Monday, June 24, 2002: Elaine took Celia and me to the airport at St. Louis by 7:15 a.m. By being there three hours in advance of the departure time, we had very little trouble with waiting in line in St. Louis. The layover in Toronto was likewise uneventful except we had to be sure we bought lunch at a restaurant that accepted credit cards since we had no Canadian money. Had to unpack my luggage and turn my camera on before they let us through the security check on the way out of Toronto. The flight from Toronto to Frankfurt took just over seven hours.

Tuesday June 25: We got our German Rail Pass validated at the Frankfurt airport train station and caught a train to Passau on a schedule where we would not need to change trains en route. We had not had time to change dollars into euros or get some euros from a money machine so on the train we paid with our food with a Visa card. The four hour train ride from the Frankfurt airport to Passau was relaxing and with no crises. It was pleasant to watch landscapes go by dotted with examples of familiar German architecture, farm buildings, churches, apartment buildings, etc.

At Passau we had some challenges: although the address of our hotel was Bahnhof Str. 5, it was difficult to locate because many buildings on that street did not have their street address showing and were not located in numerical order. We first found another address we were looking for (Bahnhof Str. 29, where the tourist office was located. We eventually bought two Passau Cards there that are good for three days of free admission to museums as well as free transportation on the busses and trains in the area. We learned that our hotel at Bahnhof Str. 5 was a few blocks away, so we located it and checked in. After a two hour nap, we explored the neighborhood around the hotel, had supper at a McDonalds a block away and spent part of the evening watching German language programs on TV.

Wednesday, June 26: The breakfast buffet at the Hotel Herdegen provided us with a good selection of food: cereals, breads and eggs of various kinds; fruit; tea, coffee, and hot chocolate.

After breakfast we window-shopped our way to the office where we were to get our tickets for the three-river cruise. They ran our Passau Cards through the machine and gave us tickets for a cruise. The first cruise for the day was to occur at 10 a.m., so we spent some of that remaining hour in another tourist office located near there. Then onto the boat for a tour of the Inn, Ilz and Danube rivers. Actually we floated by but didn't go into/onto the Ilz. It was interesting to note the dark color of the Ilz compared to the light color of the Danube.

After the cruise we walked back to our hotel area. After a brief stop in our hotel, we went to Woolworth's for lunch. Celia had a dish consisting of two slices of toast, with slices of ham and pineapple ring, and a maraschino cherry, covered with melted swiss cheese. I had a medium sized tomato and cheese pizza.

After lunch, we took a two hour siesta. Then I spent two more hours learning how to use the city bus system that our Passau Card gave us free access to. I eventually learned that because of road construction in a nearby area of the city, certain busses did not come by the bus stop near our hotel. Thus the information on the signs at the bus stop was incorrect. But I eventually figured it out and made a complete loop on the bus system and returned to the hotel. We use the city bus tomorrow morning and also a shuttle bus (we hope).

After we had supper at the nearby McDonalds (comfortable, routine food!), I went to the train station for information about train trips we could make on our Passau Card.

In bed by 9 p.m. with the sun just starting to sink below the horizon, and with trains noisily lumbering by periodically about 150 feet from our hotel.

Thursday, June 27: Up for breakfast at 7 a.m. Left at 9 to walk to the train station to catch the city bus to take us to the Rathaus. That worked smoothly. After finding the bus stop there for the shuttle bus that was to take us to be Oberhaus museum, we boarded that bus, using our Passau Cards as passes. The buildings of the Veste Oberhaus, a huge structure overlooking the Danube valley, have an 800 year history. It served as the citadel for the prince/bishops, starting in 1217. From 1822 - 1918 it served as a military prison. Now part of it is a youth hostel, part of it a meteorological observation station and part of it a history museum that we entered. From here one has an excellent view of the three rivers of Passau. We had a leisurely lunch at the cafe of the museum, sitting at outdoor tables, shaded from the sun by umbrellas, enjoying bowls of pancake soup and hot chocolate.

Had no trouble reversing our trip to the museum and getting back to our hotel for a 1-2 hour nap. We tried using some non-city busses but they were either not on schedule or relocated, perhaps also because of the street renovation going on. After a couple of hours waiting at different bus stops, we gave up, despite the fact that I had bought the complete schedule book for all the busses. Had supper at McDonald's on their second floor veranda. Enjoyed feeding a small bird (probably a variety of sparrow) pieces of a french fry after it came begging to the porch railing near our table. We noticed it because a young man near our table had given it a fry as large as the bird itself; it grabbed it and flew away.

