutes longer to fly home, than it took to fly to England.
Then walk from almost one end of the terminal to the other to go through customs. Then walk all the way back to get to the gate for our flight to Edmonton. I’m getting a carry one with wheels for my next trip. I found a Starbucks. We got a frappicino – nice.
Then on the flight to Edmonton. We left about 10 minutes late, as they took on more fuel, because they might have to fly around Winnepeg because of thunder storms – saw the movie King Kong – that wasted almost the whole trip.
Home at last …….. until the next trip!