On Strike in Italy, May 8, 2018

Its a sunny morning in London at 7:30am.  We arrived at Heathrow about an hour ago.  The overnight flight from Philadelphia, #66 on British Airways, was pleasant.  JoAnn and I both managed to sleep a little bit.  We need to be bright and perky for the next leg of our journey, a flight to Venice.  And, that’s where the rub is.  Our original flight, scheduled to depart at 8:55am London time, has been cancelled.  Apparently, Italian air traffic controllers decided to pick today to strike.

So, we are sitting in the BA Lounge, terminal 5, drinking coffee and tea and waiting.  The lounge is pleasant enough, better than most we’ve been in, but not like the “good ole days.”  We used to get bacon sandwiches for breakfast but no more.  Saving money I guess.  I miss bacon sandwiches.  Still in all, its a nice way to wait for a flight.

Well, I stand corrected!  JoAnn, as she proofread this post said, “they have bacon sandwiches,” and I was off on a hunt for the elusive bacon sandwich.  I swear on our last number of visits there were no bacon sandwiches but today, much to my joy they exist.  I brought two back to our seats, one for me and one for JoAnn.  Maybe it is like the “good ole days” after all.

We were looking forward to some “us time” in Venice before joining our tour.  I planned visits to a number of places we have yet to see.  Our first stop, after checking into the Hotel Danieli, was going to be the Scuola Grande di San Rocco to see the Crucifixion by Tintoretto.  Not to be today, hopefully tomorrow.  Now all we can do is wait for our 2:10pm flight and be happy the controllers are letting some air traffic in.  With luck we will be on time for dinner with our fellow travelers and maybe an evening stroll in the Piazza San Marco.