I went to the train station to learn how to use our Passau Card for the train trips we plan to take tomorrow.. Then we watched part of a soccer game going on in the the world finals on TV before turning in for the night.

Friday, June 28: After breakfast, we walked to the train station by 8 a.m. to catch the 8:23 a.m. train to Vilshofen, a town we had selected because it was the furthest we could ride in that direction, allegedly free, using our Passau Cards. The Passau Card machine at the train station that was supposed to spit out a train ticket, when you held your Passau Card against it, wasn't working. We got on the train anyway and were soon rolling through a very rural countryside with at times our train car simultaneously touching the leaves of trees on both sides of the track. The conductor on the train accepted our explanation that the Passau Card machine at the Passau train station was not functioning properly.

After getting off the train at Vilshofen and checking the schedule board to see what times we could select to return to Passau, we began to explore the town. Within three blocks, we had found a McDonald's. Since public rest rooms are hard to come by in a typical German town, Celia's comment, "Perfect!" upon seeing it is understandable. Also found a church dedicated to "Johann der Taufer", just as our home church in Cappeln is. It was undergoing extensive renovation. Also found a maypole over 50 feet tall with lots of detail work on it. And, of course, we found lots of interesting store windows. After a couple of hours, we went back to the Vilshofen train station. We tried our Passau Card in the appropriate machine there but it was also out of order. The conductor on the train also accepted our excuse that the machine had not been working.

Once back in Passau, Celia waited at the train station while I walked for lunch to McDonalds and returned with food which we took with us on the train leaving for Pocking just before 11:43 a.m. Again we had a chance to experience the beautiful countryside as we stopped at the small towns (in one case only a sign with the name, no buildings) of Neustift, Neukirchen, Fürstenzell, Bad Höhenstadt, Engertsham, Sulzbach and Ruhstorf before arriving at Pocking. No McDonalds there, just a typical residential and shopping area. Enjoyed the stroll through town before finding our way back to the Pocking train station. The Passau Card machine there worked, giving us two individual tickets to give the conductor on the train. While we were sitting on the platform in a shelter waiting for the train to Passau, it started to rain - our first experience of rain since coming to the Passau region several days ago. On the trip back to Passau, we saw no conductor so we have some unpunched Passau Card train tickets.

Back in Passau an hour or so later, Celia stayed in our hotel room while I made several trips on the city bus to determine the closest bus stop to the dock where we will find the Danube Princes tomorrow. Then Celia and I had super at McDonalds and concluded the evening with some TV.

Saturday, June 29: Up for breakfast a bit earlier than usual because we were aware that the hotel was completely full last night. They had moved the breakfast buffet table out of the breakfast room into the area by the reception desk to allow more room for table seating in the breakfast room. We were able to finish breakfast before the "crunch" came.

Since we could not board the Danube Princess before 1 p.m., we packed leisurely, took a nap and checked out of the hotel a bit before the noon checkout time. The hotel called a taxi for us so we were delivered to the exact spot where the ship had docked earlier this morning. One of the ship's employees whose job presumable was to pick up luggage spotted us and took our luggage on the ship, although we had to wait until 1 p.m. before boarding ourselves.

After boarding, we were only allowed to be in the lounge area until 3 p.m. At that time we had to get in line and turn in our passports and make our table reservations (we are to sit with the same group of four other persons for each meal this week). At 4 p.m. we were escorted to our rooms and had a chance to settle in and unpack before going to the presentation on optional escorted shore excursions that we could choose to participate in at our various stops along the Danube. Then supper at 7:30 p.m. with entertainment by the ship's band. "Supper" meant a seven course meal with the ability to make choices as to what we wanted.

We decided to not stay up for the midnight snack.

Sunday, June 30: Today we begin our first full day on the ship. That means, among other things, being served six meals, three of them served in the restaurant, where all 162 passengers are served simultaneously. The meals are: breakfast, mid-morning bouillon, lunch, mid-afternoon tea and cakes, dinner and midnight snack. We eat all our meals at table #30, joined by four other English-speaking persons, two from England and two from Illinois. It is a delightful group of six to be a part of.

