Departure

Early start for departure. No swimming this morning, and very casual breakfasting. Tim grabbed 20 euros from the ATM in anticipation of having to pay a toll on the way to Valencia. We had deliberately spent all our paper money on Friday thinking we didn't want to be saddled with money we weren't likely to need, but we had neglected to think of road tolls.

All packed up, we headed out of town with Tim driving and Blair navigating. Tim made passengers nervous photographing the median flowers through the windshield, but he wanted to show the robust bushes that did so well in this arid climate.

These median flowers were not identified, but they were robust and everywhere, in spite of arid climate.

We arrived at the airport in good time, easy car return, and easy checking in. We expressed our concern for the fact that we were worried about making our connecting flight in Lisbon, given the drama we had experienced when we arrived. They said we'd have to deal with that in Lisbon. We then found our gate after cruising through security, and discovered that our flight would be delayed by 25 minutes. Now we were convinced we'd miss our connection. When we asked the check-in woman at the departure gate, she said the problem was at the Lisbon end and we shouldn't worry. While boarding we met a Rhode Island couple who were making the same connection. The flight attendent on our Valencia flight assured us that we would be taken care of once we landed in Lisbon.

Our plane awaits at Valencia

So, easy flight to Lisbon with some of our crew snoozing. Once landed, the female component of our new Rhode Island pals started waving her hands and yelling "Boston!". We were ushered onto a shuttle, and when we disembarked we were grabbed by multiple attendents who hurried us to the front of the line at security, and then led us on a literal run to the gate, which was, of course, at the far end of the airport. Leila and Tim were stragglers. Leila experienced some asthma-like symptoms that gave her discomfort for a half hour or so, but once we were seated on our flight, we settled in and enjoyed our 6 hour and 50 minute flight as best we could, with sleeping, movies, and food...free beer!

Landed in Boston around 5:15, cruised through customs, and then discovered that our bags hadn't made it. Resigned to going home without luggage, we headed for the exit, anticipating a rescue by our hero, Ed, who cruised to the curb and shuttled the weary travelers home. What a guy.

Got a call Sunday morning from JFK in New York...one of our bags made it there, but the other three are somewhere in limbo land. My little bag won't show up before Wednesday. Who knows when the rest will appear, if ever.

That's it. We're home and happy to be so. It was an amazing trip, with major credit to Blair for finding us the very special place we camped out on the beach at  Altea. Having that as our base colored the whole trip, and that was important.