This morning we docked at the same place in Istanbul, right below the Topkapi Palace.  I’ve come full circle.  It is a gorgeous Sunday morning. After breakfast, around 10 AM I disembarked.  I felt like the Queen of the Nile getting off. I had three officers, two stewards, and the Destination Manager accompanying me.  One of the officers told me that if I wanted to stay they had a cabin for me. It’s just not that easy though to change one’s plans like that.

There was a car and driver waiting to take me for the hour ride to Istanbul Airport and there I was quickly shocked back to reality.  My flight to Heathrow didn’t leave until 8 PM. (Once in London I would be spending the night at the lovely hotel attached to Terminal 5. ) My plan was to check my luggage and go to the lounge to hang out until boarding time.  You know what they say about the best laid plans…  The Turkish gentlemen had other ideas and were classic examples of giving someone a little authority and having it go to his head.  No, absolutely NOT.  I could not check my luggage.  Checking your luggage is the magic pass for getting through passport control and to the lounge.  You can’t get there with your luggage, only with a carryon.  So I sat and sat and sat…. I spent about 7 hours moving from one uncomfortable spot to another.

Eventually, my turn came to check in and be set free from airport purgatory.  I made my way to the lounge which serves business and first class for every airline known to man. On the board showing the status of flights I saw flights going to Uzbekistan, Tehran,  and Benghazi just to name a few.  The lounge was largely occupied by men from these various Muslim countries.  Now I’ve met some very nice men of the Islamic faith on this very cruise, but these guys were mostly cut from different cloth. They were quite pushy and wouldn’t yield an inch.  I stood in line to get something to drink (everything was self-serve) and was pushed out of the way a couple of times.  There was one very nice, but rather unusual thing.  At some point a small band started playing  kind of incongruous music.  They played things like La Vie en Rose and French chansons as if we were in a café in France.  One of the musicians was an accordion player.  Once long ago I played that instrument, so I’ve decided to brush up on my playing in case I ever want to get a part-time gig playing accordion in the Istanbul lounge.  

Anyway, soon enough it was time to go to my gate.  When I got there instead of boarding people needing assistance or in first class first, they made a general announcement which was, cross my heart exactly these words, “Everybody board now.”  Picture a stampede of people carrying all size and shapes of bags (including one man carrying a 12-pack of toilet paper) and you’ll get the idea.  The toilet paper has had me wondering.  I hadn’t heard of a shortage of it in the UK.

Finally we were off.  The man in the seat next to me was a nice chap from England.  He was very pleasant to talk with but during the flight he had three gin and tonics and seven of those little bottles of wine they serve on planes.  He didn’t seem sloshed, but I did wonder how he would do driving home.

We arrived in Heathrow a little early and I made my way to the Sofitel.  I forgot to mention that they checked my bags all the way through to Dulles.  Fortunately I had a change of clothes in my carryon.  I confess to being worried about whether I’ll see my bags again in Washington, but I didn’t want to argue because of the US rule that you have to have a negative Covid test to return regardless of vaccination status.  The rule says that if you have a test one calendar day before you begin a journey ticketed as one continuos trip you qualify.  My test was done on the ship on Saturday and I was afraid that if I said I wanted to pickup my bags at Heatrhrow, it wouldn’t count for my second flight.  Anyway, I discovered that while I had clothes and a little hotel pack with toothbrush and toothpaste, I didn’t have a brush.  It’s Monday morning and I washed my hair in the hotel and I now look a lot like Medusa.

It's Monday night now and I’m home.  My bags made it to Dulles, a very nice driver picked me up and we had an uneventful drive home. It is good to be home, but I’m sure I’ll miss being pampered by next week. When I’ve had a chance to unpack and recharge, I’ll write my final thoughts. Now it’s time to go to bed.