We are checked out of the apartment before 9 and on the road to Warsaw. It is a dreary, rainy, ugly day - and poor Ed has to navigate not only the bizarre traffic on our 4 hour drive to Warsaw - but also the raindrops. Not unexpected, but not pretty.
We manage to get out of Cracow with only 5 or 10 minutes of traffic, and finally make our way onto the "highway" to Warsaw. Along the way we pass yet another student driving car.
This has been hysterical - every day around the apartment we have seen more driving lesson cars than we've ever seen in our lives. There must have been 5 or 10 a day - including a truck! They all have big "L" signs affixed to the vehicles so you know to stay away from them, we suppose. But how odd to see so many in such a short period of time.
The drive continues, and we make it to the outskirts of Warsaw, through the bizarre looking trees - maybe apple trees? Or cherry trees? They look sort of like deformed grape vines actually - that we passed on the way down. We're totally unsure as to what they are - but they are in abundance.
We finally hit the exurbs and get stopped in about a 20 minute traffic jam outside the airport. We've got all the time in the world - its just a little frustrating sitting in traffic, waiting for the lights to change - because that’s all it really is - too many cars and not enough pavement.
Finally to the airport - the signage is a little sketchy on rental car returns. The arrows point us to the garage, but when we go to the floor (4b) where Budget is supposed to be located, we can't find them. We finally park the car, and I go in search of the drop off counter - which is in the terminal, a good 5 minute walk away (and that's me walking fast - it's more like 10 minutes normal). I get the right location (4k - somebody needs to change their signs), we dump the car and troop back to the desk. Phew. Done.
Now we have hours to wait for even check in - oh well. That's what the café with free wifi upstairs (yes dragging our luggage up the stairs) from the check in counter is for. One beer and wine later - we're in the check in line, then through security and waiting at the gate for our late flight to Heathrow and our weekend with Natalie and Roger. Exciting.
The flight goes off without a hitch, we have drinks and a snack, and about 3 hours later we are being greeted at the airport by our friends. We are about an hour from Reading, so we spend the time chatting and catching up on our latest travels. Natalie and Roger have just returned from 2 1/2 weeks touring the US National parks with Natalie's mom so we have lots of notes to compare. Along the way we get narration and history from Roger on our surroundings and then we are arriving at the hotel. After checking in - we walk across the street for a quick drink - kitchen is closing so no food - not that we're all that hungry. Then we hit the little convenience store at the gas station next door and pick up beer and wine (which is relatively inexpensive for Britain!). We retire to our room, to relax and prepare for our first day of Palace touring.
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