After breakfast this morning was the first optional excursion when the ship docked at Dürnstein, Austria. Celia and I had opted not to join the guided tour but instead walked into town on our own. Dürnstein is a small fortified town with wall and battle turrets crowned high on a hill by the ruins of the former Kuenring Castle and still girdled by the wall where King Richard the Lion-Heart was kept as a prisoner. The castle Dürnstein was built in the mid-12th century. King Richard was kept prisoner here from 1192 to 1193. We found a quaint shop and things to buy there. The lady proprietor was very apologetic about the delay in processing our payment - she had never used a Visa card machine before and had to read the instructions as she was following them. Soon after we returned to the ship, it moved on down the river.

After lunch we had a brief nap in our cabin, then spent a couple of hours looking out our window, tracing our progress on the map of the Danube we had purchased, watching people and machines on the shore, watching what was involved in having our ship, which is longer than a football field, go through locks. The Captain's Welcome Dinner, consisting of nine courses, lasted from 7:30 p.m. to past 10 p.m. (no speeches, just eating)

Monday, July 1: Our ship arrived in Budapest and was docked by 8:30 a.m. By that time Hungarian border authorities were in the lounge and each of the 162 passengers on our shop had to present themselves with their passports. Our ship personnel had taken our passports Sunday afternoon so this morning we had to form a line, get our passport for the first table, show it to the Hungarians at the next table, then give it back to one of our ship's officers at the next table. We had started breakfast by 7:30 a.m., so Celia and I were almost through with breakfast when we had to take a break and meet the border officials.

A Hungarian bank employee came on board to convert money, as desired by passengers, into the Hungarian Forint (approximately 270 Forints per US dollar.). Celia and I got some of that money, then took a morning stroll in downtown Budapest. We found some good family gifts and enjoyed walking around a bit, although both Celia and I had a bit of a "bug" - maybe a reaction to the excessive and exotic food from last night.

At 4 p.m. we left for the first optional excursion of the trip that we had selected called, "An Evening in the Puszta". It involved a bus trip out to a large farm in the flat, virtually barren, plains of Hungary where we were given a carriage ride (reminded me of a farm wagon with rubber tires such as we used to have) for a mile or more over the farm, seeing groups of horses and sheep. Then we viewed a performance of riding skill by the gypsy "cowboys" and their horses, ranging from having the horses lie down on their sides and remain quiet while the cowboys were cracking their whips, to a contest to see which cowboy could circle the ring and lose the least amount of wine from a completely full glass, to a soccer game in which the horses with the guidance of the riders would nudge with their shoulders or kick with their feet, a four foot diameter soccer ball back and forth across the field. During the performance we were seated in a "grandstand" constructed of rough-hewn wood but sturdy and rugged enough to hold the two busloads of passengers who had opted to go on that excursion.

After the riding performance we walked a few hundred feet to some "buildings" (mostly with roof but open walls) where we were served a delectable supper including boiled potatoes and roast beef. We were entertained by a "gypsy" band, singer, and dancers.

On the way back to Budapest, the bus took us to a nearby "mountain" where we could see the lights of Budapest below us

Tuesday, July 2: Had a great breakfast of hot chocolate, watermelon, roll, scrambled eggs and bacon, cooked egg, Wheaties with milk and sliced bananas. Almost immediately thereafter, we left for the 8.5 hour excursion labeled "Danube Bend and Esztergom". The Danube River changes its direction from east-west to south at Visegrad between Budapest and Esztergom, hence the term "Danube Bend". As yesterday, we were put on a bus with the other English-speaking passengers, making it possible for the guide not to have to repeat his/her story in different languages.

Our first stop was in the town of Szentendre. The bus parked and then we were led on foot to visit the points of interest. We visited a several centuries-old Greek Orthodox church as well as a museum highlighting the work of the twentieth century sculptor Margit Kovacs. We were given some time to shop in the old-town area, at which we were successful in finding some family gifts. Then on the road again. We stopped for lunch at Visegrad at a very elegant restaurant on the "top of the mountain" with a Hungarian string band for entertainment. Later we visited a cathedral (the largest church in Hungary), including lots of church golden artifacts, the burial crypt of Cardinal Mindzenti and former archbishops. Then on to Esztergom where we saw a monument erected in the year 2000 commemorating the 1000th anniversary of the coronation of the first king of Hungary. We reboarded the Danube Princes there - it had moved along while we were on our excursion.

