Sunday, December 9th
Tallahassee to San Francisco
We had breakfast and then took off with Iona and Richard Dobbins for the Tallahassee Airport. We didn’t want to rush so we left for the airport with more than enough time to spare. We left at 9:15AM for a 30 minute trip to the airport – arrived at the airport at 9:45AM for our 11:15AM flight to Charlotte….oh no…the flight ended up 3 hours late due to early morning fog in Charlotte. When we got to Charlotte, total chaos reined after all the day’s delays with flights backing up. Thousands of passengers trying to fly somewhere! We did eventually leave Charlotte for San Francisco after our aircraft had to have two tires changed before we left. Arrived back at home in Inverness California at 11:00PM …it apparently takes longer to fly from Tallahassee to San Francisco than from London! Glad to be home after such a great trip!
Saturday, December 8th
Wakulla Springs, Florida
Sally and I slept really well. We woke up early to face the day and ventured down to the restaurant for breakfast where we met other family members attending the reunion. Sally’s Aunt Iona and her husband Richard organized and subsidized the whole reunion (Very much appreciated – thank you) We then enjoyed an organized joint birthday luncheon for Sally and Henry. At 5PM we were ushered to the dock area and enjoyed a sunset cruise down the Wakulla River. This was an incredible wildlife viewing experience with alligators and exotic birds that inhabit the swamp lands of Florida. After the cruise we all got together and enjoyed a buffet dinner at the hotel.
Friday, December 7th
London to Tallahassee (for the Dobbins Family Reunion and joint birthday celebration for Sally and Uncle Henry Healey) After the lack of a wake up call - we scrambled to the airport with the heavy bags and sweaty bodies and checked-in with United for our flight to Washington DC where we were to change planes to Charlotte and then change again for Tallahassee…another long day but at least little walking and mostly sitting down! We departed London a little late and the headwinds were extremely strong so the flight was going to be late into Washington DC and therefore we would miss our connection to Charlotte…luck was with us and our connecting flight was running late also…so we eventually made it to Tallahassee after a long and tedious day. Rented a car and proceeded to the Wakulla Springs Hotel (about 30 minutes from the airport) Sally stayed up to talk to relatives but I was suffering from a stomach upset so went straight to bed….Ah relief, just to be horizontal was worth a million bucks!.
December 6th – Sally’s Birthday.
The day started out not very good to say the least! I have to think a deadly combination was at play today one of which involved exhaustion from lack of sleep and the many more miles put on our feet than we are normally used to…. Totally knackered (the more polite word) would better describe it. We were a little late leaving the apartment and it looked like it could start raining….that would be OK if we had decided to get a cab to Gare Du Nord in the first place but no we thought that we would take public transportation but agreed if a cab came along we would hop a ride … you must be joking, rain imminent and commute time for Parisian’s makes getting a cab a tough task…so we were relegated to lugging two heavy cases, a back pack and a hand help shopping bag from Rue Mazarine to Gare Du Nord..this is the point at which it started to get totally frustrating for both of us…first off the plan was to get the RER train from S.Michele to Gare Du Nord rather than the Metro (less stops on the RER)…so we hauled the cases down the steps into the RER station – now we had to get tickets as our Metro passes expired the day previous. The ticket machine was kaput so then we looked around for a manned ticket office to buy a ticket (This is France and it was way too early for a Frenchmen to surface especially to sell tickets) so, again we haul the cases up to street level (cab option was now attempted) plenty of cabs no empty ones…this was driving me nuts….I am a stickler for time when it comes to traveling…and I now realized that this had the potential to cause me to have a heart attack….so now if I could have thrown the cases in the Seine I would have right there and then but the cases were so heavy I couldn’t get them over the wall to jettison them if I tried…so we haul those bastards back down to the Metro side of the station and there is a ticket window with a live person (well warm and breathing) ready to sell us two tickets to paradise. So we exchanged documents and then attempted to get through the barriers onto the platform…a fairly easy enterprise if your not sweating profusely and brain dead - it was a comedy (the sans funny type) of errors trying to get two people and two cases with and back pack (wider than the machine) through the barriers – after a huge hassle we made it through but then of course we were on the wrong side of the station and had to go down a staircase and under the tracks then back up stairs to the correct platform (they don’t believe in too many escalators in Paris) not when you need them at least! So now were on the way to Gare Du Nord..on arrival it seems we had a combination of staircases and escalators to navigate (I was ready to slit my wrists at this point) it’s Sally’s birthday and I’m not exactly a great traveling partner at this point and Sally is frustrated, exhausted and not in a good moods (it’s catching)…we make it up to the exit barriers and I manage to get through (a little hassle with getting my suitcase through) but worse than that… in the confusion back at Saint Michele Sally didn’t retrieve her ticket from the barrier so arrived at Gare Du Nord sans billet as they say…now she is stuck with her case unable to get out. Eventually a couple of travelers help – one has Sally closely follow her through the barrier and another guy helps me arrest the doors from shutting behind her and trapping the bag again…we get out of that jam and finally proceed up to the Eurostar Check-In area. Now I want to make an observation here…why do the French insist on barriers that require you to place that tiny ticket into whenever you enter the metro and when you leave? This in comparison to Berlin where you buy a ticket – validate it on the platform and there are NO barriers on entry or exit….and if you are a tourist and have the Visit Berlin