Jun
28
We awoke early and after we had showered, dressed and gathered up our bags we headed to Animators Palate for breakfast. We got to see Sachin and Katerina one last time along with our friends from the nearby tables. We enjoyed the breakfast and all too soon it was time to get off of the ship. We left the ship and were happy to see that our car was there. It was the same gentleman who dropped us off so he recognized us immediately. The trip to the airport was longer than the trip in due to traffic, but it still only took 40 minutes.
After we arrived at the airport and checked in (which was quite easy), we searched for the customs window and then the Global Refund window to get our refund on the VAT. We had packed all of our purchases in the carryons – and of course the customs agent didn’t request to see anything. We then went to the Global Refund window and got most of our VAT refund. We had one that was mail in only – so we’ll mail it when we return to the US. We shopped a bit and went through passport control as we headed to our boarding area. It was quite different as we had to wait in line and then board a bus to get to our flight. I’m sure that there were a bunch of people mad at us as we got to go around the line and to the front thanks to our Envoy class seats. We boarded the plane for the long flight home without incident. I was disappointed in the USAirways 767 as it was well worn. The Envoy seats were definitely not up to what I had experienced on the A330s that fly to England. We had personal TVs, but it was not video on demand. I realize that they are upgrading the fleet, but I wish that we could have had better equipment. The food and the service was pretty good. The movies were ok – but Frances had to watch Miss Potter with one ear hearing English and the other French. Lauren and I managed to sleep a few hours, but Frances was awake the whole 9 hour flight. The trip through customs at Philadelphia was painless. We rode the bus from terminal A to terminal F for our connecting flight to Pittsburgh. We tried to go to the USAirways club, but it was packed. We waited the 1 and 1/2 hours for our flight at the gate. Of course our flight was delayed for 30 minutes, but that wasn’t too bad, or was it? Once we loaded and pulled away from the gate the pilot broke the good news that we were number 57 for takeoff. At one point we shut down both engines so that we wouldn’t have to return to the gate and refuel. The flight to Pittsburgh was quick and painless once we were airborne. We collected our bags (they all made it) and headed off to our car.
Once we had our car we headed off to Nemacolin Woodlands for my meeting. We arrived at Nemacolin around midnight after enduring a 45 minute delay in Pittsburgh due to construction. We had now been traveling for 24 hours by the time we checked in – and needless to say that we were exhausted.
More to come, including pictures!