During the supper hour, we were interrupted by a bevy of ship officials entering the restaurant and announcing that the ship's rudder and propeller system had been damaged by a log and we would not be able to maintain our planned program and, without repairs, would not be able to return to Passau as scheduled by Saturday morning. Thus, all excursions for tomorrow are cancelled as our ship heads for "dry dock" and repairs in Linz. We will sleep in our ship's cabins tonight and tomorrow night, then be taken by bus to Vienna from Linz Thursday morning. The excursions we had signed up for at Vienna will be held but leaving from the hotel instead of from the ship.

Wednesday, July 3: This was a day "on the boat". A normal breakfast, chance for napping or watching the Danube flow by our cabin window. Lunch was served from buffet tables on the Sun Deck, next to the swimming pool. After supper, the crew put on a talent show in the lounge. The ship provided small cloth "overnight" bags for those passengers wishing to use them for the one night we are to be in the hotel in Vienna while the ship in being repaired. Because of the situation, our excursion to Bratislava was canceled.

Thursday, July 4: It was raining this morning when we got up and still raining after breakfast when we left the ship to board four busses for the two and a half hour ride to Vienna (actually two one hour rides separated by a 15 minute stop at a rest area along the highway. We bought a bottle of non-carbonated water to take along on the bus. The "checking in" at the hotel had been done for us by the ship personnel so in Vienna I was handed the key cards to Room 131 at the de France hotel. They didn't work, so I had to go to the hotel desk and get them "remagnetized".

After a buffet lunch with the rest of the passengers, while some went on a city tour (which Celia and I had done some years ago) she and I opted to go to our room, take a nap and watch TV. It was important to get some genuine relaxation after a couple of uncertain days. The BBC and CNN programs, with their coverage of the 4th of July celebrations in the U.S., as well as other news, were interesting to watch because of their perspective. Then at 6 p.m. we (the 162 of us) assembled in the hotel lobby and were led to a dining room where we were served Rindfleischsülzchen mit Kernöldressing, Grießnockerlsuppe, Kolbsrollbraten mit Reis und Gemüse, Sacher Torte mit Schlagobers.

We chose to rest in the room this evening instead of going to the Vienna Hofburg Palace for a concert.

Friday, July 5: Up relatively early for a 7:30 breakfast in the hotel. We packed before breakfast because we were supposed to be packed and out of the room by the time we got back from our South Viennese Forest excursion, so that didn't allow much time. Then, after breakfast, we learned that plans had changed, so that we had to put our luggage out in the hall by our door before leaving the hotel to board our busses for the Wienerwald excursion. On the excursion, we visited the convent of Heiligenkreuz that dates back to 1135, we traveled through the picturesque Helenental and the former hunting seat of Crown Prince Rudolf. We also visited Baden, an old Roman spa where we had a chance to stroll around on our own.

Back to the hotel where we were herded into several different buffet areas until they were filled up, had the lunch, then back on the busses to head for Melk. The Benedictine Abbey at Melk, Austria, is located on a 180 foot ridge, dominating the Danube. The Abbey building itself might be mistaken for a palace. The first documentary reference to Melk dates back to 831 A.D., probably a castle built on the present-day site. The site has belonged to the Benedictine Monks since 1089. It has an extensive library and is still used as a monastery. Its current major source of income is tourism, given the unique features of the building, including seven inner courtyards, fourteen hundred windows, etc.

The trip on the busses from Melk to Linz, during which time passengers repeatedly asked the driver to make the air conditioning "stärker" was otherwise uneventful, except for a 15 minute rest stop where I got some m&m's so that Celia and I could survive the rest of the ride.

Settling into our cabin, eating the evening meal at 8:15 p.m. on the ship concluded our day. During the evening meal all of the kitchen and serving crew were presented to us for our recognition. Overnight the ship, all repaired, traveled to Passau.

