BACK HOME

We're back home.  Wally is conked out in the dining-room (it's the coolest room in the house).  Back to an almost normal like do laundry, pay bills, and settle into a summer routine. 

Our flights went smoothly, but...   Charlie and I like to get to the airport for our flights nice and early.  You can relax in with a book or a coffee (preferably both) and wait for the flight to go - no muss no fuss.  Our travel arrangements were set up by an Australian tour company and our old buddy, Marsha, who's been helping for a long time.  Marsha's getting old (aren't we all) and had a few scrambles setting up this trip.  After a month or so, the whole thing had been "arranged",  Marsha called us with the details.  She left out the Tasmanian part.  Back to the drawing board.  Eventually, we got all the pieces together, but we really didn't see the details until a week or so before the trip got going.  Given the last minute feel to the set up, it really went nicely.  However, we spent our last night in Australia in Hobart, Tasmania.  This meant a flight from Hobart to Sydney with only two hours between that domestic flight and our big, international one back to the states. Had anything gone awry, we would have missed the flight home.  Since we had upgrades to business, that would have meant losing the upgrades and 14 hours or so (probably longer) getting home any which way we could.  The other issue that was concerning us was that we were landing at the domestic terminal and leaving from the international terminal which was too far to walk.  We had 3 choices, a tram, a cab, or a train (it really is a long distance).  We opted for the train, the fastest method of the three options. $5 Australian dollars each and a 2 minute ride.  We knew we were OK when the Quantas flight went well, even though getting to the train involves elevators, tickets, more elevators.  Also, leaving internationally takes a lot of fiddling around - check-in, customs, security.  We were also helped a lot by the Australian signage - it really is wonderful - signs everywhere.


The moral to my tale is that in future, we'll set up the trip details ourselves.  No more middle-(wo)men.