Departing on our Adventure

The excitement was certainly present as we arrived at Raleigh/Durham airport. But for me, there was a touch of sadness as well since I knew I would be leaving Susan for two weeks. We had never been away from each other more than a day prior to this trip.

Checking in was pretty much hassle free, except for the recently adopted charge on baggage that was overweight. A shift of items from Mark’s bag to mine solved the problem and saved us about $75. Once we were checked in with the bags, we went to exchange our dollars for euros. Because of the fees, we decided to only exchange $100 with the intent to get more euros once we arrived in Italy.

When we were able to go through security, which was surprisingly hassle-free, we went to our gate for our connecting flight to Philadelphia. The wait was only about 90 minutes, but seemed like a whole day to me. Finally, we boarded the plane for Philadelphia. The flight was late taking off due to weather conditions in Philadelphia, but fortunately we had a long layover before our connecting flight. Otherwise it was an uneventful flight, but sitting next to the window (one of my favorite things to do) was not at all interesting. Flying into Philadelphia meant flying over New Jersey; not much to see that isn’t industrial in nature.

After debarking, we proceeded to the international gate. What awaited us was a bit disturbing, and at the same time comforting. US Airways had a plane at the gate that had mechanical problems (several of the seats were broken) that significantly delayed our flight (about 90 minutes). The airline had another plane in the hanger that was brought in to replace the “defective” one had to be cleaned, serviced, and inspected prior to us boarding. OK, so the inconvenience outweighed the risk of a mechanical failure. I was over that!

In the terminal was a crowd of students from Italy that were part of a tour group that were returning home. These teenagers spoke no English and for that I was grateful as it gave me a preview of what I was about to experience.

Finally, we were allowed to board. The excitement and adrenaline was more that I needed. I was so wound-up that the entire flight was sleepless. And it was extremely uncomfortable sitting for the better part of nine hours. The on board dinner was pasta with tomato sauce, salad, bread, and a dessert of a chocolate brownie. Probably the best part of the flight was the “broken” card-reader for paying for drinks. So the two glasses of wine each of us had were entirely free!

The flight was rather boring, and the in-flight movie (a James Bond flick) was annoying. We did meet a college student that was from High Point University who was on his way to Rome to see his girlfriend for two weeks that was there doing foreign study. And the flight attendants were great to us. I did get up once to stretch my legs. The TED hose I wore were constricting my calves so bad that I had to move. I made a trip to the bathroom near the back of the plane to extend my stretch, grabbed a cup of coffee, and then proceeded back to my seat.

Having a window seat out over the ocean is useless at night. Red-eye flights are for sleeping; not the case for me. After leaving the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, it was total darkness for the better part of the trip.

The window seat was the best in the house for the sunrise. And soon after the sunrise we could see land, although we had no idea exactly where we were. We knew we would fly over the Alps, but we were not sure whether it would be over France or Spain. Turned out it was Spain. Seeing the mountains below with snow-capped peaks was a wonderful experience. Remember, these are some of the tallest peaks in the world and they were miniscule from the air.