I was up early to make the most of our last few hours
and as I went through to the Lounge I checked my phone and noticed a message on my phone telling me that our flight from Detroit to Amsterdam had been delayed. For a moment the impact of this didn’t register.
As I opened the Laptop I suddenly thought the delay would mean we would miss our last connection and indeed when I checked my emails I found one confirming that was the case and that Delta had offered to rebook us on other flights without charge. I looked at the options they had offered us and some of them involved flights leaving in the next hour! There was also many that involved us staying for at least another 24 hours. Normally we would have taken that opportunity but Karen was ready to go home and had some work booked for Friday.
Another consideration was that Barry’s flight was not until 4 hours after our original schedule and but had elected to come to the airport with us and just find someone comfy to wait.
The only viable option for us was to fly 45 minutes earlier via Atlanta & Amsterdam to Norwich. This is actually a preferable route for us as it is more direct. I woke Karen to get her confirmation to the changes before I rebooked. It meant that Barry would have even longer at the airport for which I felt really bad.
We informed Barry and we all set about packing and clearing the house before having our final 45 minutes by the pool. We then all got ourselves ready and loaded the car. It was a heavy heart that we left the Villa for the last time although we were all looking forward to seeing everyone back home.
Dropping the car off was very straightforward. We then went to Delta to get our new boarding passes and drop off the bags. At this point we had to say goodbye to Barry. I felt really bad that he had some 6 hours to kill before his flight. My only consolation was that we had all had a really terrific time and made some fabulous memories.
Once through Security we just had enough time for Karen to get herself a last US Starbucks before we boarded the short flight to Atlanta.
Once landed we caught the train to correct terminal. As this leg was with KLM, Delta had not been able to print the boarding pass so literally by the time this was sorted we boarded immediately. I didn’t have even have time for pre flight toilet stop.
We knew that this flight would give us a 3 hour wait in Amsterdam so we had chosen seats at the back of the plane as we were in no hurry to get off the other end and we preferred the seat configuration at the back. We sat in the middle 3 section and were very pleased when the plane doors shut and we had no one next to us meaning we could spread out.
I watched 15:17 to Paris film which I enjoyed before trying to get some sleep for the rest of the journey. The food on board was awful as usual with KLM. We arrived into Amsterdam ahead of schedule and wandered over to MacDonalds to get some greasy breakfast that we both devoured with pleasure. Then we headed to Starbucks for some hot drinks. The time passed quickly and we then went to the gate for our last leg of the trip back to Norwich.
Again we had booked seats at the back of the plane as in Norwich they exit the plane at the front and back. It was however the first time I have flown into Norwich where the flight was not full. It wasn’t until we were over the Norfolk that the cloud cleared and I could see as we hit land over Happisburgh.
We were much relieved to collect our luggage as we were not sure it would have made the connection in Atlanta.
In the past we have either been picked up from the airport or I have walked to get the car and then picked Karen up. Today though we splashed the cash and got a taxi back.
And that was it. The holiday over, as were our trips for 2018. Florida – we will be back – soon. None of us can get enough of the place or weather. This also marks the end of my daily holiday blogs. I will do one more to reflect and round up the year.
