Our 6:00 AM flight from Athens to Amsterdam was delayed until 9:15 AM because our flight crew had exceeded their allowed work hours and weren't allowed to fly again until that time. Because of this delay, we would miss our connecting flight from Amsterdam to Portland.

KLM/Delta rebooked us on a flight from Amsterdam to Seattle, Washington and a second flight from Seattle to Portland, OR. We had only an hour to make the connection in Amsterdam. Luckily, we met a man in Athens who makes the Athens to Spokane trip once a month for business. He led us through the Amsterdam airport, and we all made the connection!

It was a 3.5 hour first leg from Athens to Amsterdam, 10 hours from Amsterdam to Portland and a final 1 hour from Seattle to Portland where the local time was just 2:00 PM, 11:00 PM Athens time. Erin picked us up!

We were happy to get to the house and see Ehren and Hugo. Leah was in Portland for business with Freja and Faviola so we got to see them today. Boy, the grandkids sure are cute and fun to be around! We're really lucky that we'll all be living within 5 miles of each other before the end of the year!!

After 3 months in a far different time zone, we are REALLY jet lagged!! Even though we try to stay up "late" (9-10:00 PM PST) we keep waking up way too early (2-3:00 AM PST )

In summary, this was a very successful trip!! We took it easy (until the climactic Rick Steves tour) with plenty of relaxation time most days. We didn't get sick or injured. We had no car trouble. Our flights went well in general. We saw most of what we had hoped to. Our accommodations were nice in most cases, sometimes surprisingly so. My French held up well on most days. We enjoyed our meals, though "going out to dinner" 90 days in a row can take it's toll ..... I gained 15 pounds!

We will certainly get the travel itch again, but right now, it's hard to think about such things. Perhaps we won't go for quite so long next time??