Friday, July 15, 2011

Getting Back to Plymouth. 11/6/2011

We said our goodbyes to Shaun and Lucas
and boarded our taxi to the airport. Looking rather happier than we felt we headed off on out Condor flight to Frankfurt where we would change planes to Heathrow. On arrival in San Domingo, where we picked up extra passengers, we were informed that the long wave radio was broken, and the captain made the decision that as we couldn't go the quickest route because we would be out of radio contact, so we would fly up the eastern seaboard, over Greenland, Iceland, Scotland and England before landing in Frankfurt. The only problem for us is that it would take 4 hour longer and we would miss our connection to London. Being a Saturday FedEx closed at 1500 and we had to get Nancy out of there to drive back to Plymouth. Arriving in Frankfurt we went to the check in desk to be told we were booked on a 1830 flight. Luckily for us the very nice man, who spoke very good English, on hearing our predicament with Nancy managed to get us on the 1200 flight as 2 passengers had just cancelled. Arriving back on English soil we headed for a taxi to take us the 4 miles to the FedEx building. 2 people were on guard to make sure you got on a cab, both asking the same questions about where we were going and which cab to get into, but about 10 feet apart. Just as we were seated we were informed that it was going to cost £34 for the 4 mile ride. That's 400 quetzals, 680 pesos, or $55!!!! Being a man of boringly rigid principles and hating being ripped off, I said we didn't want to buy the cab, which is what one says so you can feel better about walking away, and headed for the bus stop grumbling to ourselves. Welcome back to England. 2 buses and £5 later we were left with a mile walk and time was drawing on. Dragging our Panama wheelie bag along like a stubborn mule, we strode towards our destination arriving just before the warehouse closed with the bag much worse for ware. Nancy was brought outside by fork lift
and the put together operation was under way.
Front wheel on, mudguard,
fairing, and things repacked, we were ready for the drive to the hotel that we were staying in for the night. Set off the next day, which was Sunday, the day the 2 month drought in England ended and got soaked and very cold as the temp was hovering around 10C . Welcome back to England again! Home.
5 days latter the day we had returned for. Proud Dad with the groom, both who scrubbed up well. Jill didn't need scrubbing to look gorgeous. There was a bit of a misunderstanding and Eunice was 20 minutes late, a telephone call sorted it out and just as the registrar was about to cancel the ceremony, everybody turned up and the happy couple were united. Then off down a half mile muddy farmers track to the reception by the river Dart. where we camped and partied the night away.


Thank you everybody for following us on our travels. We started the blog as a diary for us but it turned into much more than that and I know that lots of people travelled with us, and sent us good thoughts. Special thanks to Judee, Frank and Carol and Nacho and Stephanie who put us up for extended periods and everybody we met on the road, too numerous to mention here, put who are held within these pages.
Now where too next..........
Until we meet again.............