Yesterday afternoon I played my final opera performance as a tenured member of Opera San José.
Thanks to Bill Everett for this From The Pit photo!
After the concert I was honored at a reception, and then it was off to Il Fornaio where we had dinner. (MANY thanks to Pam Hakl for arranging this!)
Today we board a plane and fly overseas. What a time!
This morning I paid a hefty fee to our accountant, for his tax prep. I changed the bed sheets, washed all the towels, cleaned the toilets, straightened things up around the house, took the recycling and compost out, showered … all the stuff one must do before a trip, of course. Dan did a lot as well. Still, we were ready ahead of schedule.
My sister drove us to SFO … thank you, Carolyn! It took a few minutes to check our luggage (more on that later), and NO time at all to go through security. We are now comfortably seated in the Polaris lounge.
After our champagne we had a somewhat light meal, and now we are sitting back in some comfy chairs, waiting for boarding time.
We headed to the airport on the early side. Okay, the too early side! But since we thought we might hit traffic we had opted for our departure time. So be it.
We checked luggage, rapidly went through security, and headed to the Polaris lounge where we made our dinner reservations. It took a while to get in, but eventually we got there. Dinner was … well … it was fine, but nothing to rave about. The portions are pretty tiny, which was fine since we knew our flight would also have a meal. From there we went back to some seats and sat. And sat. And sat. (Below is Dan, being a good boy with his alcohol free beer. And yeah, that’s my wine.)
We haven’t flown Lufthansa for a long haul flight in eons, and back when we did it certainly wasn’t in business class. So here we are, lay flat seats, fancy devices (there’s a tablet you can pull out of it’s holder plus a usual monitor in front of you), a blanket, pillow, and even a mattress pad. (And it has now occurred to me that on United you are putting your head down on a seat where so many others have slept and I wonder how carefully they clean things.) Oh … and important news … we can heat our seats. Go figure.
Prior to take-off I noticed we had a plane camera, so I did take some videos. I love it!
Dan was served dinner before I was. It took them quite a while to get to me, in fact. I guess they like him more. Understandable! I opted for a green and white asparagus appetizer, which came with a small salad and a dinner roll. Since we’d had drinks at the lounge and one small drink after boarding it was sparkling water for me.
Then it was sleep time. It was a restless legs sleep, but eventually I managed to doze off. Upon waking I saw that Dan was already upright and reading. Event it was “breakfast” time (despite the fact that it was dinner time in the country we were flying over and soon to land in. I figured an omelette could be for any meal, so I opted for that, although I really couldn’t finish it. These flights usually feed us more than I can handle, and having a lounge before and after a flight means we could eat even more.
After a bit under 11 hours we landed
… hello Munich! Or, really, hello Munich airport because that’s as much as we would see.
Then we had to head to another gate, which required a shuttle ride. A woman who had been on our first flight chatted with us a bit. Turns out she is from Los Gatos and she and Dan have a friend in common. Gotta love our small world.
From the shuttle we verified our next gate, and then went to spend an hour in the Senator’s Lounge. For this year — and possibly only this year! — we are Star Alliance Gold members which gets us into these lovely, quiet spots. Food is available, but having eaten so much I opted for a cappuccino (yes, I know the Italians would shake their heads if they saw me do that in the early evening!) and water (planes really cause dehydration).
Finally, back to a gate we went. This time for just a short hop, really. Stay tuned for the final destination!
(I’m quickly posting this, despite not having time to really make sure things are done properly: we have about 15 minutes so it’s either now or when we get to our hotel, and I’d rather it be now!)
We had a ton of time to get our breakfast downstairs and come back and pack. Nothing exciting there. Then we decided to opt for a car rather than deal with our luggage, get to the Penn Station, and get a train to the airport. Maybe it was wimping out, but at the end of a trip I’m just not up for any stress and lugging these wheeled cases around is a nuisance. I look forward to using our packs next time if at all possible!
The start of security was a breeze: no ID necessary, but simply a scan of our faces. Then it was time to put our luggage, bags, and coats in the trays. But there was all of one line for that, so all lines (1K, Premier, TSA Pre, and the rest of the travelers who have none of those) merged into one. It’s just not a busy enough day, I guess, for them to bother to have more of the conveyer belts running. Since we were so early for our 4:30 flight it wasn’t a problem. I was just surprised by that one line.
