It is actually January 21st as I write this but since it is still a retrospective I am using the same date.

We had just finished our visit with Kyle in our previous post. We then headed to Minnesota to see multiple friends and family members. We flew to MN on December 23rd. Here is a picture of the sunrise from my seat on the plane:

And just like that (finger snap!) we were in a beautiful snow covered country!

We were in MN from Dec. 23 – Jan. 7. During that time, we (or I) attended one to three social events every day. It was wonderful to see so many people! Actually, we had to cancel three social engagements and hunker down for two days due to snow. Our granddaughter, Brooke, helped Michael and me shovel about eight inches of heavy wet snow on two occasions. It was actually fun to shovel and it is good exercise, but I am going to say that I got enough of it in that short time. I am especially happy to not drive in the stuff.

Sadly, and very unusual for us, we took too few pictures during this time. I don’t know what we were thinking. Well, we weren’t thinking. That was the problem. Suffice it to say that all of our friends are extremely good looking. 🙂 Oh, and smart and funny. . . and creative. That should do it.

We then went to Colorado for a few days to see my sister and my 101-year-old mom. You read that right: 101. She has pretty much lost her short-term memory but she still walks up and down stairs and tries to help around the house. Simply amazing!

We first flew back to Orlando. If that seems weird, it is because it was cheaper to book a round trip from Cyprus to Orlando and back and then book one-way flights to MN and CO and back to FL than to fly one-way everywhere. Here are a few pictures from our flight to FL:

Our remaining return flights to Cyprus had short layover times. We were a bit concerned, but it would be okay as long as the flights weren’t delayed. (And it was possibly better than having a 13.5 hour layover, such as we did on the flight out.) The weather looked good, so there appeared to be no cause for worry.

Then the weirdest thing happened for the very first time in the U.S. on the exact day (Wednesday, January 11th) we were scheduled to begin our three-part flight to Cyprus. (I am wondering again if I am a jinx.) The FAA’s system that sends timely safety alerts to pilots broke. The outage halted takeoffs for about 90 minutes that morning. Flights began to resume around 9:00 a.m. but the effects continued to snarl air traffic throughout the day.

Our first flight was delayed by two hours. That meant we would certainly miss our second flight unless it too was delayed. It wasn’t. So, we put our names on standby for a 9:55 p.m. flight. The gentleman at the gate initially told us that the flight was completely full so we didn’t get our hopes up. I checked the status of the flight online and it confirmed that every section was full. Michael went back to the gate agent about 20 minutes later and this time he said he thought we would be okay. (I am guessing that it was either due to the routine “no show” or other passengers had been delayed and were missing this flight and had not checked in.) In any event, not only did we make the flight, we were seated across the aisle from each other! This was for the long flight across the pond, so it was kind of nice to have a partner nearby to chat with from time to time.

We arrived in Frankfurt about one hour after the flight to Cyprus left. This was no surprise to us; we knew we would miss it. The woman at the Lufthansa Services counter was very helpful and tried to do what she could to help us. . . and not charge us for a new flight. She did it! We booked a flight to Munich for later that afternoon (giving it about two hours to allow our luggage to catch up – we had confirmed that it had made it to Frankfurt) and to Cyprus the next day.

The airport might have been in Munich, but our hotel was in Freising, Bavaria, Germany. We weren’t paying attention to the location when we booked it or we would have booked it in Munich. But, it was a quaint little town so we were quite glad to be there. We will definitely go back to Germany to visit Munich, however.

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Freising:

If you have been reading this blog awhile, you know that I love maps. I took this picture of the map on the plane showing us flying from Frankfurt to Munich. I love how it captures the Med and the countries around it. You can even see Cyprus on the right side.

We hadn’t slept for over 24 hours so we were pretty tired when we arrived in Freising. We had just enough energy to walk to a restaurant, eat dinner, and go to bed. We had planned to go to a restaurant recommended by the man at the hotel desk, but we met a citizen of Freising on our walk. We chatted for a time and asked whether she had a recommendation. She suggested the restaurant located in the oldest prison in Freising. We couldn’t pass up eating in a former prison! It was a good choice. We drank beer from the nearby Weihenstephan brewery and had a wonderful dinner followed by a delicious dessert. The menu was in German so we used the translator on our phone to the best of our ability until the waitress arrived, then we asked more questions. She didn’t speak enough English so she recruited a colleague to help. We were pleased with our choices. Here are a few pictures (sure, now we remembered to take pictures!) of Freising and our dinner.

One flight left: to Cyprus. Before we go there, I have another picture to share. We ate breakfast at the airport before our flight to Cyprus. I find humor in both small and big things. This was a small thing:

We arrived in Cyprus mid-afternoon on Friday, January 13. It was good to be home again. And these big boys (each weighing 50 pounds) made it on time and on the right flight! Hats off to United and Lufthansa Airlines!

Our first sunrise in Cyprus upon our return:

It is taking me much longer than usual to get over my jetlag this time. Not sure why. I slept until 4:30 p.m. the first day, 1:30 p.m. the next. Then I set my alarm to get up at 10:00 a.m. but fell asleep until noonish. Getting closer. Baby steps.

It touched our hearts and souls to see so many of our cherished friends and family members. The only thing about our sailing plan that gives me pause is the knowledge that we won’t see them again in person for another year. A year is a long time. If we were made of money, we would visit more often. We will see. My heart is in CO where I was born and raised. My heart is also in MN where I have spent the majority of my life and most of my friends and family live. My heart is in FL to the extent that I see my son there and I have visited it so many times it feels familiar.

But for now, this is our home: