The only annoying coincidence that we had was a family of 3 (mom, dad and 18 yr old son) that kept appearing wherever we were in the airport. We first encountered them in the line up outside as we were getting out of the taxi. They had carts that were LOADED with boxes and luggage and they were taking up all sorts of space. As the line up started to move, we all knew that she was in front of us, but the line up was sort of crooked and she kept loudly announcing "No,no, you just wait a minute" if she thought someone was "line-butting." She said it to me once and I snarkily answered "We KNOW you're in front of us."

They kept loudly talking about how THEY had this holiday in Africa...excuse me? Are we not ALL standing in the Kilimanjaro airport? I think we are all here in Africa together.

She complained about the line up, complained about the security checks, complained about how long it was taking, complained that the other people they were travelling with were somewhere else (can you possibly blame them?)and so ad nauseum and complained some more about perhaps having to open her suitcases. Someone said (I wonder if it was me?) sotto voce, "I'd rather stand in line and have suitcases checked than have them let anyone in carrying anything they choose...."

Later, in the duty free as I was buying a few Cuban cigars for Steven she loudly bellowed: "I hope those aren't Cubans....you can't bring those back." I smugly (smugly? what's with me? I'm not normally smug) informed her that not only was I bringing back these 4, I just might bring back 50. (do any of you smoke a cigar? $4.00 Canadian for a Cuban in a nice sealed container...I SHOULD have brought back 50) I was annoyed at her because she didn't discretely mention to me that I might not be allowed to bring those into the USA, she announced it loudly enough that everyone would hear her and think: "Oooh, wordly travelling woman ahead." Then her 18 year old son announced that: "Well, we smuggled some back from Guetemala that time, remember?" and that quieted her down. I didn't even bother telling her I was Canadian and that I could bring them back, and to my surprise, the cashier didn't ask to see my passport or boarding card, so she might well have assumed I was a smuggling American and just let me go so as to annoy the Loud Lady.

They were beside us on the plane too, but thank goodness she slept the whole way, only being woken by her husband at mealtimes, not unlike a zoo animal that needs to feed at certain times.

In the Amsterdam airport we had 3 and half hours so we wandered through the shops and had a nice lunch and I ended up in the duty free once again and bought a few more items. This time I had to show my passport and boarding card and all was recorded. We tried to make our bodies realize that it was 7:30 AM and that we had had a full nights sleep, when actually it was 11 hours earlier and we hadn't slept at all. A few hours time change is one thing, but losing a day just confuses me. There was a moment on the plane when not only could we not figure out the time, we truely didn't know what day it was.

In Vancouver we ran right to the luggage place and happily found our suitcases and then zipped over to passport control and immigration where we of course got into the line where the people in front of us were in trouble for something (they claimed they didn't know how Duty Free worked, and it sounded like they had bought a LOT of jewellery, and they were wearing it all, rings, necklaces, watches etc, it sounded a little odd and they eventually had to go back to the Duty Free store with someone.) We declared out things and the fellow ushered us out and here we are...home again.

We had a quick sit down and said our goodbyes and Nicole went to her gate and I went to mine, cannot believe it is all over. I flew to Calgary on a nice little jet, had a 45 minute wait there and then flew to Cranbrook in a tin can. One of those little ones that seat 12. Six seats on either side and no cockpit door. The co-pilot said "Take all the pictures you want now, just don't take any as we are landing because the flash reflects off the windshield and can cause problems." It's only a 35 minute flight and it was pretty rough, but before I knew it, I was back at home. Steven was waiting for me, it was icey and snowy and I was COLD! Glad to be safely home, but missing the warm African sun.