Day 11  Travel Back Home

We met our driver in the lobby of the Hotel at 5:45 a.m. for a trip to the Rossy-Charles de Gaulle Airport.  We arrived at the airport at about 6:15 a.m.  Upon arriving at the airport, we saw one of the Air France Concordes that was on permanent display at the entrance.  We used the automated machines to check in and print our boarding passes, but we had to stand in line for about an hour to check our bags.  After checking our bags, we proceeded to our gate.  The security check was at the gate, and we breezed right on through.  We were at the gate by 8:15 for our 9:20 flight to Frankfurt, Germany.

Rossy-Charles de Gaulle Airport Terminal 1

Concorde at Paris Airport

Lufthansa Plane from Paris to Frankfurt

We landed in Frankfurt at about 10:45 a.m. and proceeded through the terminal to our next flight gate.  This was some distance away and we had to go through a passport check, but there was no difficulty.  We arrived at our gate at about 11:15.  We got a passport stamp for Germany, which was a surprise since we were only in the Frankfurt Airport.  Our next flight left on time at about 1:00 p.m.  This was the long flight to Newark, New Jersey.  It took about 8 hours, but since we gained 6 hours, we arrived at about 3:00 p.m.  The flight was uneventful even if uncomfortable.  The plane was modern and everything functioned properly.

We landed in Newark, went through immigration with no problems (even got a U.S. passport stamp), had a light meal in the airport, and made our way to the assigned gate.  It was raining and foggy.  The airport was downright cold.  Soon we realized that a good many departing flights were being delayed because the incoming planes were not arriving.  Ours was one of those delayed.  It was scheduled to leave at 7:40 p.m. to arrive home at about 11:00 p.m.  We sat there freezing until the delayed departure time of about 9:00 p.m.  At about 8:30 p.m., they announced that our flight would be departing from another gate in another terminal.  We had to scurry to find a shuttle an get to the new gate, but we made it.  The flight was uneventful, and we stepped out of the airport at about midnight to find 100° F temperture.  We hauled our bags to the car breaking out into a major sweat before we reached it.  We arrived home at about 12:30 a.m., finding everything as we had left it.  Home sure was comfortable.