Final Observances

02 Sep 24

18:00 hrs

     My Better Half and I are now in Cowtown with a couple of hours to decompress before the final leg of our journey home to the Wayward Inn. And eventhough I doubt if they're ever going to read this, I would like to thank all of the people, from our travel agent to the trip coordinator to our coach driver and all the site guides, who made this trip happen, your work was much appreciated. 

     Our journey home started at 05:00L in Munchen. A shower, a quick coffee, a last chance check and then off to the Flugplatz where our departure was delayed partially due to a large thunderstorm and from the lack of an aircraft at our departure gate. 

     We boarded forty mikes late which meant we had forty mikes less time to get to an unknown departure gate at the massive Charles De Gaulle  airport (32 sq km and 67.1 million pax annually). It took an hour for us to declare, identify our gate, double check our gate and note a gate change, go through customs, have our passport and boarding pass inspected thrice more, wait for a shuttle bus and then get shuttled across the complex only to have our ID checked twice more before boarding the WS flight. It was packed. In fact it was overbooked and before we could depart the luggage belonging to the individuals not on board had to be located and removed. For obvious security reasons unaccompanied luggage is not allowed. That delayed our departure to Cowtown by at least twenty mikes. No big deal as we have plenty of time at this end.

     With all of this travelling something has come to mind and that is the small almost imperceptible differences a person might observe between different countries. I'm not talking about the obvious things like driving on the left or right side of the road. That's too easy. How about having no ventilation fans in a bathroom? Throughout our trip I saw not one in any hotel room, restaurant or home WC. My Better Half, who had been overseas numerous times before, warned me that there would be no air conditioning and for the most part there wasn't except for some hotels. Most notably, private residences in Germany didn't even have ceiling fans nor screens on windows which, if combined, would have provided cooling air circulation free of intrusive insects.  

     One would think that urinals, regardless of size or type would be set at roughly the same height from the ground up ax to accommodate men of average stature with one or two set lower to the ground for individuals, children and others, who are shorter in stature. Nope. I found heights of the rim to be six or more inches above or below a suspected average requiring a person of average stature to attempt to urinate on tip toes or use a stall. 

      During our travels in Europe we noted, that despite moving through heavy traffic at high speeds on narrow roadways, there was a distinct lack of honking horns and aggressive driving. Something totally unheard (sic) of in the majority of North American cities. Everyone seemed to give way to keep the flow of traffic moving. Despite the extreme speed it didn't seem as if anyone was racing to be ahead of everyone else, which I think is a driving rule for all members of the Lonestar Province whenever they encounter another vehicle ahead of their own.

     Are we thinking about another trip? We are but the destination depends on our health and the overall costs. Our work load is going to start to scale back so our option may change. 

     Stay tuned.