July 16, 2007 -Caution: This section contains explicit whining. Do not read if you show extreme sensitivity to whining, if you have an important trip

planned, or if you are Deanne’s mother worrying about us on this trip.

Should I start with the good news or the bad news? Those of you who I have talked to know that our budget for this trip started at 100 Euros per night for room and 100 Euros per day for everything else. The good news is we our hotel at $110 base beat our hotel budget especially when we got a fifty percent discount at check-out! The bad news is the reason they gave us the discount. We woke up at 4:00 AM right on schedule only to find no hot water. Apparently the boiler went out yesterday (no wonder we washed our faces with cold water) and working all night didn’t solve the problem.

So, one of us took a freezing cold shower and the other used a wet hand towel, heated in the microwave, to wash up. To protect anonymity and to lessen the impact of the visual images it creates, I won’t identify who is who. Just remember who has dreadlocks if the hair isn’t shampooed each day.

They offered us the wonderful bonus of either 1000 Mariott points (worth about 1/10 of a hotel stay) or half price off on this wonderful, refreshing hotel stay. I tried telling the front desk clerk that this entire story would be posted on this well-read blog (well, I am a story-teller) to see if I could finagle better than 50%, but there was no manager available to approve. In fact, she couldn’t even post the discount herself and give me a copy. We’ll see if we even get it. In the meantime, give a second thought before booking yourself into the Seattle Fairfield Inn.


The Delta counter was packed when we got to the airport. After trying unsuccessfully to do kiosk check-in (do you believe Delta doesn’t let international passengers do self check in?) we stood in line for an hour until they moved the JFK bound passengers to the front of the line. We made it to our gate as the flight was boarding. So much for getting to the airport two hours ahead of time. Three might be safer.

The trip to New York was great, and it looked like our flights would be great. Whenever the plane is configured with three seats on each side we book side-by-side aisle seats so neither of us has a middle seat. In this case, Mike’s row had two extra seats, Deanne moved over and we had a set of three seats to ourselves for a very comfortable trip. Aside from the meal of crackers, cheese and oreos, the trip was wonderful. We landed in New York at the gate across the hall from our departure gate, had lunch during our two hour lay-over and boarded our flight to Rome.

As for pure entertainment, this trip was outstanding. First good news, they upgraded Deanne to business class, which she generously offered to Mike. So, he sat next to a very pleasant and interesting (and beautiful) Silicon Valley retired executive for front row seats to the rest of the on-board entertainment. Who would have guessed there would be so much to watch when there are suspected terrorists on board (we suspected them, and we aren’t sure what status they had with the airline). Deanne and the back of the plane missed all of the excitement, and believed the stories we were told about air conditioning malfunctions. We didn’t make it off the ground before stopping the plane on the approach to the runway, getting all of us off the plane (to repair the air conditioning or to take the odd ball passenger off- depending on your view of the action). After we sat around the terminal for awhile we got back on board. We talked about what was going on during the time together in the terminal and Deanne told Mike about the very weird Middle Eastern guy sitting two rows in front of her. Well, after we reboarded, someone else must have decided he was weird because he was taken off the plane with the first weird Middle Eastern guy that started the whole thing. Taking them off the plane took another hour or so. All in all, we were delayed four hours sitting on the tarmac while all of this got sorted out. But, as you read this you know that this story has a happy ending. We are sitting in our first Roman hotel. WE MADE IT TO ITALY!!

Mike’s version of the story: From my point of view in the upgraded, lush and roomy business class section this Middle Eastern fellow went up to the flight attendant and demanded he be allowed to get off the plane!! He was so adamant it was a bit disturbing to say the least. The plane stopped taxiing out for takeoff and the conversation continued. I heard the guy say he left a lot of money in his car and needed to get off the plane and get it. The pilot and all of the flight attendants were talking to this guy for a long time. Suddenly two security guys came in and stood right next to him. Shortly afterwards the shuttle came up to the side of the plane and we were all disembarked back to the airport. The middle East guy was on the shuttle and was talking with the dude from the back the Deanne was speaking about.