Vacation #39: 6/1-2/10: We head home

It's Tuesday, June 1st and we will be heading home today, flying out of the Stuttgard Airport at 7:30 PM this evening. We spent the day packing and mentally getting ready for the 30 or so hours of travel that was coming up. Dieter had planned on getting home early so we would not have to rush to get to the airport - RIGHT - he was tied up at work for a little while, so when he got home, we had no time to waste. Off we went. Fortunately, there is no speed limit on the autobahn, and the airport was only about 40 kilometers away. As we were zooming down the autobahn, at one time I happened to notice the speedometer said 168 km/hr (105 MPH), and cars were still passing us. Obviously, we made it to the airport in plenty of time, and since the terminal was fairly empty, we got our four suitcases checked-in (free - no luggage fees) without any issues. We said our very sad good bys to Hanna, Sabine, and Dieter. It was really difficult to say good by, as they had become such good friends to us and gave us a vacation we will always remember.

We flew from Stuttgart to Shiphol Airport in Amsterdam, which took a little less than two hours. Our direct Delta/KLM flight from Amsterdam to Portland was not scheduled to take off until 10:30 the next morning, which meant that we had a 13 hour lay-over. Back on May 12th, when we were at Schiphol on the way over, knowing we would have such a long lay-over when we returned, we made reservations at a hotel in the airport for the night of June 1st. So, no trying to sleep in uncomfortable airport terminal seats for us. In the morning, we awoke after a good night's sleep, had a chance to take nice long hot showers, had breakfast, then went to the gate. We cleared Dutch customs at the gate in less than 3 minutes and about an hour later boarded the plane for our flight to Portland.

The flight to PDX was without incident, but LONG. We took off from Amsterdam at 10:30 AM on June 2nd and landed at Portland at 12 noon on June 2nd - 10 1/2 hours in the air, but with the 9 hour time difference between Central European time and Pacific Daylight time, the clock had only moved ahead one and a half hours for us. We both had aisle seats across the aisle from each other, so we could talk to each other and we could easily get up when ever we wanted without having to climb over anyone.

Now for the worst part of the whole trip - US Customs. After landing at PDX, it took us about an hour and fifteen minutes to get through Passport Control since all of the 250+ passengers on the plane each had to go through the controls. Our luggage was waiting for us when we finally cleared Customs and we walked out into the terminalat 1:20 PM, we saw the smiling and happy faces of Amber, Isaac and Abigail waiting for us. A short 40 minute car ride to their house in Hillsboro to get our car and another 40 minute car ride from Hillsboro to Scappoose, and WE WERE HOME.

Dieter, Sabine, Hanna, and David - THANK YOU FOR THE BEST VACATION EVER !!!!!!