14 September - Back to Germany

Now for the reverse of our fun travels in getting here. We had to be at the Venice main station by 9:30am to catch the bus to the airport. I go to the main desk to pay for our shuttle rides and she says, sorry, they are all full. What!! She said starting today, you need to make a reservation for the shuttle because they changed from the big bus to an eight seater van. I was livid! I checked out last night and told the girl that I needed to catch the 9:30am bus and she said the shuttle would get me there in plenty of time and not to worry.I told the girl at the desk this and she suggested the public bus, but that can take up to 45 minutes. We did not have 45 minutes! So she suggested a taxi at about 25 euro. I demanded to speak to the manager and she got all flustered and said he wasn't there. Then she called the driver of the van and asked if he could come early and take us in and then come back to get the rest of the passengers. He agreed. Unfortunately we got caught in traffic and just barely made the bus which meant that he was way late in getting back to the other passengers. I felt bad, but it really was not my fault. They should have told me last night that I needed to make a reservation on the shuttle.

So then on the bus to Treviso to catch our plane at 12pm. This time they did check our bags and flagged Skylar's so the girl had to go through it and was kind of irked that all that was in it was smelly clothes. They let us go and off we went to the plane. It was storming! We had to run to the plane on the runway since they don't have those tunnel things that attach directly to the building. We were soaked by the time we took our seats. Made for such a comfy ride. There are no assigned seats either, so everyone just pushes and shoves trying to get to whatever they seem to think the best seat is. At Frankfurt-Hahn we took a bus to Frankfurt train station, then a train to Heidelberg, then on to Heilbronn where we caught a bus to the flat. Finally getting home at about 8pm.