No Place Like Home

There’s a verse in the bible I love that goes something like this, “be careful what you say will happen tomorrow because you really have no idea what’s in store.” The paraphrase is mine but the idea is there.

We planned to arrive home from Europe on Monday evening. Instead, after sitting for 4 hours on the Charles de Gaulle airport tarmac in a long metal tube with about 150 other people, we realized we weren’t going anywhere. Mechanical difficulties prevented us from lifting off (thank you to all you prayed for our safety!) and we found ourselves in a cheap hotel for one more night in Paris. We weren’t actually in Paris, you understand, as airports are rarely in the heart of a city. An exception would be Eilat, Israel but that’s beside the point.

Anyway, the flight was rescheduled for early the next morning so we took advantage of the extra evening and headed into the city on the insanely crowded RER. The ride itself was an experience with extreme overcrowding, shoving, ‘attention’ shouters, and two lovely young men who sat across from us and who spoke wonderful English. Our conversation covered such topics as the US election, national pride, Vancouver Island, Ireland, Bath, Quebec, French bureaurocracy, and Canadian/US relations. All through our conversation, these guys were nervous about the rucous and we later learned that violence had broken out on the very route we took, delaying trains throughout the city. The ride back was much less eventful.

We lifted off at 7:30 am the next morning (an 8 hr, 35 min. flight), an hour later than scheduled which made for a quick lay-over in Toronto before boarding the next 5 hour flight to Vancouver. We waited only an hour for the 15 minute flight to Nanaimo, took a 10 minute taxi ride home and were in by 3:00 in the afternoon on Tuesday, exactly 19 hours after we left our Paris hotel.

Travel is not for the weak.

The sun was shining and deep fall is well in progress and we are very grateful to be home.

There’s no place like it!