Traveling Home

Alas, today is our return travel day. Never as much fun and anticipation as the long day that begins a trip. We were up very early to catch the first flight of the two legs of our travel back to Los Angeles. Rome to Istanbul was an uneventful two hour flight in which they served quite a delicious breakfast — It was some sort of phyllo dough and cheese bake with a side of spinach, sides of yogurt and cheese, and bread. 

We then had plenty of time to make our way to the next gate, which was probably a mile away, and which included going through security check again. Istanbul has one of the most modern, new airports in the world and is one of the largest and busiest in the world. We count ourselves among the 85 million who are passing through this airport in 2024. Because it’s so modern and new it’s laid out extremely well… It’s just so big.

On the whole trip, almost everywhere we’ve gone, especially at the airport, Kristi has been treated with such extra special kindness. Since her surgery in October, she has used a cane for some extra stability. We don’t try to use it to get any special treatment, but people actually call her over to go through the handicapped/easy/fast access points on the ship, at the airport, and at some of the places we visited. She does a lot of bending over and stretching when she has a chance. While she was bent over stretching on the street in Corfu — it does looks like she needs assistance sometimes, but it’s just what she needs to do to stretch out and deal with pain — a random couple walked up to her and asked if she needed any assistance and if she was OK. She usually declines any special assistance, but it’s nice to know that people are looking out for others in need.

We’d like to recommend Turkish Airlines. Firstly, they fly to quite a few destinations via their hub in Istanbul. Secondly, the airfare was reasonable. And thirdly, they fed us quite well. Their food was good!

On the long flight, Jim had salmon, despite his memory of the movie Airplane. It was really good. Everyone else had the pasta, which was also tasty. 

We ended up with a free seat next to each couple, which means we got to lay down and spread out a little bit. Very lucky to have on a 13+ hour flight. 

We landed in LA on time, made our way through passport control and customs, picked up our car and headed home. Another one in the books.