I think his Garmin is wonky but he likes it the way it is.

Wow, those are very impressive stats! It’s funny you mentioned Al’s elevation gain is higher than yours since the same thing happens with us. Are they biased against women?

What a nightmare! Glad you made it home okay!

Hi Jacquie

Re two jerseys, I, like most men would not have picked upon that!

Mike

Yes, the floor is flooded most of the time, apparently. Venice may or may not be sinking, but this church seems to be.

That seems like it might be part of it. Our outbound flights were not full but both legs returning were crammed. A lot of the issues were at airports, though, with so many check-in counters not open and a lack of baggage handlers.

Did you notice that I have two striped jerseys? And they will be coming along to Sicily.

You must have been happy to get home at last.
I heard somewhere that the reason for so many local flight delays/cancellations is that the airlines are trying to save fuel by not running half empty planes so cancel every second flight and have a full plane each time and passengers hope that the toilets are working!

Look forward to seeing that striped jersey in your next journal.

We thought it was awful and then heard about all the people whose experiences were so much worse than ours. One thing I plan to do, though, is use my silver Sharpie to write my name and phone number on the outside of my bike case before my next trip.

There was a cardboard bike box just sitting there at the oversize luggage window when we were waiting for ours. There was contact info taped to the outside so I texted a photo to the owner who was happy to hear where his bike was. I'm also going to put an Apple Air Tag or similar inside. I hope things will be better by next year...

Sorry your trip home was such a hassle. I've had days like that, and they really suck.

Exactly! I love going places but detest air travel. I'm hoping things will have settled down before our next departure.

You're welcome, Scott. As you know, I often use your journals for reference when planning my tours, including this one, and even more so for Sicily.

Quite an impressive scribble. Thanks for taking us along!

Well, that’s certainly a memorable way to end a tour. It reenforces the idea that longer tours are a better investment. One maddening day isn’t a terrible investment in the context of two amazing months in Italy.

Cool!

Good one!