17 May 21

The alarm went off at 02:40, and I was out the door of the hotel at 03:00 for a short taxi ride to Lisbon International Aeropuerto. The flight to Amsterdam took off on schedule at 05:00 local time (UTC+1) and landed at Schiphol at 08:40 (UTC+2). I had a very quick run through the airport, with a quick stop in Duty Free to stock up on Dutch cheeses, and boarded the KLM flight to Houston at 09:15. We departed Schiphol on schedule at 09:55 and landed in Houston on time at 13:10 CDT (UTC-5), where Terri met me.  There were not 30 people (half of them in Business class) on the flight, which was a Boeing 787, capable of seating about 300. Everyone in Economy had a complete row to themselves if they wanted it. I stretched out across 3 seats and watched 4 or 5 movies; most memorable of these was “Ammonite”, in which Kate Blanchet and Saoirse Ronan shared a pretty torrid, explicit couple of lesbian sex scenes; quite entertaining. I just lazed around the rest of the afternoon and, after dinner, went to bed about 20:30.