Moving In

We didn’t have to head to the Istanbul airport yesterday until 10:30 AM.   That allowed us to pack in the morning and have a nice last leisurely breakfast on the terrace before we left.  Things went downhill from that point on.

Our plane was delayed on the tarmac at Istanbul airport.  Don’t know why.  We only had a scheduled 55 minute layover in Munich before our connection to Paris departed so landing 30 minutes late meant we landed after boarding had begun.  In Munich, we still had to go through EU Customs and Immigration, change terminals and pass through security x-ray screening before we could board the next flight.  We decided to “give it a shot”.  We made the connection.  Wondered when our bags would join us.  Miraculously, they arrived with our flight in Paris.  There were some good things in the day.

In Paris, the RER train was a sardine can: so full the view was of someone else’s ear at 6 inches away.  At our transfer station, critical escalators had broken down.  It was brutal.  Diane and I took a pounding.  Complain, complain, complain.  We made it.  When it is time to leave Paris, we vowed to return to the airport by taxi, ... regardless of cost.  It was that bad.

We met the Property Manager who was waiting outside the apartment door.  We shlepped our 50 lb. bags up the 2 storeys of stairs while he waited at the top.  He showed us around.  We signed papers and he left. 

Today, we unpacked for the first time this trip.  Put the suitcases away.  The apartment really needed a cleaning and, although we should really be able to call the Property Management company and say “clean it”, there was no single thing we could point to which was grossly dirty.  We just like things cleaner than they were.  We went to the local supermarket and bought a couple of wash clothes and some soap and cleaned it all ourselves. It feels a bit like “home” now too because of it.  That’s now we spent the morning.

This afternoon we tried to do a power walk in the triangle between our apartment, Dayton & Gaye’s hotel and Greg & Lauri’s hotel.  Each side of the triangle is about 1 mile.  It took over 40 minutes to walk each side, just because of the crowds, the stoplights, crepe kiosks (don’t ask) (okay: the crepes here are GREAT), and shopping for long French scarves.

Our First Crepes

Dayton & Gaye's Hotel - Old Style French

Greg & Lauri's Hotel - Avant Garde French

Our Apartment Building Door

Diane has embargoed photographs at the apartment at the present.  She wants it to look perfect before I can photograph.  I may have brought this upon myself when I, unthinkingly, tried to photograph Diane in the bedroom while she was folding her underwear.  Maybe tomorrow.