European Hopscotch

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A bright and sunny Canada Day Monday greeted us in Neiderstotzingen. Since we were fully prepared for departure, and there was no one in the house (Miriam's family had all gotten up early to go and start up Tesro for the day, as they always do), we pretty much immediately headed off. We swung by the Tesro facility for a final good-bye, and then continued on in the direction of Munich.

Work-day at Tesro

Parting family shot

Our activities at the airport went without any major difficulties, although I did have one final irritating exchange with our rental car company, Dollar/Buchbinder (you may remember that they did a bait-and-switch with both the car and the price on us):

Upon returning our rental Volkswagen to the return garage, I asked for a receipt with the final price - which I was not provided with. I therefore went to the Dollar/Buchbinder counter, and after waiting a fairly long period of time, was met with an agent who informed me that it was not possible to obtain a final receipt, since I had picked up the car in one location and was dropping it off in another. I explained that we had just finished doing exactly this sort of thing with competitor rental company Sixt not more than two weeks before and had had no problem obtaining a receipt. At that, the agent made a phone call to the Stuttgart airport, where I had picked up the car. After a discussion with the person on the other end, the agent informed me that they would have to fax!? the receipt, which would take up to an hour. A fax - in this day and age of digital information? Unfortunately, our flight did not permit me to wait for an hour, so the agent promised to send a copy of the receipt to me via e-mail.

As of the time of writing this trip report (nearly two months after this exchange took place), I still have not received the receipt. Meanwhile, a second receipt from my first rental with Sixt arrived in the mail - and without even having had to request it!).

Gee, I wonder what car rental company I'll never be using again? Sixt +1, Dollar/Buchbinder -1000.

Paired take-off

The combination of a daytime flight and an advantageous time-zone shift made the flight back to Canada a reasonably enjoyable affair. We described a northerly track that took us over Greenland, where I spent a fair amount of time doing my usual window-peeping. Modern jet travel is a wonderful and exciting thing that perhaps too many of us take for granted!

Status green

Eastern Greenland

Nunatak

Meltwater

Western edge of Ice Sheet

Loosening pack ice

Northern QC wildfire

My first 787 shot

We arrived back in Ottawa in the evening - a bit too late to take advantage of any of the big Canada Day celebrations downtown.

You've reached the end of the report. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Asmir and Miriam for inviting us on this trip; for arranging the fantastic 4-day visit to Istanbul, and - last but not least - to Miriam and Miriam's parents, for so generously providing us with the use of their flat in Switzerland. We thoroughly enjoyed the visit.

Good-bye to all of you, readers, and thanks for sticking it out to the end. Until next time!....

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