We Have Arrived in France

Our Home for 10 hours on Delta
The Chateau de Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Courtyard in the Chateau

We left the house at 5am on Tuesday, stopped to pick up Anna and John, took the 9:30 am flight to Seattle, waited, two hours, and then took the 10 hour flight from Seattle to Paris.  Alice booked us in Economy Comfort+ seats which have four additional inches of space --- it is like being seated in the exit row.  It is amazing what a difference those four inches make.  We arrived in Paris at 8 am local time (11 pm Portland time) after only about 2 hours of sleep on the plane.  After a fairly long wait to go through French immigration, the Viking people were at the baggage claim to meet us, loaded us into a new Mercedes van, and drove us about an hour to arrive at the riverboat, the Viking Rinda.  Anna and John were able to check into their room, Alice and I had to wait about an hour before our room was ready.  Then it was time to head down to the dining room for a soup, salad, and sandwich buffet; we met Lois and Juan from Phoenix, and Gary and Maria from New Jersey.  Sitting in our room we are able to watch barges and boats going by next to us.  Earlier today there were people rowing by in single and double sculls.  This afternoon we took a short (2 hour) tour of Saint-Germain where we toured the chateau (really a castle complete with a moat) and a church.  After all those months of anticipation the vacation is really here.

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