Saturday, July 6: Up early to pack, pay our bills for drinks we'd had on the ship as well as excursions we had taken, then breakfast and we were ready to disembark. We caught a taxi to the Passau Hauptbahnhof. Went to the Reisecentum, got a schedule, telling us what trains to take from Passau to Osnabrück. We bought seat reservations for the stretch of track that involved an ICE train. Then we boarded the IC train leaving Passau at 9:25 a.m. and got to Nürnberg at 11:32 a.m. Our second leg of this virtually cross-Germany trip for the day was to leave Nürnberg at 11:39 but I noticed on the board at Nürnberg that it was 5 minutes late, so we did not have to rush to make our connection. We boarded the ICE, found our seats, put our luggage overhead and settled in. Since we had decided to eat our lunch on this train but the dining car was filled with too much smoke, I went to the end of the dining car where they sold snacks and asked if I could have a couple of soups to take along to our seats. The man didn't seem very willing, but the young lady behind the counter asked if I was in one of the first class cars. When I indicated that we were, she indicated I should go back to my seat and she would come and take our order and bring the food to us. That is what happened. I ordered chili and Celia ordered a baked potato. When she started bringing the food to our seats, she found not enough room on the "tablets" folding out from the seats in front of us, so she invited us to the space in the center of the car where she created a large round table where we could sit and eat our food. It was all very comfortable and gave us a chance to relax a bit after the tensions associated with the ship travel and its related problems. Had a nice nap on the train, only to be awakened by a railroad employee offering ice cream bars for sale. A pleasant way to wake up; Celia and I each got one and enjoyed it.

We got to Hanover at 2:31 p.m. The last few stops on the ICE included stretches where the average speed was just over 100 miles per hour. At Hanover we had a layover of an hour and a quarter. We used the time to get some Euros from a money machine and bought a book on Hanover that we liked, getting to the track 20 minutes early. Found the Inter-Regio train already sitting there. We boarded it, selected an empty 5-person compartment and put our luggage away. We ended up having the compartment to ourselves all the way to Osnabrück.

Once in Osnabrück, I called Günter and Friedhelm to tell them we had arrived. While waiting, we found some neat presents for our two granddaughters. Friedhelm found us and took us home. We had invited them out for the evening meal, so we went to a Yugoslav restaurant, ordered Bosnian half & half (steak, pork, fries and rice) as we had on other visits with them. Despite our tiredness, we watched some TV with Günter and Friedhelm before turning in.

Sunday, July 7: I woke up, checked the clock and realized I had slept almost 9 hours. Had a comfortable breakfast with normal food, chatting with Günter and Friedhelm. Today was to be a neighborhood picnic, much of it here at Günter and Friedhelm's. By 10:30 a.m., folks started to arrive, mostly by bicycle. By 11 a.m., drinks had been loaded into Friedhelm's car whereupon Friedhelm and Celia and I traveled to the destination point of the bike ride, a substantial business location, whose owner had a hobby of getting and restoring old radios. We were told he had more and better radios than the radio museum in Berlin. The owner was not able to be there but his stand-in described and demonstrated some of the over 300 radios and tape players we saw there. At one point he was playing a tape he said was labeled, "Wilhelm's favorites" (the owner's). Listening to the music, the feeling that came over me is hard to describe. Here I was standing in a room in a plant in Westerkappeln, Germany, listening to the music and words (in English) of the Battle Hymn of the Republic "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord......."

From the plant the entourage returned to Günter and Friedhelm's place where tables for 40 had been set up in the entrance hall of the barn. Several people had brought barbeque grills and started putting them into operation, preparing the bratwurst for the group. Each family had brought a bowl of salad and some had brought some cake for dessert. After the meal, some decided to move their tables and benches outside to the black-topped parking area where there was room for the grills, the tables and benches and chairs as well as a game of soccer involving the youngsters as well as some in their 50's. During the hours of chatting that followed I had a chance to practice my German. I learned that this was the tenth year of the neighborhood gettogether. They always tried to have a point of interest, to which they would ride by bicycle, then return for the meals at the Freeses. The first couple of years they had gathered in the woods near here at a cleared flat and level location, but they found that it was more difficult there, such as the absence of toilet facilities. The gettogether ended near 7 p.m. as the last of the visitors said their "Good-byes".

We spent the evening viewing 600 slides Friedhelm had taken, including a couple of hundred from a rhododendrum flower show but most from his trips to Morocco and Spain.

Monday, July 8: After a leisurely breakfast, Günter and Friedhelm took us to a Jewish cemetery we had not visited before. Some stones had Jewish inscriptions on one side and German on the other. A tall monument had been dedicated to all victims who had died in concentration camps. The stones were located amongst tall trees in a wedge-shaped area behind a farm.

