Today is the day I fly to Greece to begin an 11 day pilgrimage, “In the Footsteps of Saint Paul.” St. Paul was the founder of the modern church; and the priest, Fr. Zack, who brought me into the church was the organizer. I had booked it the week it was announced. And the day has arrived!

I dropped Brendon off at the pet sitter’s house. Monica is very good with dogs and she has one of her own now and another that she often cares for. Brendon gets along with other dogs well and so far, Monica reports all is well.

I drove to the Tampa airport. I had paid for parking, so I entered the garage and was lucky to find an empty spot across from the elevators. I will be returning during the day time, but I am glad I am close to the elevators.

I have never been to the Tampa airport before, so I had to ask for help getting to the ticketing gate so I could drop off my luggage. They weren’t open yet, but I didn’t have to wait long. And there was no one else in the Business Class line. . . The economy line was full! :-) Once I got checked in and walked around to find my gate, I then went to a restaurant to get something to eat. I was early, but I don’t like being late and before long, other “pilgrims” arrived. We eventually boarded and before long we were in the air. 

The first leg of our journey took us to the Frankfurt, Germany, airport, which is a nightmare to navigate for first timers. Coupled with that was they didn’t have the correct flight information for our second flight until closer to our flight time. But due to incorrect information posted, I walked from one concourse to another before it was changed once again. I figure I walked (fast) prolly five miles. It was brutal because I was totally stressed at not being able to find where to go. I finally found a kind employee and I explained to her what the problem was and she tried, but couldn’t get more info. But she said that the info they have on their app is the current information which meant I needed to backtrack to the other concourse once again. She went with me to make sure I got there and when I arrived I did find a couple people in our group. I stayed there and eventually more showed up just to have our gate changed once again. But that gate was just four gates away and it did work this time. We got aboard our plane and were off to Thessaloniki, Greece, before long. We arrived and were greeted by a representative of our tour agency and our guide for the trip. We took a tour by bus of the city and learned some history before getting to our hotel for check in and dinner. Good night all...

Till next time . .

Dale