Eastern Europe Trip

So, with the holiday drawing to a close we woke after a restless night just before the alarm was due to go off. After a quick shower we threw the bags in the boot of the Mustang and put the roof down for the last time, before heading off towards the airport. With a vague idea of where the rental car return area was following our trips around the airport whilst looking for the motel yesterday, we were confident we’d left enough time. Until we got stuck at a railroad crossing as the barriers came down in front of us… and then the freight train started to make its snail-like way past us… the engine followed by no less than 128 carriages… yes, 128… it took over 10 minutes before the train had cleared the crossing and the barrier was lifted…

But we had calculated our journey time to arrive in plenty of time to hand the car back, and with a last blast of “Mustang Sally” on the iPod we parked up and bade her farewell, before catching the shuttle bus to check-in. On arrival we noticed the signs proclaiming Phoenix to be “America’s Friendliest Airport” and I remarked that wouldn’t mean much, based on my experience! But it proved to be true, with helpful and smiling check-in staff and even chatty customs men who waved us through. Even Tracy’s back scaffolding didn’t set off the alarms and it wasn’t long before we were sat having a drink and waiting for our flight.

The rest of the journey home was relatively uneventful, despite the deluge in Chicago that had left the runway awash with several inches of water. We even managed to find our taxi driver not too long after getting back to Manchester airport…

And so, after a truly fantastic 2 weeks, we arrived home just before 9am on Sunday, and went straight to bed for a few hours to try and ward off the worst effects of the jet-lag… It didn’t work…