The flight was due to leave Denver at 4:50 p.m. on Thursday.
On the day before, Wednesday, at 4:50, we learned by accident that our flight had been rescheduled and we'd be leaving on Thursday morning at 10.
Procrastination is not a good strategy for those who are preparing to travel.
A quick trip to the pharmacy to complete errands we'd planned to accomplish on Thursday morning. Discovered a prescription called for a medicine that didn't exist. Emergency call to physician. Gentle, reassuring, patient and persistent pharmacists who worked overtime to take care of things. Prescription filled. I could proceed.
Back at home to finish packing. And a short night's sleep.
And we were off.
Going to Poland is always emotionally fraught for me. So many memories, so much expectation, so many disappointments, heartbreak, exhilaration.
But this time Dave was coming along. And what a joy that was.
We hurried up and waited. Discovered that TSA missed some forgotten liquids in our carry-on luggage.
Flew off into the clouds and through the night, watched three movies to stifle the nerves, a long lay-over at Heathrow, excellent French Onion Soup in terminal three, and then...
do Warsawaw, to Warsaw.
A city bus to our Five-Star Hotel and a gracious, elegant Old World welcome.
Arrival. Settle in. Go exploring. Settle nerves. Gawk with amazement.
Warsaw. A city of utter devastation in 1945. Nothing, nothing but rubble. And now, here we are, living again on the rubble of the past and finding a thriving, forward-leaning city.
Warsaw is not just its past anymore. It is its future. And that is all around! Especially in the university students that are our neighbors.
Poland is not built on rubble anymore. It is built on dreams.
