Fortunately, the first plane on the trip home didn’t leave Geneva until about lunchtime, allowing us a fairly leisurely morning to enjoy breakfast and pack. The first leg of the trip was from Geneva to London, and went off without a hitch, recognizing, of course, that Heathrow is always a bit of mess.

And even the leg from Heathrow to Chicago wasn’t too bad except for the lack of leg room in the plane, especially when the passenger in front kept his seat reclined the whole way—to which he is entitled even if a bit inconsiderate. 

And then the third leg of the trip from Chicago to Little Rock was okay except for sitting on the tarmac in Little Rock for over 30 minutes waiting for a gate to open (despite it being 10:30 PM and only a couple other planes at the airport. After picking up our luggage, we were transported to the parking lot, and arrived home about midnight.

Overall, the trip was a good one, despite my being sick for over two weeks. The Switzerland extension was definitely our favorite part of the trip. It is our opinion that Viking had slipped a bit since our last three trips on their ships; our room was not serviced as well, and the general tone of the river cruise was not as upbeat. However, the food was excellent, the excursions were great (though not as good as we had formerly experienced), and the staff friendly. It’s probably our last trip using Viking, not so much because of the aforementioned conditions, but we don’t plan to travel internationally as much as in the past. And, if we do cruise there are several much less expensive alternatives.

As of this writing we don’t have any more long trips planned this year, and will enjoy the heat and humidity of Arkansas for the remainder of the summer, and hopefully, nice fall weather for golf and pickleball.