Trip Day 29 and 30 - going home

Tuesday September 5

Our "stuff" is packed. Ute's car started again. None of the several people who worked on it know what the actual problem was. We changed plans and actually packed our luggage in her car and had breakfast at her house Niece Maren and friend were taking us to Amsterdam and she lives on the same street as her mother. So we had a little more nice time with Ute before we had to part.

The drive takes about 2 1/2 hours and when we came to the intersection where it is I was perplex. We had stayed here before and on the other side of the intersection was the hotel we had walked to for dinner that time. The hotel is close to the airport but in a country setting.

The 4 of us sat in the shade under the umbrella so they could eat their picnic. A last chat until they left. Thanks for bringing us. So much better than the train which we had done before.

We could go into our room right away. It was only 2 pm. We played cards at the edge of the bed. At 5:30 we headed to that restaurant, the La Bouche Brasserie. 

One from Spain and one from Italy. (smile)

Soup of the day: spinach. It was very good.

We were actually not very hungry so we ordered from the menu "Sabich - Sharing" (grilled eggplant, tahini, egg, pomegranate seeds, celery, mango chutney and pita bread". It was very nice...

... even if it didn't look so nice stuffed into the pita pocket.

Germany had spoiled us. We had to have a piece of apple pie.

Well, we had to walk that piece of pie off so we went into the other direction which was a suburb with nice houses and lovely front yards to look at.

Wednesday September 6

The alarm rang at 5 am. We left the hotel with the shuttle at 6. Checking in at Shiphol was so easy and so was security. Time to have breakfast.

Walking to the gate. There is our plane.

I am not making a fashion statement. These are my flight socks and you can't easily put them on when you are already at your seat.

Punctual at it could be we are taking off. Picture taken at 9:26 am.

7 hours later - Newark, USA. 

We have quite a long lay-over but that is better than missing a plane like on the way to Oslo. It's a bit boring though. Newark is not the nicest airport.

When we take off I took several photos. Lucky that the sky is so clear. When I just looked at this photo in detail I pulled it really large and looked at sections. Yeah, you can see the statue of liberty! Isn't that cool?

Actually, besides having a really long lay-over we were also an hour and a half late arriving in Richmond. We got an Uber really fast and the driver was very nice. That was especially good since we had trouble getting into our community. The gate attendant had already left and our #number didn't seem to work. We found a quick sollution but it was not quick enough because the Uber company called me and the driver that they noticed that we got stuck in a place and had not arrived where we were supposed to be. We had to tell them that everything was alright. Actually, I am happy to know this and feel even better using this service.

Home, sweet home. We had a wonderful time. Our guided trip with OAT had been great as always. And the time in Germany was wonderful. Spending good time with the different family members and friends, especially my sister Ute ... I don't know what words to use for that. Thank the Lord!