Home bound

We slept in a bit yesterday because we were up til the wee hours of the morning on Friday (well, Saturday actually). We still can't fathom why the night club was so dead on a Friday, considering how many people are on the streets during the day. Come to think of it though, the average age is older than we are, so I guess it's too late for those old fogies ha ha. Now, the huge task of re-packing everything! We decided that we would put all of our clothes in the new suitcase and check it, and use our carry-on bags to put our purchases in; we don't want things to go missing. That would be heart breaking. My Mom's friend just came back from Italy, and the lady at the check-in counter wouldn't allow her carry-on baggage onboard, so she had to check it. Maybe it was too heavy. When she arrived home, her camera and Italian scarves were missing. How maddening, especially since she couldn't do anything about it after the fact. All her pictures were gone - so sad. That would make me steaming mad. We are taking precautions so that doesn't happen to us. Yesterday we had a relaxing day just leisurely walking around Sorrento, buying last-minute souvenirs. It is a rainy/sunny/rainy type of day, and I bought a really cute umbrella - one that doesn't fall apart as soon as I open it. I should have bought it days ago. They never get the weather forecast right here, but it has always been wrong in a good way for us. We caught the bus to the airport at 4:30, but we arrived at 3:50 because we wanted to get a seat on the bus. We have seen how crowded buses are here and we don't want to stand for an hour and a half to Naples. We got a seat about half way back, so we had a good view; not that it mattered anyway because I was blogging and Arrigo was sleeping. By the time we got on the plane to Frankfurt, we were awake for about 22 hours, with a few catnaps here and there. Now that we are actually on our way home, we are looking forward to getting home - me, so I can start a regular regime of exercise and losing weight from all the good Italian food. I guess that's what holidays are all about though. Arrigo is excited to see his kids and get back into his routine too - with one exception - we aren't looking forward to going to work. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time to make our flight - only 12 hours to go. That was the longest night of my life - in an airport with no services or comfortable bed. We had nothing but time on our hands so I went for a stroll around the airport, and came across a sign. Soooooo, I know why my Mom's friend had to check her luggage. Lufthansa's weight limit for carry-on luggage is only 8 kilograms and you aren't allowed anything else except your purse in the cabin. I suspect she had to do the same thing as us, but maybe she didn't have her suitcase locked. What a rip off. Eight kilograms is so light. What's going to happen if the luggage weighs 25 pounds like Air Canada's limit? Will the plane fall from the sky, or is it just that the bag handlers are wimps, or are they trying to save on fuel.p? Hmmmm. I better lose weight fast or we're going down. We were moving our luggage back and forth a few times to get the right weight, and we decided to use my luggage as carry on. We got it down to 8.2 kilos. Now we have to use the totally wimpy, pickable lock that came with my new suitcase and likely pay a fee because our large suitcase is now over weight. This is how Lufthansa makes its extra money. It's a great racket. I've heard stories about Air Canada nickel and diming a person, but Lufthansa is far worse. I hope a store opens so we can buy a good lock for Arrigo's suitcase. No need... there's a baggage wrap machine over there. We paid € 18.80 to have a man wrap two of our suitcases with a thick Saran-wrap so no one could break into Arrigjo's suitcase. We checked in at the Lufthansa desk and our big suitcase was two kilos too heavy. He was going to charge us € 100. Was I right in saying this is a racket. Off came the Saran Wrap and we transferred two kilos to my purse. It also turns out that my carry-on bag wasn't even weighed. If we knew that, we wouldn't have had to go through that entire exercise. Sheesh! When we finally got on the plane, we were jam packed in. Three hours later, we arrived in Frankfurt. Brrrr! I can see my breath. We had to be transferred to the terminal by bus. Not too often am I on a vehicle with a plane taxiing right beside us. It's a picture right out of some comedy. I guess Lufthansa's planes are too small to park in the big planes' parking spot. This airport is HUGE. Where do we go? How do we get there? We eventually made our way to the customs area, and there was a very long line up? They sure didn't give us much time to transfer to our next plane. Finally, we're through. I can't wait to get on the plane. I just looked out the window and we are flying over somewhere cold, because it looks like there are icebergs down there. Next stop - Calgary. It'll be nice to get back in Canada. Our flight to Edmonton has been changed because we were delayed in Frankfurt by 45 minutes. We are in the plane to Edmonton now - a prop plane. I can't hear my keyboard clicks because the plane is so noisy, but we'll be home in half an hour. We have now completed our journey, and we have had a fantastic three and a half weeks in Italy. We saw everything we wanted to see, did everything we wanted to do, and are ready to plan our next vacation - Cuba anyone, with a non-stop flight? Ciao for now.