We Have Arrived

Well, it was a grueling trip, but we made it!  Having a cold, being jet lagged, not having luggage, and not speaking the language can certainly put one out of sorts, but it is nice to be "home".

Our trip started with sitting on the tarmac at SFO for over an hour due to "issues with the luggage computer."  Every minute we were delayed meant less of a chance that we would make our connection in DC and an even slimmer chance that our luggage would. We arrived in DC with 25 minutes to change terminals and make it to our gate, which we barely did.

Brussels Air took us to said city, where we had about a three hour layover, then flew on to Toulouse. Of course, our luggage did not arrive, so we made our claim and set out in the sub-zero (celsius) weather with no coats to the Courtyard by Marriott™, which was only about two miles from the airport, but led us to our first fight of the trip (navigating usually does).

We went via Brussels, but our luggage went via Frankfurt

It was only about 6:00 PM and we knew if we stayed at the hotel we would just fall asleep, so it was off to Ikea.  Again, the navigation proved stressful as we ended up on a freeway driving past Ikea with no visible exit and were forced onto a toll road, where our US credit cards did not work and we didn't have any Euro coins, so had to call for an attendant as the traffic backed up behind us. 7 KM down the freeway we were able to turn around, pay another toll, and then find our way to Ikea. Ikea and jet lag, not a good combination for Randel, but Jörg was in his element.  I first needed to eat, which Jörg couldn't understand because "we just had breakfast on the plane" - actually the breakfast he remembered was before we arrived in Brussels almost 6 hours prior. Handily, Ikea has a restaurant in it and I am presuming they got the horse meat issue figured out.

Like a pig in mud...

After spending an ungodly amount of Euros, we found that the legs we bought for the bed, which had already been delivered, had to be picked up at their distribution center.  Another wild goose chase to pick up eight little blocks of wood and it was back to the hotel. Of course it couldn't be that simple and again we got lost as we traversed the three highways around the hotel, which we could see, but could not figure out how to get to. After we made it, Jörg went to the bar and Randel went to bed about 10:00.  Then it was  3:00 AM and we were wide awake.  We tried to sleep a little more, but gave up around 4:30 and got showered and dressed with what we had in our hand luggage, then headed northwest. We planned to stop at Sarlat-la-Canéda, a little market town about 1/2 way to Vendoire.  It is in the southern Perigord, which has rolling hills and rocky canyons, quite different from out little village in the north.  It was about -5°C - we definitely needed our winter clothes, which were in the checked luggage.

Sarlat-la-Canéda

It was really too cold for us to be out, but we made a quick walk through the town. Other than the food stalls, which were impressive, the goods in the market were rather generic and I don't know if it would be worth making the 2.5 hour drive from Vendoire in the future.

It was back in the car through the winding hills, a few more fights as we got lost on little country lanes, then finally made it home!