Airports are the modern version of trial by ordeal, and we're in for about 12-15 hours in various airports before we take our first breath of the fresh air of Italy.
We met our group here at 10 AM and got ourselves through check-in and security - even had time for breakfast along the way - and may I say that the corned beef hash at the Rose City Cafe in the airport is about the best I've encountered in Portland for a mere $10.
We re-introduced ourselves all around - for a student tour, we've got as many adults on the trip as we do kids.
Here's a shot of the whole group, ready to go!
Our flight takes us on the same route (more or less) that I took in February on the Alcan Winter Rally. Except what took us a week to cover in the car will take about 4 hours on the plane. We'll pass over Tuktoyaktuk on our trans-polar arc over to Frankfurt.
We've got an 8-hour layover in Frankfurt, so the tour company gave us each $10 (US) to spend there. Everyone's spending it here, however, as US dollars will be less useful in Germany. Then we've got a 2-hour jaunt down to Rome, where we arrive just in time for dinner on Sunday. All told, it's about a 24-hour process to get from here in Portland to my first plate of pasta in Rome.
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I got a phone message from Jeff on Sunday at 10 am (which was 7 pm Sunday in Rome). Their plane had landed in Rome, and they'd already found their first gelato stand! Jeff and Kate each managed about 2 hours of sleep either on the plane or on a bench in Frankfurt airport, so everyone was pretty well exhausted. After getting a plate o' pasta for dinner, the whole group was looking forward to seeing their hotel room pillows.
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