Little Peter - We are home!

Little Peter can be found all over town

Petermännchen, a Schwerin castle ghost, must have heard we were coming to Europe.  He decided to follow us around and play a few tricks on us, nothing serious of course!

First, little Peter arranged for me to get us lost when riding bicycles through the tulip fields near Keukenhof Gardens in the Netherlands. Friendly Dutch folks provided good directions as we were completely "off the map."

Then the little guy arranged for the German train drivers to strike just in time for our Amsterdam to Berlin train ride.  No problem, we were rerouted to Cologne to catch a Cologne to Berlin  train.  Oops,  as we approached Cologne, we transferred to a local train headed for Dusseldorf. The Cologne - Berlin train had been cancelled so it seemed.  No problem, we arrived in Berlin in time for spargel soup at a local pub.

Train strike over, we decided to visit Potsdam.  Upon arriving in Potsdam we found that the bus drivers for the bus to take us to Park Sanssouci had staged a sympathy strike, not all the drivers it seems, just the ones for the route we needed. No problem, we took a tram.

Little Peter apparently needed a break, so we didn't hear from him until it was time for our Cologne to Brussels trip.  The train drivers were back on strike. The Cologne train station was relatively empty. But Peter was kind to us - our train ran. 

All on board for our flight home, the pilot announced that Brussels radar had lost power - no arrivals or departures. Hearing nothing from airport officials for an hour, our pilot asked us to deplane.  After two hours of hanging around the boarding area while many inter-European flights were, one by one, cancelled, we reboarded our plane to wait another hour before our plane could leave. We were the first plane out.  No problem - we had a long layover coming up in Newark.  

Throughout the seven hour flight, a mom with a screaming kid sat next to Joanne.  Peter wasn't so kind to her.  I was lucky. The actual flight was uneventful for me.  As I stood up to get off the plane, the kid seated across the aisle from me vomited all over the floor and all over his pants.  There was nothing his poor mother could do as people had crammed into the aisle waiting to move forward. It was all I could do to stay out of the vomit or have him rub his vomit covered pants on me.  I did have extra pants with me so wasn't in any real danger anyway. Little Peter was just having some fun with us.

Just one more trick - Little Peter moved a line of thunderstorms through Newark just in time to delay our plane to Fort Myers by one hour.  

My cousin Constance and her husband Bill made a late night pickup and we were home about midnight without mishap.  

P.S. The Belgian train drivers went on strike the day after we left! Little Peter must be playing tricks on someone else now!