June 11, 2011 - Last day...a very long day...

We grab breakfast at the hotel.  Mark checks with the front desk to see if we can check out late, since we don't need to leave for the airport until 1:30.  Fortunately, they are ok with us leaving that late.  We pack up our bags and then walk down by the Trevi fountain for one last glimpse and then to the pantheon.  We grab lunch again at miscellanea - the same place we ate at the first day in Rome.  Then we head back to the hotel to grab our bags for the trip to the airport.  We have to take the subway to the main terminal and then board a train that goes direct to the airport.  Mark reads about it in Rick Steves and knows how to get the tickets and even what track it'll be on and when it leaves.  We get there about 10 minutes early and board the train.  After about 5 minutes, it stops to board more people.  Then 5 minutes later stops again.  I start to get nervous since I thought it was a direct train, but didn't tell Laura yet.  Then it stops again and Laura can tell I'm worried about something.  We ask the couple next to us if this is going to the airport and they said no.  We hurriedly collect our bags and jump off the train before it starts going again.  I look at the train departure schedule and find a train back to the main terminal so we can then get on the next direct train to the airport.  I start to walk away, but then noticed that another train set to leave in a minute is headed to the airport!  So we run under the tunnel towards that gate and barely board that train in time.  We verify with two girls next us that this was headed towards the airport.  One said no and the other said yes.  Not very reassuring!  So we ask another guy who says yes.  I keep looking at each stop to verify it still shows that it's headed that way.  I'm reassured we are heading in the right direction, but have no idea how long it will take to get there.  Our direct train was to take 30 minutes, so I was worried this one, stopping every 5 minutes, might take over an hour.  After about 20 minutes, we ask a guy how long it will take and he pulls out his train timetable and says 15 minutes!  We are good to go!  After arriving at the airport, we head through security and then go to our gate.  Our plane to London boards and leaves on time.  We are to have about an hour layover before our flight back to New York where we'll stay with the Deckers again for two nights.  We are due in to New York at 10:30 pm saturday night and then leave at 6:30 on  Monday morning.  It will be short, but good to see the Deckers again and for us to get some recovery time in.  We land in London on time and about to go through security to our gate when they stop us because there was an issue with our plane and they are sending another plane, so it'll be a four hour delay! They won't let us through until we get updated boarding passes.  We are stuck with just a bathroom - no stores, restaurants, etc.  After about an hour wait, they let us through.  They tell us vouchers will be waiting for us.  We get our passes and are given 2 five pound vouchers!  Can't buy much with that!  After an extra 4.5 hour delay, we finally depart at 12:30 am.  We got upgraded seats, so we had extra leg room and wider seats.  Laura and I each start a movie on our own - we need this at home!  Then I get a hot chicken dinner, with pasta salad and dessert and a roll.  It was delicious.  Free wine bottles for both of us and we are set!  After our movies, we both sleep much easier than on our trip out - the extra leg room makes a huge difference!  We arrive at JFK at 2:30 am, fully refreshed and not tired at all.  We feel bad waking up the Deckers to let us in at such a crazy hour and we are so ready to be home, so I called Southwest Airlines to see if we could move up our flight to this coming morning instead.  They said they have a flight at 7:30 am, but it's out of Newark.  We look on Google maps and decide we can make it.  We head to Madison Square Garden to then catch the New Jersey rail to the Newark airport.  We get there around two hours early and make our flight back to KC via St. Louis airport - all told, we traveled 29 straight hours and were in 6 different airports, but were glad to back home on Sunday at noon!  Great trip but we were definitely both ready to be home!