Home

We are home. But only barely. Firstly the shuttle from hotel to airport took considerably longer than we were told as it apparently had to go to three other hotels after picking us up first: fifteen minutes after we got on it, it was picking up passengers at our neighboring hotel on the other side of the street! Not what one needs after too little sleep and a plane to catch. Anyway, we make it to the airport and the line for check-in is longer than for the studio tour at Universal Studios... We had 10 minutes before check-in closed and much, much longer than that to wait in line. So Zhenya got the attention of some staffers and we were somehow whisked through (don't ask me how - I just tagged along), making check-in with no time to spare, straight through security check and then to the gate where the plane was already boarding and our names were being called out by the staff at the counter. A nice warm-up for our quick transit in Washington!

Ah, good old Dulles Airport in Washington. How I haven't missed it! Hot and humid and people waiting everywhere. We knew we didn't have much time between the flights and we were right. When we finally arrived at the gate, people with kids were called forward for boarding. So somehow we managed to get on two flights without ever waiting at a gate. I guess this is part of the reason why the journey home didn't feel as long as it was (5h + 7h).

But we are home and severely jet lagged. now we `just' have to revert to CET time...