Traveling to Malta

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We are on our way at last. We left Klamath this morning just a little bit after 10AM, Thursday December 8. Klamath wasn’t too bad, but HWY 97 was a solid sheet of ice all the way north and it was snowy to Oakridge on the west side of the Cascade Mountains. Very slow going, for sure! We drove straight through and got to Dan’s (Mo’s brother) house around 4pm, visited a bit and then went to the Olive Garden for supper. Home to bed by 830, getting ready for the big travel day to come.

And big day it has most certainly been. It’s all running together at the moment, sun shining in this Air Malta Airbus while we wait for takeoff. We have been awake now for more than 24 hours. It is noon here in London, center of the world, zero hours Greenwich Mean Time. Funny. I’m losing track of time it seems. Still waiting, the variety of humanity in this airport is amazing, all kinds of people. There is a whole plane load of family going to Ceylon, and another planeload of people who know each other going to Malta. It was an experience boarding this aircraft, lots of Muslim women with children. The Maltese language sounds melodic, somewhat Arabic, I think I will like learning this language

The flight from Portland to Chicago was fine, except for landing on the icy snowy runway, which just a little nerve racking. We made our connections to the big 777 to London, didn’t dawdle at all, only to sit on the plane for 2 hours before it would actually take off. Some story about fuel and maintenance. Don’t they get tired of repeating the same tired excuses? They gave us water and a really bad oat bar, but once we were airborne we did get free wine with our dinner. It was amazing to watch a long night pass in a few hours and we managed to get to London in time for our Malta flight in spite of the delay. Finally airborne, on the way to Malta. We just crossed the English Channel and will arrive in Malta at 4:30 this afternoon. I have completely lost track of exactly how many hours we have been traveling, what day it is here, what day it is at home, or anything else for that matter!