Tuesday - Wednesday Sept. 8-9:
After booking the Grand European Viking river cruise over a year ago, it was finally time to venture forth. Our flight wasn’t until 4 in the afternoon which I find much less stressful than early morning flights. The plane was quite full and very large with first /business class upstairs and everyone else downstairs. Reluctantly, we joined the sardines on the lower level of the flying tin can. I was very happy to see that the seat beside me was not occupied which made room for all of the stuff I require to take my mind off of the fact that I am flying. However, after about an hour in, the flight attendants informed me and the older gentleman seated on the other side of the open seat that someone was moving there. After hearing this unpleasant news, the gentleman’s wife asked if this person had just got on the plane. Ha! I had a good laugh at that one especially since she was totally serious!
We flew over nine hours directly to Munich, Germany where we had a very long - 5 hour- layover. This was a good thing because there was a long line to go through step 1 of passport pre-screening and then ultimately a long line for step 2 of passport screening by an agent. However, customs after we landed in Torino, Italy involved walking down a hallway and the customs officials decide whether to question you or not. I guess we looked acceptable because we weren’t stopped. Barb and Antonio were there to greet us and drive us to their home in Strambino.
We were happy that Antonio decided to make us his delicious mushroom risotto for dinner and we had a nice time visiting with our nephew, Francesco, wife Daniela and their almost two year old daughter, Lara. I must have emitted some kind of librarian vibe because she decided that I needed to read her several books. Most of them in English thank goodness!
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