Wayfaring Day 59 Going Home

August 28, 2025 Thursday

They say home is where the heart is and I guess that will have to do since we no longer have house that we can call home.

Today we fly back ¨home¨. We will fly United to Washington, Dulles and connect to another United flight back to near where our son and his wife live with our amazing grandson. The train ride to CDG was a little crowded at first but became less so as we went. Once again we boarded an RER train that was direct to our destination. The RER B stops at Saint-Michel and takes you to the train station that allows you to connect to the Airport train. Everyone at the the international terminal was helpful and pleasant but it seemed like we went through a lot of checkpoints. The international terminal is very nice and possibly one of the better ones in the world. The waiting area near the gates was very comfortable and we had plenty of time to lounge, eat some lunch and prepare for our flight.

The flight was smooth and we were able to sleep a little. We arrived at Dulles on time and made our way through what has to be the poorest international arrival experience of any major city. Maybe the reason Dulles is such a dump is that they are building a new international terminal and therefore not spending any money on the present facility. Things here were more unorganized and less friendly than anywhere else we had traveled. Welcome to the US of A I guess. The final flight of the journey was much shorter but we slept for almost the entire flight. Our son picked us up at the airport and our European adventure came to an end.

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So here is a little recap concerning the numbers. And the numbers are not in keeping with our philosophy. But don´t judge too harshly as this trip had been over a year in the planning.

Hopefully you will not judge too severely as you make judgements as to our mentality, our lack of doing this or that, our doing this or that, our poor decisions, our inexperience or even our emotional condition. Are we happy. Are we smart. Are we careless. Are we crass. The point is that it shouldn´t make a difference. We are probably some of what you think we are while also some of what you think we are not.

The planning and the money:

The tour with the team $7264 for August 13 - 21. [$807 per day (ouch)]

Additional Expenses:

Airfare total $2050

Apartment in Paris $1470

Food for entire trip $1200

Rail Travel $489

Paris Metro/Rail/Bus $105

Ubers $125

Funicular $34

Various items and souvenirs $200

Tickets for attractions total $830

Eiffel Tower $141

Versailles $94

Arc de Triomphe $52

Osay Museum $57

Seine Cruise $40

Saint-Chapelle $54

The Louvre $66

Disney $325

Grand Total $13,767 ($860 per day)

Total Minus the Tour Operator amount $6503

No matter how you look at it, this was a far more extravagant vacation than we normally take. If you somehow consider the pre-paid tour amount of $7264 as previously saved money then you could say the cost per day incurred during the trip was about $406 per day.

Either way it doesn´t make us feel any better about the financial side of this vacation.

You may have concluded that we are not very good at this ¨wayfaring¨ thing. At this point I can give no argument other than that this trip was planned far before we began the experiment. Live and Learn and get smarter.