As usual, we had a lot (too much?) time for the lounge. I’m absolutely fine with that, though, since I stress out if I’m not early. (Will I ever learn to relax about getting to airports? I doubt it!) I had the vegetarian chili for lunch, and I have to say it was actually very good. (Some people suggest skipping food on the plane entirely and just filling up on lounge food, due to the questionable quality of some plane food. I can understand why, but eating on the plane makes things go faster so I still go for it.)
The lounge was fairly quiet, unlike any other time I’ve been here. Finding seats was no problem at all, and it was nice and quiet.
It is now 30 minutes to boarding so I will close this out and post it. (The lounge has since filled up, and it’s not as quiet any longer. People are walking all around to find a seat. I guess I can be glad we got here when we did.)
When we get back home I’ll write (most likely something very short) about the rest of the journey and then I’ll also be blogging about things I want to do differently (probably tomorrow). In truth I think this all went very well, but there is always the “Why did I bring that?!” and the “Next time remember to bring this!” stuff.
Waking very early at our hotel, we opted to give the “free breakfast” a go. Um. Maybe not. But the place was so inexpensive I won’t complain. Then it was free shuttle time and we arrived at the airport nice and early — an hour earlier than we had planned, in fact (and even that original plan would have gotten us here mega-early!). I’m always an early bird, but this was even odd for me. Not a problem for a person who always worries about time!
We checked our bags (and the woman at the desk was really sweet and quite funny) — pretty much no line — and then headed to security. Again, barely a line. Nice!
Next up was the Polaris lounge.
And their sweet little restaurant area. Even at the early hour I was hoping for lunch, as I want to move my brain to the time we will encounter after the flight, but nope, only breakfast served. Such is life. I did, though, have champagne to celebrate our trip and my “big day” tomorrow. (Yes, another birthday poem will be posted … I’ve already set it up for my other site, the pattyo.)
And more sitting. And relaxing.
And getting locked out of Venmo. ACK!
Yes. Locked out. Turns out I did too much too quickly and they deemed it suspicious and decided to suspend my account until I share my photo ID and change my password. Then it takes up to seven days to get me back in. How annoying is that?
But still, that’s not a huge issue, since I won’t use it in Europe anyway. But I had one more payment to make and now I am unable to do it. Rats!
Soon we’ll head out to fill our water bottles (I’m determined to not use the plastic water bottles in the airplane — or elsewhere for that matter) and search out a few things (if available at a reasonable price).
Stay tuned for more … but I can’t be sure it will be today. Only time will tell.
After my dear sister (thanks, Carolyn!) drove us to the airport we went to check our luggage. There was no wait at all. It it so odd at this point to say goodbye to luggage, since I’m so used to carryon only. I think the rule about trekking poles is dumb, and I am betting we could have gotten through with them, but were we willing to take that chance? No way!
We got through security in what felt like seconds, so that, too was a breeze. There is barely anyone here!
Then it was time for the Polaris Lounge. (Yes. We are doing the Polaris lay-flat seats on the plane, which means we get in to the Polaris Lounge. We are spoiled. I’m okay with that.) We headed to the dining room and had a lovely, small meal. It was just delightful. And quiet. Very, very quiet.
Small bites first, and then our main. I promise you we won’t complain! (Yes, that’s my poem for today.)
Now we are sitting in the lounge, having coffee and dessert. Oh what a rough life. You might weep a bit for us.
Or not.
Next up … Frankfurt. We have close to a 7 hour layover before we have a 2 hour flight to Glasgow.
I like to get to airports plenty early, so now I sit and relax. It’s only 5:21, and I’ve already had some breakfast: this is normally something I don’t have until after my walk, so my body will probably say, “WHAT are you doing?!” But hey, I’m in the United Club lounge and what could I do but grab some eggs and a cappuccino, right?
It’s very quiet here. A 7:00 AM flight is great if you want a less busy airport. In addition, it appears we don’t have a full plane, although business class and the extra legroom seats (the latter of which I chose to pay for) are full. In economy nearly every middle seat is empty at this point (I was just looking at the seating chart — something I do for every trip. I can get obsessive about checking, in fact.) and part of me wonders if I should have just stuck to economy for this, but too late now. Once you pay to move up, you can’t ask for a refund and move down!
I will probably head to the gate on the early side, so I’m not in a huge line for boarding group 2. I am hoping my luggage can be right above me, and frequently people grab the bins that are closer to the front. I’m in the second row of extra legroom seats. Sadly the middle seat, but it’s all that was left, aside from the front, emergency exit row. I’m no longer allowed to sit there according to the rules, due to my deaf ear. Ah well!
So anyway … “see” you in New York! (Well, New Jersey first, but I doubt I’ll take any photos there.)
