The great ordeal began at 5:30 a.m. We had to carry our own luggage to the main floor for pickup to the coach.  I was grateful that by my standards I packed light.  I could have travelled even lighter had I left my tripod, which did not work, at home. My bad. After that I learned why leaving luggage at the door in the hallway, while risky, is such a good idea. Getting all our luggage to the main floor of the hotel while it was crammed with people leaving was a challenge. The first of many this long last day.

Novella, our CAA representative was very helpful as always. She works hard on her trips. Her passengers are the beneficiaries. She shepherded us through the check-in process which always seems bewildering no matter how often you do it. At least to me.

For once it is nice to be heading home. I am rarely eager to get home. This trip was an exception. Mainly because the trip was an ordeal for Christiane. Perhaps this is our last European trip. That would be sad, but it might be realistic. It has become very hard for her.  While I frolicked all over, she was often stuck on the ship. I felt guilt. She felt pain and disappointment.  Thank good ness she had the bartender to keep her company. They became good friends.

We are not sure what comes next. Really there is no way travelling can get easier than a river cruise. If this is too hard, we are done. We only unpacked once and packed up once.  Of course, there were the extra days at the beginning and end.

I have decided to not even think of travel for a few months. For me that was a resolution impossible to meet.

Other than her woes, I enjoyed the trip immensely. I guess I can still do it, though it is challenging. More challenging than it ever was before. It was more interesting than most trips or two reasons: the people we encountered on and off the ship. People are always the best part. Secondly, the cities were beautiful with fascinating histories (to me at least). Others don’t care about history as I do.  They are entitled to that view. The food was fantastic. I have never eaten as well on a huge ocean ship. The smaller numbers allow the chefs to shine. The fellow travellers were outstanding. They always are. The staff were always helpful, attentive, and cheerful. They worked hard to make our trip enjoyable.

Yet travel gets harder and harder each year, because our bodies lose capacity each year too. We won’t talk about the minds. Stress seems to be amplified every year, particularly on flights and in and around airports. They generate stress in creative new ways each year. As a result, even flying premium economy as we did, is more stressful than we would desire. But premium economy helped BIGLY. We can’t fight it.  We are what we are.

Much to our surprise, after we learned from our new Newfie friend Mack that Frankfurt was the worst airport in Europe, which was confirmed by our bad experiences in the airport pn the way in, this time things went relatively smoothly. But this time we were lucky. Not smart, lucky.

When we landed in Frankfurt and disembarked, it took quite a while for us to be reunited with Christiane’s walker. We stood and waited for a long time after being assured it would come soon. Novella, the CAA representative, stood faithfully by our side. We were not worried. Well not much. Eventually it did arrive and again we had our long walk to the right gate. By then we were a long way behind our confreres.

We told Novella to leave and catch the other passengers, as we would make it to the Gate on our own. We had plenty of time. It was another long walk and again for some mystical reason had to have our passports checked again, even though they had been checked in Budapest and we had not left the airport security zones. Why we had no idea. No other airport asked for that. We trudged to the gate which as usual was at the far end of the airport.

When we arrived at the right gate, we noticed none of our fellow travellers were there. How could that be? Could they have boarded the aircraft?  No, we were assured. Were we at the right gate? Yes, we were assured again. What could have happened to our friends? Another mystery.

It was only a mystery until our friends, now frazzled, all arrived about 15 minutes after us! What had happened? The same thing that happened on our first flight to Frankfurt.  Our friends arrived well before us, but were told they were at the wrong gate because it had been changed so they had to walk back, like we did coming in the first time. Again, like the first time they had to turn around and walk back because the gate was changed again, to the original gate, where Christiane and I were sitting.  We missed this adventure because we were so slow. We missed entirely the shovelling back and forth because we were so slow the first time. Sometimes it pays to be slow. This was one of them. So Frankfurt airport was only acceptable because we screwed up and did not follow instructions designed to make it difficult.

We did make it home, but we were weary.

Christiane has resolved to never fly again. I will believe that when I see it.