Planes, Trains, and a Land Rover

Well, I decided to wait for everything to get sorted before posting again. Here's a (probably not) quick rundown:

• Sunday we got stranded in Brussels; the airline, which shall remain nameless <cough, the city's namesake> very efficiently booked us a nice hotel which included dinner and breakfast, booked us on the first flight out the next morning, and - according to them - transferred our luggage to that flight.
• Got our flight Monday morning from Brussels to Manchester, England, no problem, except for minimal sleep and flight delays, again. The airport does, however, have a sense of humor:

• After making it through Border Control (for the umpteenth time) we found our luggage claim carousel, only to discover that our two suitcases were NOT transferred to our new flight. After filling out the form for Global Baggage Services and providing them with our luggage tag numbers, it was determined that our luggage was sitting in Unclaimed Luggage back in Brussels. They said our bags would be flown to Manchester on the next flight and then couriered to us in York where we are staying for a few days, possibly that same evening or the next day at the latest. We figured, not too bad, and it saved us lugging the bigger suitcases on the train to York. Even better because the next three trains were delayed, then cancelled. Finally, we got a train to the next station and transferred to a different train to York. Simon was there waiting to bring us home in his Land Rover. 😊 (Yes, the same Simon who visited us a couple of months ago.) 
• We had a chance to go visit more of the family (whom we had not  seen since our last visit to York, more years ago than we can remember). Simon's daughter, Charlotte (front row, long hair, black dress, beautiful), popped in after work (she's a French teacher in a middle school). We also finally got to meet Samantha's (between Brian and me) and Stu's (he's on the other side of Brian) twin daughters Hattie (with the glasses) and Poppy (all the way to the right). They are 12 now and quite remarkable young ladies! That's Simon at the back right. Here's a picture of us all and another to show the beautiful weather we're having:

• Simon's son Sam, whom we had not seen since he was a young lad and who is now 25, returned home later with his significant other, a lovely young lady named Meg. Sam's passion is what I think of as extreme sports (spelunking and rock climbing) and he has found a way to make it his vocation. Meg is also in education on the Teaching & Learning side of the house so we had a wonderful conversation! Mike and Joyce, the original friends and Simon's in-laws, stopped in for a visit as well. (Mike and Brian met in "Square Bashing", the English equivalent to our Boot Camp, when they  did their National Service in the RAF. They were 18 which means they've been friends for over 60 years!!!) Mike and Joyce are coming to collect us Thursday morning for a quick visit to their house, back Saturday to leave for the next leg of our journey.
• Later that night (still Monday) we received an email from the Global Baggage company (remember them?), recapping the details we had given them and getting almost every detail wrong! 😮 It was too late to call them so that was our project for the next morning.

To be continued...