Card you just validate the pass on the platform on your first ride – put it in your wallet and forget it…you travel at leisure with no hassles and no barriers. The Germans have figured out that the cost of policing, staffing, installing ticket barriers, maintaining them and have revenue control staff at every station actually costs the taxpayer too much money and it would be just to catch the minority of the people traveling without a ticket. Now, the reason that the Germans behave themselves and actually buy tickets and travel on this honor system is quite simple…the penalties, if caught traveling without a ticket, are somewhat draconian … huge fines levied on the spot (oh so you don’t have enough cash with you step please step outside at the next station please) it’s then it’s unsure if your ever seen again! You could also enjoy and experience the tremendous embarrassment as plain clothed revenue inspectors make an example of you on the train in full view of all the other passengers then have you sequestered and left to languish in a prison in some remote corner of Germany. There is another solution of course (not openly talked about) and simply the quickest (less paperwork) of all the options, Death by firing squad! Can you tell I like the German system far better it would have made life and traveling simpler for us had they had adopted the same system in Paris. What are they thinking - do they really expect people to arrive at Gare Du Nord with no baggage!! Now that’s brilliant concept but, as they say, Viva la France….Sally at this point announces “that’s enough of the trains already” which is what I didn’t want to hear at this point! Now finally we get on the Eurostar Train bound for London…at this point slitting wrists looks like a viable option…a family with a four month old crying baby sit down opposite us…oh boy I though to myself this could go down in history as the Sodom and Gomorrah of all travel days (that’s what it felt like at least) it turns out that the baby was very well behaved and wasn’t a problem at all (lucky) and the couple were interesting to talk to…so far so good…over the next two hours things calmed down and I was beginning to relax with champagne and wines etc (legal drugs)…we arrive at St. Pancras bang on time disembark and now have to buy tickets and change onto the London Metro system….and yes it starts all over again…we are faced with barrier situation again and now because of a fire earlier in the day the Circle line is not available so we have to take the Bakerloo Line to Paddington (more escalators than stairs but still stairs!) then we go to Paddington and are faced with stairs and more hauling of heavy cases…at Paddington I leave my wallet at the ticket office and the guy runs down the platform and tells me I might like to travel with my wallet – I agreed! …eventually we get to Heathrow on the Heathrow Express Train…after I leave the train I realize I must have left my glasses on the train..I watch the bags while Sally jumps back into the train to look and sure enough there were my glasses all bent up (must have sat on them) Sally gives them to me – I try to “unbend” them…they then just break in half…Oh great, no spare pair and so I’m not only a frustrated bad tempered individual but now blind! What else can go wrong today for heavens sake…. On arrival at Heathrow we are faced with walking many miles under Heathrow to get to the bus zone area to catch our Hotel Hoppa to The Park Inn. More manipulation of heavy cases but eventually we get into our room truly exhausted. We agreed that we can’t carry such heavy cases and vowed to only use carry-on from now on. Once in the room we both took an immediate nap. Woke up after an hour or so and then got ready for Sally’s Birthday dinner at the Waterside Inn in Bray. Chris and Claire Apps arrived to pick us up at 6:15PM and we went out to Bray…had some welcome cocktails in the lobby area and then proceeded to the dining room for dinner. It certainly is a complicated menu but the wine list is out of this world with prices to match. We must have been at the table for 20 minutes or so when a waiter approaches the table and hands Sally an envelope….this immediately peaks my interest …Sally opens the envelope and I see is the word “fifty” on the card…I couldn’t work out who that might have been sending a card to Sally via a waiter at the restaurant…OK so who is it from I enquired…Sally said it was from Yvonne and Richard (Yvonne is a cousin and Richard her husband) I was duly impressed and remarked how nice and thoughtful that was and wondered how they were doing up there in the Midlands! The waiter said the people on a table in another area of the restaurant had given it to him to deliver to our table..I said that’s nuts..who could that be be?? I turned around and noticed Yvonne sitting with her husband at that table! I couldn’t believe my eyes…that they had driven 120 + miles (in the rain but driving a Porsche!) to have dinner just to say Happy Birthday to Sally in person…what a great family gift that was for me and the best birthday present for Sally. Sally just couldn’t believe anyone would go to these lengths! We tried to convince the restaurant to move them over our table but it was booked solid so we agreed that they would set up desert in the lobby area for us all. I can’t thank Richard and Yvonne enough for their efforts in making it a very special evening for Sally. (Pat n’Dud, if your reading this..you should be very proud of Yvonne and Richard)…after drinking a bit more and chatting it was getting really late….Richard and Yvonne had to drive back and Chris was flying to Egypt at 10AM the next day so the time pressure was on…We returned to the Park Inn Hotel at Heathrow quite late and quickly jumped into bed as we were faced, at that point, with about 4 hours sleep before having to get back to the Airport at 6:00AM to check-in for our flights to Florida… Well it happened again…because I was so tired and just jumped into bed, I didn’t set my alarm clock, but did verify with the hotel that they had our wake up call cued up…..they confirmed they did… Well they didn’t! Again we had to panic and get to the airport…we made it with a little time to spare. What a way to start the day, again! Moral of the story, if you can’t learn from the first mistake you deserve everything you get! NEVER rely on a hotel wake up call – period.
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