Off to Italy!

We are so excited and ready for our Italian adventure today.  David went into work for half a day.  We left the house at 1:30pm to head for the airport which is Ellie’s usual nap time.  About noon, she asked if she could go lay down and sleep.  She must have known what was coming.  After an hour of sleep, I got her up and we headed to T-Centralan to meet David.  We took the Arlanda express to the airport.  It is the only train that goes to the airport but is not part of the SL system.  It is a little pricy but we had gotten two free vouchers from David’s trip in January.  Ellie rides free.  Santa had a house at T-Centralan but Ellie did not want to go talk to Santa.  She has decided just to send a letter in hopes Santa will read it. 

At the airport, checking went smoothly and we headed on to security.  While David and I were getting everything up on the belt, Ellie was anxious to get going.  As soon as she saw her Dora backpack hit the belt, she went on through the metal detector.  As soon as we realized Ellie wasn’t right beside us, we had a moment of panic.  As we started looking for her, I heard a voice from the other side asking, “Could someone please hand me my backpack?”  I hurried on through and we I got to Ellie asked why she had left without us.  Her reply was that she didn’t want to lose her backpack.  She may be getting a little too comfortable flying.   After making it through security, I found Starbucks on my way to the gate.  I paid way too much but that was the most delicious, Chai Tea Latte I have ever had.  As the time for our flight rolled around, they announced the first delay.  An hour later the second delay was announced, both due to snow in Frankfurt. 

After making it to Frankfurt, we had another delay but lots of flights had been grounded so we were just glad to make it out of the airport.  We arrived at the Veince Airport well after 1 am.  After collecting our luggage we made the short walk to the water taxis.  Unfortunately, the public water taxi had stopped running at 2 am.  The private company was still running but took cash only.  Thankfully we had a wonderful taxi driver who was will to give us a ride over and then find us a bank so we could pay him.  He dropped us close to our hotel and gave us directions to the hotel.  However, we were unable to find the hotel with so many winding passageways.  Ellie and I finally stopped with the luggage in one of the squares while David wandered off down various pathways.  Two calls to the hotel later, the clerk came out to find us and led us back.  I am loving the Venician people – they have been so kind and helpful.  It was 3 am when we finally were able to crash in bed.  For all the crazy things that happened today and all the changes in plans, Ellie did an awesome job.  She is such a great traveller. 

Waiting for a water taxi at 2:30 AM!