Okay, sometime between last night and this morning it got really really cold! And not like New York City cold or even Detroit cold, we're talking Chicago cold! Maybe it isn't that bad, but it sure feels like it!
We were up sorta early again this morning putting the apartment back in order for check out. Kirsten joined Ingrid for breakfast while I went to the laundromat down the street to wash the sheets and towels. The first laundromat attempt was a failure. It was one of those automatic deals where everything is tied into a central computer and you enter in various codes to get detergent and to operate the machines and such - so I was the only one in there. After two attempts at getting detergent from the machine didn't reward me with any detergent I called Tim down and asked him to bring his detergent. Together we tried to figure out how to work the washing machine. The directions seemed simple and it felt like we were doing it right but for some reason nothing was happening. Eventually the phone rang, Tim answered but the person didn't speak English. I decided to cut my losses and try a different place.
There was another laundromat around the corner that was doing brisk business and we had no problems in this one. The system was the same as the other one so who knows what we were doing wrong. There was also a helpful and kindly older gentleman who told us what to do at this second place.
Once the laundry was done, the apartment packed up and the keys turned in we dropped off our luggage at Tim & Becca's place and then went cruising around to kill a few hours. We stopped in a little wine shop and got a bottle for home and just generally walked around stopping into various shops and cafes to warm up. It was a very relaxing end to our time in Paris, thank yous to Tim & Becca for setting this up and picking the perfect neighborhood. When we come back we're pretty sure we'd like to stay in the same place.
Thanks to the actions of one upstanding citizen of Nigeria (Edit: Kirsten says I should indicate that this is sarcasm) flying into Detroit we had to leave for the airport well in advance of our flight time as all the flights back to the US were being extra scrutinized. But thanks to some pretty impressive planning on the part of Charles De Gaulle's designers, we were processed with lightning speed. We encountered absolutely no lines at check in, security, customs, or anything in between. It made me kind of embarrassed for tourists to the US and what they must encounter at our major airports. Even the last checkpoint as you go on the jet bridge had six scanning stations and six employees processing people's boarding pass instead of one person handling an entire jet like we do. For shame. I also think they had as many metal detectors just in our section of terminal 2E that there are in all of Detroit Metro. For shame. The only snafu we encountered was the second screening area that they had set up just for flights going to the states where your carry on gets inspected and your person gets wanded and patted down. This procedure got a little backed up but again, it was well staffed and everyone got through.
The flight was good, Kirsten and I were separated again, but still just two rows apart. They served us a smoked salmon salad thing, beef stew with a hot mustard ragout, bread, cheese, tangerine, and some sort of dessert thing. I thought it was excellent and I want to try to make the stew with the mustard but Kirsten got a cold meal and said it wasn't so good because it was cold. I watched Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs - okay, Funny People - I thought it was very good, and part of This Is It - which I thought was very good too.
No problems at US customs. I think we've got all the rules down, be nice, answer questions promptly, and declare something ALWAYS! The MTA got us home in three hours.
No comments:
Post a Comment