Europe 2019

"We Did Not Come Here To Save Money"

EUROPE 2019

Well, it is fall again and time to hit the road! We are off to Europe starting in Lisbon to do a scooter ride and ending in Paris fifty-one days later. This trip is really testing the phrase that I have trademarked “We did not come here to Save Money” ®. My partner in the adventure, Bill Leuthold, says we will be billionaires from our t-shirt sales and don't worry about the cost. I have my doubts.

We will start with a few days in Lisbon and then off on a scooter adventure around Portugal with the Vespa de Mediterrano Scooter Club for a couple of weeks. Vicki will be off drinking Port with our friends, the recently retired Rich Luker and his artistic wife Vicki Bennett. I will meet Vicki in Porto, Portugal at the end of the scooter adventure.

From there “we think” we are going up into the Basque country of Spain and return to the small town of Leketio for about week until we move on to France for one of our favorite things, a small barge down a canal drinking wine for 6 days.

From there “we think” will fly to somewhere we have been trying to go for years but I have just not made it. We have been very, very close. Sicily. We'll see.

From there “we know” we will be going to Paris to spend five days with our good friends Scott and Allen in the City of Lights.

So, get a glass of wine and come along.

Getting There

It is Thursday. We leave next Wednesday. See the problem? The hurricane, at the moment and with this forecast has it over our house on Wednesday!

But, as always there are varying view. This one has it out in the bay by Tuesday!

So, what to do? Leave early, re-schedule for later and leave everything with Jane, or just go with the flow. Right now we are voting just to let it play out and as Mr. Bill used say "it will be what it will be". With the construction from last year that strapped the roof down and all new hurricane windows I do not have much stress over that. Just put the yard stuff in the garage and that is all we can do.

It's Tuesday. And we are out of the danger zone. So, I am assuming we will launch tomorrow night from Tampa non-stop to Amsterdam. I really like that we have none stop flights to Europe out of Tampa now. I know that if I get across the Atlantic I can get anywhere if the flights are cancelled. Just grab a train or a car head down the road.

Our friends, Walt and Helen, left earlier than planned on Saturday. We were still uncertain of where Dorian was really headed and since there son is now an airline employee they are flying for free. Sort of. To get out early they had to buy a ticket on the "Honest Airline", Southwest, to Baltimore, because finding a "free" seat was impossible since everyone was fleeing Florida.  Then they caught the train to Philly. The flight Lisbon was full so the spent the night in Philly and spent the day touring downtown and headed to airport Sunday night. They were on the flight with no problem and headed for Portugal. That was so easy I thought for a second of going back to flying for free, but that feeling passed quickly. I have done that way to much over my life time.

So, tomorrow we head out of Tampa at 8 PM on Delta.

                  

Wednesday Sept 5

Jane picked us up right on time at 5:30 for the trip to the airport. Traffic was not bad for that time of day. We started to check our bags at the curb, but a line formed and we went inside only to turn around a come back to the curb check-in, as that looked a lot quicker and in fact we were number one when we got there.

Bags ditched, we headed to the Delta Sky Lounge as I had scored some business class seats for this adventure thus allowing us rift raft in with the washed.  Vicki had a few drinks, but I stuck with water. There was a group of adults, about eight, traveling together that, like many Americans, were very loud. I searched and found a quieter place to wait. 

The flight was scheduled for 7:58 departure so we walked down just after 7, but there was no plane at the gate. Back to the lounge and we inquired about the flight. They knew it had landed on time and was at customs but nothing more. That set the tone for the rest of the evening. We started getting updates about delays on our phones. Fun thing though, they would say boarding was at 8:15 but we got the message 10 minutes after that time and that continued through the evening. 

We were finally boarded, and I nested into my nice little pod. They offered drinks but I again declined. I was going to have some Vodka once airborne. I but on my headset, as the loud people were all around us, and was excited to find the movie “Hurley” was one of the choices on the movie list. Hurley Haywood is a world-famous race car drive, real race cars, not those ones that just turn left. He won the 24 hours at Le Man 3 times and the 24 hours at Daytona 3 times and many more. And he is gay.  The movie is a documentary about his life racing and about being gay in one of the most macho sports in the world. We have met Hurley several times over the years and he is very quiet, handsome man and extremely nice person. I started the movie. 

And we waited and waited and waited. Seems there is a broken light that needs to be fixed. About 10 they told us to get our stuff and get off the airplane. They needed a part and it was coming from Atlanta at 12:15. The gambling part was the crew would time out at 1. I was not willing to gamble and was the first one off the airplane. The Delta supervisor, Stephanie, was very accommodating and booked us out on Thursday in the afternoon via JFK to Lisbon.  From there we went to claim our luggage, but it would be awhile. Stephanie said we could just pick it up tomorrow if we wished. We checked in with Jessie at baggage claim and waited a short time before she came out of her office and said it would be awhile and she would gladly hold them for us. All the Delta employees where extremely friendly and kind.

We Ubered home. As they would not open the bar on the ground to give me a vodka, only champagne, we made a couple of midnight martini’s and, since we had emptied the refrigerator, we had popcorn for dinner.

Remember when the lounge was on the airplane

Note the time up in the left corner

This is some of the notification

I will have to finish the movie today.

...and now I won't get to fly in the shoe!!!!!

Airfares always amaze me. When travelling I look for backup flights unless something like last night happens and then you have some idea of the alternatives. While doing this for JFK to Lisbon I came up with this little tid bit of information.
Flying in Premium Economy is $789 more expensive than riding in Business Class. Go figure!