Fun on the Tarmac at the Phildelphia Airport. Or, We Said Venice, Not Verona!

Oh wow. There just had to be more to this saga didn't there.
So, where were we?
Oh yes, I finally did get to Philly. Here's proof:

(Robin: Go Flyers!)

And I connected with Mom. Yea!














This is where it gets scary. We board the plane, everything is going great. Then, that voice comes over the intercom. "Ladies and gentleman, I have some news..." And you know that news ain't good. "The plane's check engine light is on. " Bad. "We're gonna have maintenance come and take a look at it to be on the safe side." Very bad. We proceeded to sit on the tarmac for over four hours while they resolved the issue. They finally fed us around midnight and we took off around 12:30.

By the way, here’s my “vegetarian” meal since they ran out of the pasta option.














Mmmmm....
Luckily for us, I brought Mrs. London’s baguettes and almond croissants to ease the pain a little. Ahhh… Mrs. London’s….














Oh boy. As if the four hour wait on the tarmac wasn't entertaining enough. There was a catfight in the row right in front of us on the flight! Some older German woman insulted some younger American woman about her screaming kid and the younger woman said some strong words. Then they both stood up, faced off, more "words" were exchanged (I was impressed with the German womans grasp of the English language) until the American just hauled off and slapped her right in the face. Wow! I mean, wow, how often does one see something like that at 5 in the morning?? Almost as good as when the crazy lady got kicked off our Ireland flight for yelling that her baby didn’t get a special seat. Lesson: Don’t mess with women on airplanes with babies, I guess.

So of course we missed our original flight to Venice by, oh, about five hours. Here is the half hour long line we waited in at the Frankfurt Airport hoping to get on the last flight there. Once we realized that US Air had actually booked us on the flight to VERONA instead of Venice (hey, what’s the difference really?) we only had 20 minutes to get to our gate. Our gate must have been located some where in another postal code because we had to have run two miles through the airport to reach it. We made it with minutes to spare (and only mild cardiac arrest).














As much as we like to dislike them, those Germans sure run a good airline. Look as these lovely cookies we got with our tea…

And an hour later, look! I see lagoons. We are in Venice. Miracles do happen.


But not so fast. We took our chance with the roulette baggage claim and ended up one bag short. Ironic, no?

So we get to wait in yet another line.

By the grace of god our bag was actually there, in that sad little holding room of forlorn looking luggage. Seems the bag had managed to make all of it's connections just fine and was wondering what took us so long. Next, we took the bus to the Mestre train station, bought our tickets, split a panini and were off to Bologna on the train.

And just a mere 30 hours after leaving home, we are at our new home, Hotel Roma.
And look what is right next door to the hotel!

This is the pistachio. It’s a little blurry since I was making a lunge for it at the time this picture was taken.

I don't know if that hellish nightmare was worth one gelatto...
Yes, I think it was.