After 29 hours and 4 countries I am Finally in Scotland!
Grab a wee dram of Scotch, put your feet up and enjoy my travel adventures.
It all began at 3:00 am as the alarm went off and rose from the bed to depart to the airport. Because my plane left at 6:30 am AND I was flying internationally I had to check in at the airport 2 hours before said departure which meant that I had to leave the house by 3:30 am to get there in time. The shop elf and I were out the door at 3:25 am and we arrived by 4:25 am and the place was busy! I got my suitcase up on the curb, kissed my sweetie good by and went inside to check my bag and the shop elf drove off into the pending sunrise.
The flight to Chicago was uneventful though the plane was full; I was able to nap midway through the 2 hour flight. After deplaning, I went to the international lounge and was able to rest there for my 4+ hour layover; I partook of the free food: coffee, breakfast sandwich, fruit, juice, and pastries. At the appointed time I headed to the gate for boarding the Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner with Polaris Business class. I chose a window seat (3L) so I could be a bit more isolated for the hop across the pond. Now I loving flying and on one trip eons ago I specifically planned a layover in Washington D.C just to get onto the new 777! The Polaris is configured without a First Class cabin, which is fine by me as the newer configurations are pretty good BUT I didn't like this mini-cabin setup as I felt claustrophobic! There is a little entryway you have to go through to get past the side "table" to get to the actual seat and under the foot platform there is a place to put a small bag and your shoes but with the sleeping pad, blanket, and pillow I found it was hard to organize where everything was. Then there are all the seat controls - recline, upright, flat; lumbar support, and leg support which are on the wall of the plane with very small markings of up/down arrows or plus/minus that I found hard to read AND there is no instruction in the magazine or in the seat pocket telling what everything was - very poor user interface if you ask me.
But once I was settled and we took off, I had a nice Scotch and warms nuts to start. Found a movie to watch and had dinner. Soon afterwards I went to sleep as I try to get my body to adjust to the destination time zone as soon as possible; I dozed for a small bit but never really slept so I read an e-book instead.
We landed in Frankfurt 5 minutes early and I headed, like everyone else, to passport control
Grab a wee dram of Scotch, put your feet up and enjoy my travel adventures.
It all began at 3:00 am as the alarm went off and rose from the bed to depart to the airport. Because my plane left at 6:30 am AND I was flying internationally I had to check in at the airport 2 hours before said departure which meant that I had to leave the house by 3:30 am to get there in time. The shop elf and I were out the door at 3:25 am and we arrived by 4:25 am and the place was busy! I got my suitcase up on the curb, kissed my sweetie good by and went inside to check my bag and the shop elf drove off into the pending sunrise.
The flight to Chicago was uneventful though the plane was full; I was able to nap midway through the 2 hour flight. After deplaning, I went to the international lounge and was able to rest there for my 4+ hour layover; I partook of the free food: coffee, breakfast sandwich, fruit, juice, and pastries. At the appointed time I headed to the gate for boarding the Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner with Polaris Business class. I chose a window seat (3L) so I could be a bit more isolated for the hop across the pond. Now I loving flying and on one trip eons ago I specifically planned a layover in Washington D.C just to get onto the new 777! The Polaris is configured without a First Class cabin, which is fine by me as the newer configurations are pretty good BUT I didn't like this mini-cabin setup as I felt claustrophobic! There is a little entryway you have to go through to get past the side "table" to get to the actual seat and under the foot platform there is a place to put a small bag and your shoes but with the sleeping pad, blanket, and pillow I found it was hard to organize where everything was. Then there are all the seat controls - recline, upright, flat; lumbar support, and leg support which are on the wall of the plane with very small markings of up/down arrows or plus/minus that I found hard to read AND there is no instruction in the magazine or in the seat pocket telling what everything was - very poor user interface if you ask me.
But once I was settled and we took off, I had a nice Scotch and warms nuts to start. Found a movie to watch and had dinner. Soon afterwards I went to sleep as I try to get my body to adjust to the destination time zone as soon as possible; I dozed for a small bit but never really slept so I read an e-book instead.
We landed in Frankfurt 5 minutes early and I headed, like everyone else, to passport control
The German passport control is very picky - despite having sent my COVID vaccine info to the airline and they said I was "travel" ready I had to show the proof to the officer and I found out, if your passport is not signed (why wouldn't you but there are people who don't; maybe for nefarious reasons??) then you can't get into the country or the EU AND you are fined upwards of 2,000 EU and NO you can not sign it then and there! Once I go the passport stamped I wound my way through the airport and went to the gate for my connection to Norway. I was officially in Germany a grand total of 55 minutes and had no qualms about leaving it. After boarding the plane to Norway I did fall asleep in my seat soon after take off and woke up in time to get some great views of the Norwegian coastline. Upon landing I had a 6 hour layover before departing to Aberdeen and unlike Germany where you went through passport control before you could go the gate, in Norway you do that just before you go to the gate so I had six hours of being in Norway and in limbo; I found the international lounge and went in so I could relax, get some more food and COFFEE, and even take another nap as I felt loopy; to be safe I set an alarm to make sure I did not miss the flight. At the appointed time I headed off to the gate, went through passport control and boarded the flight to Aberdeen technically arriving 15 minutes after we left due to flying into another time zone. Once in Scotland, I retrieved my bags, went through passport control and found my driver for the 45 minute drive into the countryside to be deposited at the doorstep of Mike and Elisa.
After alight meal of mushroom barley soup and a sandwich, I was asleep by 9:30 pm.
After alight meal of mushroom barley soup and a sandwich, I was asleep by 9:30 pm.
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