The flight from Frankfurt landed in Calgary – almost home. We had a three hour stopover – but that was a good thing because the security line in Calgary was very long – in fact some people may have missed their connecting flights, there was lots of frustration and a lot of cranky people. Fortunately for us our stress level was low thanks to the long lay-over.
Beth adds: I have to say that I didn't realize how much I missed Canada and everything familiar until we came through Customs and one of the first things I saw was a Tim Horton's. Finally I could get a simple cup of coffee without fumbling through foreign currency and language barriers. I was back in well-known territory.
We went through Customs in Calgary and were relieved to discover they didn’t care about the goat cheese! Yes, in spite of saying I wouldn’t do that again, Sissel and Terje gave us two big packages of gjetost to take home! There were no other problems at customs either, even though we were a little over our limit for the amount of purchases we were allowed to bring in duty free - they simply waved us through (big sigh of relief). Now all that remained was the last little flight home!
Landing in Regina was bitter sweet. On the one hand we were very glad to be home, but this also meant the end of our wonderful trip. When we came down the stairs in the airport we were greeting by two of our children (Anna and Thomas – Joshua was at work). A pleasant surprise was also being welcomed home by our friends Irene and John Edworthy. To see these familiar faces really brought home the reality of being back home. The pilgrimage was over – now to share our adventure with the many curious folks who would be wondering how it all went. But that was for another day – today we simply wanted to take ourselves and all our luggage to our house, then to try and get some sleep and get back on Saskatchewan time.
Once at our house we waited until Joshua got home from work, then we spent some time handing out the souvenirs we brought back for the kids. We shared some stories, answered questions, got caught up on the important happenings around home, then went to bed (after being up for close to 26 hours straight).
Thus ended our 6 week trip – so much packed into so short a time – and memories to last a lifetime. So too does this blog come to an end (ironically 2 years after our trip was finished we finally got around to finishing up the final days of entries!) Both Beth and I will post one more reflection piece each – as we look back over this whole adventure and make some general observations about the trip and how it impacted us. Thanks for sharing this pilgrimage with us through this blog. Now on to whatever the future holds.
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