Awoke at 04:00 after a short nap of a few hours and caught the first train to Schiphol at 04:45. Checked our baggage with Lufthansa (Michele's carrier via Frankfurt) and Air France (mine via Paris) and then cleared security and proceeded to Michele's gate to await her fight which departed at 07:00 as scheduled. My flight was scheduled to depart at 11:05 which gave me a few hours to read. Thanks to the very kind generosity of Francine who stoically spent the better part of her day awaiting my arrival, Michele and I were most fortunate to have the luxury of a lift home in comfort and safety. Now, the next chapter of our new life begins. Michele will return part-time to work at her former clinic, and I will pursue some other activities of which I have long dreamed and which, God willing, I will be able to accomplish...more on that later. In the meantime, we are looking forward to a couple of short trips to Ontario and New Brunswick where we'll be able to visit some friends and family. When asked what has been the highlight of my tour, I can easily say that it was my 30 days of silence at Manresa House on the island of Gozo. Dar Manresa was an oasis for me...a still point in a turning world where peace, tranquility and the comfort of the reflective routine of community life reign in satisfying harmony. Coming in second, was the mounatin hiking at Zell Am See where Nature is manifested in such magnificent glory. It is fair to say, however, that we would return to any of the places we visited along the long way home from Malta (with the excpetion of Nice, perhaps!)...the entire trip was great and everyday Michele and I both marvelled at just how very lucky we are to have been able to do this together while we are still in relatively good health. For our long suffering readers who have followed this blog to the end, we hope that you have enjoyed it and we will, in good time update the Picasa links with captions and location tags from time to time and, if possible, I will try to create links to the other Picasa folders which were automatically created by the webmaster when I exceeded (twice) the 500 photos per album limit. As the Picasa albums currently exist, it appears that readers are only able to view the first 500 photos in the public domain...I will attempt to rectify this and will post directions here as to how you may access the other folders should they be of any interest to you.
Peace to all and Happy Trails to our fellow travellers.
Dan + Michele
p.s.
A traditional Irish blessing comes to mind:
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.
