We’re back in the home port of Barcelona. After a very quick bite of breakfast at Topsider’s we debark. It’s raining. I tell Maddie the Magic is crying because we’re leaving. We arrive at the airport at 8am for our 10:30 flight and wander around until we find the right line for Air France. The line is massive and the airline doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to check people in. We’re waiting patiently, but other families fresh from the cruise keep trying to jump lines. At one point a nice young man from Air France singles us out and helps to check us in. What a break. There is a slight hiccup with our tickets thanks to a foul-up by our travel agency, AAA. I haven’t been real happy with the service we received from them on this trip and will probably use Dreams Unlimited for any future trips.
So, we’re stuck in the back of the plane again, but no problems going from Barcelona to Paris and on to Houston. Jet lag home isn’t as bad as going since we’re going backwards in time zones. Air France feeds us well, and even provides wine throughout the flight (we didn’t take advantage of this perk, but many passengers did). An elderly lady sitting next to us is chowing down on the endless parade of sandwiches, snacks and complimentary Haagen Daas. Boy, are we going to need to go on a diet when we get home! Maddie is zonked.
Our only challenges occur when we arrive late for our connection in Houston. Clearing customs in the U.S. appears to be much more difficult here than anywhere else. Probably for good reason. An unforeseen problem arises because of our Day on the Farm. That requires us to visit U.S. agriculture representatives. But apparently we didn’t carry any contaminated sheep poo onto U.S. soil. Still, it’s an additional time consideration to keep in mind if you are planning your own trip to the Med. It’s now 8:50pm and the last flight home is to depart in five minutes. The baggage handlers take our bags and send us dashing to the gate. Thankfully, the flight has been delayed by about an hour and we make it safe and sound. We arrive home around midnight and discover our bags didn’t make the flight. They end up being delivered to our home 36 hours later. Back home we have an opportunity to reflect on all that we have seen and done over the past 13 days. Yes, it was exhausting. And expensive. And required tons and tons of planning. But our trip to the Med with DCL was well worth it. Let’s do it again!
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