Days 13-14: July 20-21, 2025

 Bonus Edition: First-World Travel Adventures!

The day started off innocently enough with breakfast at our hotel in Amsterdam. It was one of the smallest breakfast buffets I've seen in a European hotel.


Although there was no shortage of wine.

We flew from Budapest to Amsterdam. The Amsterdam airport is huge. And we always fly through large international airports. And like most international airports, no need to let a captive audience walk by.

Green.

And family-friendly.


Our flight from Amsterdam to JFK was delayed, but we had plenty of time in JFK to clear customs and make our connecting flight home. We hadn't gotten off the jumbo jet when they canceled our flight home.

We've driven from JFK and EWK home before (about 4 hours) when the layovers were unreasonably long and/or connecting flights canceled. But at 10:00pm, there were no rental cars available for a one-way rental. Delta offered to rebook us on the same flight on Monday, but we didn't feel like spending the day in NYC, so they booked us on a flight from Laguardia to Albany where Jane (Mike's wife) would come out ant pick us up and drive us to Syracuse (about 2.5 hours each way). She will combine it with a visit to her daughter and grand kids, but still, a huge thank you to Jane!

We stayed in rooms at an airport Hampton, and it was 100% functional: 5 minutes to LGA (although the Uber from JFK to LSA was $80) and one of the better breakfasts, although nothing compared to European breakfasts.


I'm hoping this is the last post to this blog, but the day is not over and our flight is already delayed. So I'll publish this post, and if I have anything to add, it will appear below.

Otherwise, no news is good news.

PS As we age, the fear that we become more sensitive to the possibility of "losing it" whether or not it is actually true. In the Amsterdam airport, I went for food and thought I would fill my water bottle since I had emptied it before going through TSA. I couldn't find it anywhere and I was really disappointed because it was a nice insulated bottle from the cruise company. I sat down to eat my wrap and complained about losing it. Walter pointed it that it was on the floor by the seat of my chair. Duh.

The complaint was triggered by Marty who said that he thought he had left a clear bag of toiletries and and his razor that he really liked at TSA. I felt a little better. But I really felt better when Marty found it in another part of his luggage in a spot where he would normally not have packed it. Yay.

We really loved the fact that Walter bought a bright red hat from a souvenir shop in Prague. You've probably seen it in many pictures from earlier posts. It was especially funny that Walter would be wearing a hat that looked just like a MAGA hat. Today in LaGuardia, Walter noticed that he was missing his hat. At this time, there is no happy reunion with Walter and his hat. 😢


When we landed at JFK, we had to go through customs After w
looked through  The book that I brought along on the trip is called Why We Remember, a title by a neuroscientist and brought to my attention during a webinar sponsored by the Association of Retirement Oorganizations in Higher Education. 

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