Here we are in Frankfurt; nearly none the worse for wear.

Back home, it’s just coming on 0100 on Thursday morning – but here in Germany, the airport’s morning rush hour is just beginning.

The flight over was very good – I travel a lot for my work and this was the first time in a long time that there was actually a meal served. Not that the food was any better than I remember airline meals – just that there was actually food; and not one, but TWO meals (dinner and breakfast). The aircraft that we were on had the in-seat video system – and nearly everyone had the chance to watch 2 or 3 different movies. I’m thinking that later today, some of the kids will regret not having taken the opportunity to catch up on a bit of sleep.

Mrs. Williams watched “August Rush” and says that it was “the best movie about music – ever”. In fact, she liked it so much that she watched it twice … at the expense of not getting any sleep at all on the flight.

Stephanie learned a valuable lesson at the Detroit airport – don’t ever wear pants with a built-in studded leather belt. It’s guaranteed to get you a visit to the Transportations Security Agency’s glass booth and blown all over by jet blasts of air.

Kassandra wants me to tell her sisters that she says “Hi” and that she loves Germany soooo much that she’s decided to buy herself a pair of Leiderhosen and work this fall at Oktoberfest in Munich.

Holly – flush from yesterday’s passage into adulthood – took advantage of the free bar service on the flight over. We hope to see her out of jail when we come back through Frankfurt. (Just kidding Mom).

Mr. and Mrs. Cole want to make sure that their grandchildren know that they’re having fun … he said that he wanted to say “Hi” to Ayanna, Japhet, Victoria and Samantha.

We made it through the Frankfurt airport without incident. The weather in Rome is not good, and (apparently) one of the runways is closed. As a result, there were Air Traffic Flow Management delays – and our flight was assigned a “slot” departure time that was an hour behind the scheduled departure time. So, even though we arrived a bit behind schedule, we still wound up with a couple of hours to kill at the Frankfurt airport (oh joy).

From Frankfurt to Rome is an hour and a half flight – but once again, there were some airborne traffic delays and we had to go around twice in the hold before we were put into the landing sequence. All in all, we arrived in Roma about an hour and a half behind schedule.

Rome – Fuamicino Airport – what a place. After getting off the aircraft, we went through one section of the terminal that had several (armed) police officers and a dog that came up to give everyone a sniff. Off to the baggage claim area. There were 11 baggage carousels – and all were running at full tilt serving multiple arrivals. We all managed to get ALL our luggage and made our way through “customs”; just a line of people moving towards the door from which they would snag one or two people and go through their stuff. Outside – in the public arrival area – was a mass of people meeting and waiting for others; there was a constant stream of people coming through from customs and our biggest challenge was finding a place where we could all get together to do a head count (to make sure that we hadn’t inadvertently dropped someone).

Flavio – our tour escort – came along shortly after and led us off to the bus. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain right at the time we were heading to the bus and nearly everyone got soaked to a certain degree.

So … at about 1100 Central European Time on Thursday, March 6th, we were off!!

Liisa and Shanelle were just commenting about some of the readily noticeable differences between North America and Europe; the ever-so-subtle difference in the shape of a Coke bottle for example. They both said they were looking forward to seeing some of the different types of cars – particularly the “exotic” Italian cars like the oh-so-cute Fiat Topo Giggio.

We left Rome and headed south on the Strada delsol for the Naples and the Amalfi coast. The original plan was to first go to Pompei – but the ticket sales close at 1530 and – due to our late arrival – we weren’t going to get there in time. Flavio worked his cell phone and managed to rearrange our Saturday schedule – now the plan is to do Pompei on Saturday – before we head up to Rome for sightseeing there. It’s just as well, everyone is really exhausted from the trip and could use a bit of a pause to get their feet back under them.

So … instead of Pompei, we continued down towards Naples and then on to Sorrento. As we passed through Naples, we saw many big piles of garbage. Apparently, the citizens and the government are locked in some kind of dispute over contracts for trash collection and the mass piles of garbage are the evidence of a recent citizen’s protest.

I take my hat off to today’s bus driver. He did an outstanding job of manoeuvring that bus full of people through some of the twistiest, narrow, steep pieces of road that I’ve ever had the opportunity to see. All the while, with naught on the right-hand side but a curb and low stone wall offering protection from a 200 metre cliff.

And now, everyone is safely at the Grand Hotel Flora and we’ll be heading for supper shortly. Today’s plan is for a walking tour of Sorrento after supper … and only then will everyone get the chance to start catching up on their sleep.