We're Home!

We’re home.

Our last day was a fairly ordinary travel day. We lingered in our hotel room until we were required to check out (10:30) because then we would have to deal with our baggage and doing anything while lugging the bags around would be too much. All we could manage was to gather at the plaza one last time for the glockenspiel show at 11:00. While we were there, I noticed the dragon sculpture I had not noticed before (middle photo) on the side of the city hall. These little charming surprises were all over central Munich. Then we headed for the U-Bahn and the airport. The airport is a surprising distance from the city. There must have been ten miles of farm fields before we reached airport – a very modern, clean, sprawling, and efficient facility (bottom photo).

Our IcelandAir flight left on time and our transfer of planes in Iceland went as planned. It is very odd to be so familiar with the little Keflavik airport. This was our sixth transfer there in three years. We know where the cool wooden Viking ship model is, where the bathrooms are, and where to get the best view of the unusual and bleak scenery surrounding it. We only fly IcelandAir because it happens to serve our local airport and because they tend to cost about 10% less than the major carriers if you buy early. But they also are a very efficiently run little airline and we have never had a single delay or glitch in any of our flights. We even recognize some of the flight attendants!

Coming home from a long trip is such an odd feeling those first few hours. There is a certain joy and relief at being around everything familiar. But you are also severely jet-lagged. We came home at about 6:30 local time, but in our heads it was 1:30 in the morning. Of course we didn’t sleep at all – partly because it is never dark on the plane ride back and partly because of the excitement to be home.

Then we had to deal with the immediate need of getting something to eat. We had nothing but munchies for the last 14 hours and we had almost nothing in the house. Meanwhile, everyone was doing their bit of unpacking, starting the laundry and trying to reunite with our neurotic cat, Simba, while also trying not to freak him out. Just when he was starting to accept his new life with the quiet house-sitter, suddenly the loud family of five returns! While we did all of this we also tried to avoid being noticed by our neighbors. As much as we like them and love talking about travel, the last thing we wanted to get into under the circumstances, was any “So how was your trip?!?” conversations. What do you say, beyond “fine” or “great” when you are exhausted and just want to get your life back to normal as quickly as possible?

Tomorrow will be the day to collect the mail from the post office and start making phone calls to people and letting ourselves be seen outside. Tomorrow I will also do a blog entry talking about how the costs of the trip worked out…