Then we were taken to the Sloopstein rocks recognized as a burial place for persons from the area as long ago as 2000 B.C. A legend has developed that the red color in the rocks and earth is the blood of the dead martyrs reminding us to work for peace.

Then, still before lunch, we had a leisurely driving tour of the many farm houses in the Westerkappeln area, all connected by one-lane blacktop roads. They indicated that, just as we said was the case in America, the smaller farms could not provide a living for a family, so the cropland was rented out or sold to a larger farm operation.

We took a much needed nap after lunch followed by a walk with Friedhelm around the farm and the neighborhood.

We had invited Fritz and Wilma, Günter and Friedhelm to dinner this evening and they had accepted. Günter and Friedhelm and Celia and I went to Fritz and Wilma's where we visited briefly. Then I joined Fritz and Wilma in their new car and the whole group left for Krombacker's Steak House in Quakenbush. Had a good meal with drinks and visiting all around. Returned home by 11:30 p.m. properly tired.

Tuesday, July 9: Breakfast at 8, then getting packed. Günter tried without success to get train information by calling Osnabrück Hauptbahnhof. That was no problem, since we had plenty of time to get from Osnabrück to Frankfurt. We said our "goodbyes" to Günter, hopped in the car with Friedhelm. At the train station, we were told at the ReiseCentrum that we could catch the first leg of our trip to Frankfurt in 5 minutes. We got to the right track, said "good-bye" to Friedhelm just as the train was ready to depart for Cologne. The change of trains at Cologne went smoothly. On the leg from Cologne to Frankfurt, the train stopped for 25 minutes at a highway intersection, making the train that many minutes behind schedule.

The hotel room we had reserved via the Internet was waiting for us at the InterCity Hotel in Frankfurt, next to the main train. We spent our time here in the hotel room after that except for supper at McDonalds in the train station and a leisurely walk around the lower level of the train station. While at McDonalds, while I was in line for our food, Celia was seated at a table waiting for me. She saw an apparently homeless man, disheveled with no shirt, but with a jacket, go to the trash container and finish drinking a discarded drink that had been left there.

Wednesday, July 10: After a good night's sleep in the InterCity Hotel we had breakfast at the hotel. (a good variety of choices, except a waitress didn't come around as in some hotels and ask what drink you would like). With our free passes on the S- and U-Bahn from the hotel, we spent a good part of the morning practicing a "dry run" of tomorrow's catching a plane at the Frankfurt airport. We noted all the important things: the airport stop on the S-Bahn, the sign to follow in the airport to find the ticket counter where Air Canada was located (there are over 120 airlines with ticket counters there). We also found grandchildren gifts we still needed.

Then back to the main train station for lunch at McDonalds, a brief stop at our hotel room and then we "rode the rails" for a while in the afternoon, taking a commuter rail line (S-Bahn) as far east as it would to, then west, and finally north and south. At times we experienced a hard rain and thunderstorms, but we were quite comfortable in the train car. By mid-afternoon, as we returned to the hotel, we learned it was without power. Thus no elevator service to our fifth floor room. At each landing, the hotel had stationed a young lady as "guard" and a young man with a strong flashlight to show guests to their room along the very dark hallways. Once we got to our room, we could see well because our room had a pair of large windows - just no TV or anything requiring power. I was rather surprised that our door key cards worked to open the door. The power came back on not long after we had arrived in our room.

Supper at McDonalds and watching CNN on the TV in our room concluded our day.

Thursday, July 11: We were up early, so we packed, had breakfast by 6 a.m. and grabbed a commuter train even earlier than we planned. We had no trouble finding our way at the airport, got through security in a timely manner and had lots of waiting time before our plane left at 1 p.m. on schedule. The third person in our set of three seats on the plane was a young man, Kiko, who was going to be met by his uncle in Toronto.

The plane arrived at Toronto a half hour early. It was a good thing. We needed all of the two and a half hours to get through customs and then through security for the Air Canada flight from Toronto to St. Louis. The U.S. required a huge amount of paperwork. The line that we had to stand in to get our U.S. paperwork approved reminded me of Disneyland with its back-and-forth snaking lines. It took an hour for that line alone. Security check was later but didn't take that long.

The flight from Toronto to St. Louis had no delays, no bad weather. When we deplaned at St. Louis, I called Carl. In less than an hour, he was there and took us home.

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