Our return home was not exactly as we expected it. But, we are home and glad to be here.

First, when we did pull in our driveway, cars and front porch had been decorated with balloons from Mark, Brandy and the grandgirls, Sarah, Abby and Katie. Plus, we were welcomed with some big hugs. Even the dog, Lizzie, seemed happy we were back. We were happy to be back.

But, our return home was not as we planned. It included spending the night in the airport terminal in New York, but I’ll get to that a little later. We left Amsterdam and took the Eurostar train to Brussels. When I had made reservations at the Hilton in Brussels, the description said it was next to the train station. When we arrived at the train station and I plugged the address in the GPS to get directions, it told us the hotel was more than a mile away and a 27 minute walk, slightly uphill.

It was more than slightly uphill. And, it didn’t take us through the best parts of Brussels. Plus we both had on backpacks that weighed about 20-25 pounds, pulling a suitcase that was about 30 pounds and Karen was carrying a bag weighing about 15 pounds. About half way there, Karen said she was not going to walk back to the train station, that we’d have to find another way. When we did arrive at the hotel, right next door to it was a train station. It just wasn’t the train station we arrived at. Brussels has three train stations.

It was a nice hotel, large and our room was probably the largest room we had stayed in. It was early afternoon and we were getting hungry. I had always heard of Belgian waffles and wanted to find out what they were like. We walked out of the hotel and ended up on a street that had scores of restaurants along with stores of all kinds.

We found a restaurant that featured Belgian waffles but all of its tables looked to be outside and it was getting a little chilly. I went inside and saw that it had tables at the back. We had to order at the front and when we asked about the waffles, we were told there are two kinds. We opted for one of each. The woman at the front desk, who had a heavy accent asked about what kind of toppings. Karen opted for strawberry and I took pistachios and chocolate. It didn’t take but a few minutes when they arrived. Karen’s was also heaped with whipped cream in addition it had chocolate on the strawberries. Mine had plenty of chocolate sauce, too.

I thought they were good but were more like a dessert rather than a breakfast or a meal type item. Karen’s was larger than mine and the chocolate was about to do her in so I helped her finish hers. The difference was mine was smaller and sweeter while Karen’s was thicker and less sweet.

We walked around the street and looked at the many stores and the very large crowd of people who were moving up and down the street. After looking around, we returned to the room, where I had a short nap and then decided we didn’t want a large supper. We went back to the same street and ordered a sub sandwich with ham and cheese for “take away,” and headed back to our room to eat it.

Inasmuch as it was a long walk the next morning to the station we arrived at and taking a train from the station next door was nearly the same cost as taking a taxi, we opted to call a Uber. But before calling the Uber we ate breakfast in the hotel and it was delicious. It was a buffet and had an array of just about anything one would want for breakfast.

We went back to the room, packed up, called the Uber and headed to the airport to begin our journey home. The Brussels airport was about a 30 minute ride from the hotel. The strange part of getting to the airport was that the drop off area for arriving passengers was a long walk to the terminal. It took us at least 15 minutes to get inside the terminal. We had been carrying our two suitcases with us but decided we’d check them on the plane. And with two stop, it was less tiring than carrying them around.

Our schedule called for us to fly to London Heathrow airport, change planes and then fly to John F. Kennedy airport in New York. We had about an hour and a half layover in London before we boarded for JFK. We were flying British Air, which is also tied in with American Airlines.

When we arrived at JFK about seven flight hours from Brussels, we had actually lost 5 hours because of the time differences. We had to claim our baggage at JFK after going through customs. Karen had already filled out all of the paper work for customs, which made it very easy for us. Those who had not filled it out on line were having to do it in the airport on paper. We picked up our two suitcases and rebooked them through to Raleigh-Durham, where we were to land after leaving JFK. I had already made reservations at a Hampton Inn near the RDU airport.

We breezed right through customs but then had to go through security. That’s where the “fun began.” We were being herded like cattle through the security area. Karen and I had been TSA pre-checked, which should have made it easier but there was no pre-checked line marked. As we were moving through, one of the security guards demanded that everyone take off their shoes, remove any belts and coats or heavy sweaters and to empty our pockets. Also, any electronic equipment had to be removed and placed in an inspection tray by itself.

As we were trying to comply with the commands, apparently one of the security people saw that we were already pre-checked and told us to put our shoes back on and walk through a scanner. As I was trying to take off my shoes and empty my pockets, I took my pouch in which I carry my passport, money and credit cards and stuck it in my shoe because there was no tray to put it in.

When the guard told me to put my shoes back on, I tried to do it without untying them. No, he said, you have to untie them and put them back on correctly. There is no place to sit, I’m standing in a moving line and doing the best I can. I get the shoes on, go through the scanner and emerge to the end of the line to pick up what I had put on a conveyor belt. Karen had already gotten through and had collected my backpack, my iPad, and my belt. But I didn’t see my pouch with my money and cards.

Karen said she hadn’t seen it. I walked over to the security area and told them I was missing the pouch. They looked and even called a supervisor in who reviewed the video of the whole process. She could see me taking my shoes off and putting them back on but could not see the pouch. She asked if it were still in my shoe. I said I would feel it if it were in my shoe.

Through all of this, we were supposed to be boarding our flight to Raleigh-Durham. The plane landed a little late at JFK and we taxied for about 20 minutes. I think we landed in New Jersey and taxied to New York. We had less than one hour to do all the checks, suitcases and then get to the correct gate. But pouch could not be found. So we rushed off to the gate where our flight was to depart. But, we were too late. It had already departed and the gate was closed.

We pondered for a few moments on what to do. Karen searched quickly and found a flight to RDU at 7:45 the next morning. We figured our luggage would be in Raleigh when we got there. After mulling for just a minute, we decided not to try to find a hotel for the night but rather spend the night in the terminal. Pretty much, the terminal was not busy with most flights in our terminal were already in for the night. There were others folks walking around, maybe because they had missed their flight. But we had the terminal pretty much to ourselves. We read some, napped some and waited for the next morning.

While we were waiting, I did take off my shoe and there was the pouch I’d been looking for. If I had done as the security guard asked when she said had I looked in my shoe, we likely would not have missed our flight to RDU.

We made our flight, which had a layover of about an hour at the Charlotte airport and then connected to RDU, although Karen and I didn’t get to sit together on that leg of the flight. We did find our luggage waiting for us at RDU. We called an Uber, got a ride to the Public Storage where we had stored our car and then came home.

It was a wonderful trip but it was really good to be home

Balloons greeted us when we arrived back home on Thursday afternoon.