It was an early start, the alarm went off at 5am.....OMG!!! Hit the shower and we were down the hill by 0600. I had hit full mode and I opted for 2 waters this morning and no pastry. Each morning we had a "breakfast coupon", good for one pastry and a drink. But this morning my body was saying I'd hit overload, so extra water was good. On the bus by 615a and heading for Orte train station. 4 got off there, we said our good-byes and headed for the airport where the rest of us needed to go. Once at the airport we all said good-bye quickly and then scattered. Some to rent cars for a few days in Rome, the rest of us to different airlines to go somewhere. We found Vueling Airline and got in line. Never heard of these guys before, but Michael told us he'd flown them so we went with it. Our flt was not until 1225p and it was only about 9a...we could not check in until 1015a...so in looking for a place to sit we accidentally found scales to weigh our bags. We shuffled some things back and forth so we were each very close to 23kg....the allowed amount or you pay 10euro for each kg over. Some other folks came up to weigh and they told us our carry-on luggage could only be 10kg.....oh dear....we were pushing it, but thought we'd be ok.
We waited and chatted with folks and could finally get in line to check in.....combined our checked bags were 45.5kg.....woohoo and my carry-on was 9.7kg...wow were we close. Susan's carry on was 9kg....if we'd bought one more thing something would have had to go......thank goodness our last leg is Delta and we'll be good to go.
We waded our way through the security line and were finally out by the gates. We headed to D6 as our boarding pass said. Very soon there was a line of folks to board.....but the gate sign said it was for Coppenhagen....uh-oh what did we miss. I went up and asked the agent, she said ours was the next flt just to wait....so I sat back down. However, an American couple we had met were packing up to move to another gate. We asked if our gate had changed and sure enough...we needed to be at D2....wow, nobody told us and the gate agent had just told me to wait. Hummm....lesson learned here. We moved gates, were soon boarded and we both slept the entire flt.....which was good, we didn't want to not see anything today.
Got landed, got our luggage and off to the information counter. We were determined to get to the hotel without a taxi....however, we really had no idea what we were in for.
The information gal told us to exit at door D and get a shuttle to the Ibis Hotel, then get bus 285 to the metro (underground trains), pink line 7...get off at stop 7 and when you come up from that the hotel will be very close. Wow....lots of instructions and we had 2 bags each. Our first shot out of the airport door we were confused, went back in for clarification and we were off again, this time we did better. Got the airport shuttle to the Ibis...check. When we got off we sat and waited for bus 285....it seemed like too long, so we finally asked a cop that was there settling a dispute between a guy and a taxi driver. He told us we had to cross the road....ok, did that and 285 came right away. On the bus and headed to the metro. It was a bit of a ride but got there. EXCEPT we now had to maneuver steps with luggage....i just went bagging down the steps and a very nice gentleman took Susan's big bag.....geez, what did I do wrong. Susan said it's her gray hair, makes her look like a helpless old lady!! OK...got the metro ticket bought and headed for the turn-stile. Susan was ahead of me and got her luggage stuck....a kind gentleman showed me how to go thru a "gate" if you had something larger. So I got thru and went back to help her. Ok....unstuck and ready to go. Got on the metro and almost done. We were seated close to a door and knew our stop was next....except, when our stop came that door didn't open....so we had to hurry to the next door. I got out and turned to help Susan as her bag got a bit stuck again. She was almost out when the doors began to shut. Between me and a guy on the metro we pulled the doors back open and Susan and luggage got off....whew...that could have been interesting. OK.....had to go up some more steps dragging luggage and then asked about which way to go once topside. We got the directions and headed up more steps, only once again a nice guy helped Susan and me too this time. Thank you God for sending us some help. Once at street level we only had to go about 2 blocks and there was our hotel.....we had made it.
We had spent less than 5euro each, fairly cheap but we had taken almost 3hrs to make the trip. As Daddy used to say, you save time or money but rarely both.....he's oh so right! We got checked in and since the "lift" (elevator) is so small only one at a time with luggage...that was ok, at least there was a lift, we are on the 5th floor. We figured out how to get around in our VERY TINY room and we headed out. We had intentions of seeing the Seine but we gave out....found a place to have beef and fish for dinner and we called it a night. We were actually in our room by 830p.....in Italy, dinner MIGHT be started by now!!! We have realized as much as we loved Soriano we missed variety.....we can choose from more than Italian food.....and we are looking forward to that. We both had to laugh when we saw a Starbucks tonite...yep, we are out of small town Italy and back to big city, both have their good and bad.
Still a bit tired, we are calling it a early night. We are safe in our tiny spot and will see all we can tomorrow.
Good night from Paris!!!
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