Escape from Isadora!

JEANS REPORT ON OUR LAST DAY IN NOLA AND THEIR TRIP BACK TO THE U.K.
So, it was up at 05.45 and we left early for the airport. We said our goodbye’s to John & Debbie who had been such good friends but we agreed to all meet up again next year in Istanbul. They were going back to a new life, having sold their house in Boston and bought a motor home and they intended travelling South and checking potential new homes on the way. We too, were hopefully going to move house again before too long but first, we had to face the horrendous journey back to Edinburgh. The airport was busy and it was obvious that quite a few people had decided to leave town but not much in the airport was open as locals hadn’t turned up for work that morning. We later found out that the airport had closed later that afternoon.

John & Debs left at 10.45 and then we left at 12.05 and had an uneventful journey back to Atlanta and from there on to Charles de Gaulle airport where we arrived at 08.30 the next day, Thursday September 26th. On the journey between Atlanta and CDG, I was sat next to an Indian guy and we started chatting as you do. Now whether this guy liked the sound of my accent, wanted to practice his English or was genuinely interested, I don’t know but it was like sitting an exam for almost the whole time we were in the air!! Once he found I was from Scotland, he started asking me all these questions……. Not easy stuff but “What is the main source of wealth of the Scottish population?” “What percentage would you say are homeowners?” “Who were the first people to colonise Northern Britain?” I kid you not!! I felt so ignorant but bluffed my way through most of it figuring that he wouldn’t know the difference anyway!! (Memo to Debbie—that’s a good tip you gave me!!)

One final highlight in the holiday—if that’s the right word for it. We had 7½ hours to wait in Charles de Gaulle airport for the only flight to Edinburgh of the day. We were tired and bored and desperate to get home. At one point, we noticed all these policemen running about quite near to us with these massive sub-machine guns and then they cordoned an area off. Gordon went on a wander and came back to say that he’d heard that a suitcase had been abandoned and they suspected it to be a bomb as no one had responded to an announcement on the PA system. Next minute….BOOOM!!! They’d blown the thing up!! Then they swept up all the clothing and bits of suitcase, removed the cordon and went away.

We finally landed in Edinburgh at 5.30 p.m. local time or 11.30 a.m. New Orleans time so we’d been travelling for 30 hours by then…...and we still had an hours drive home!!

Overall then, we felt that we’d enjoyed the experience as both of us had wanted to visit New Orleans for ages. It was good to see John & Debbie again and we had so many laughs BUT it was a lot of money and a very long journey for only 5 days there...