The journey home

We decided to take a late afternoon train from Lucca to Florence in order to maximize our time there.It was a hot afternoon, almost 30 C. The train was a local one that stopped a lot, but the views were beautiful most of the way, what I think of as "typical" Tuscan countryside. We had the train car almost to ourselves. Florence SMN station was extremely busy, being Sunday early evening. We caught the bus out to our airport hotel, and cooled off with a beer & snacks before a fairly early dinner. The Novotel is a fairly standard airport hotel, comfortable & with free shuttles to both the airport & train station, but not much character. Very different from all the other hotels we stayed at!
An early start next day, Lufthansa flights from Florence to Frankfurt , and Frankfurt to Vancouver. Frankfurt airport was much busier and the connection not as easy as Munich, but we had lots of time.Our flight out of Frankfurt was delayed a couple of hours, someone was sick & had to be taken off the flight. The delay was in finding their luggage! Premium economy seats on the 747 not as nice as on the Airbus we flew out on, but the service was pretty good, and certainly more comfortable than economy. Karen was flying on to San Diego later that evening, so we said goodbye at the airport & I continued home by Skytrain & Seabus, to a very warm welcome from Ian & Chiquita.
It was a great holiday, we saw beautiful & interesting sights, met interesting people, and had lots of great food & wine! Italy is such a wonderful country, so many wonderful & diverse areas. I know I'll be back again before too long!