Sunday, March 31, 2013

Toronto to Frankfurt and on to Istanbul

A 90 minute delay in boarding came with benefits. The fellow from Edmonton with whom I had been chatting for the last hour had an early boarding pass and invited me to tag along. Oh my, just hit me, that was a deja vu moment! The flight was smooth and we landed just over an hour late. With minutes to spare I made my Istanbul flight; my luggage did not.

The silver lining is that they will have to deliver it to my hotel later today. That means I can now ride the subway without having to lug those 42 pounds along the way!

Newark to Toronto

An early arrival at the airport rewarded me with an upgraded standby seat on an earlier flight to Toronto. What a cool airport. Totally modern with technology all over the place. Several of the cafes have iPads at each seat to order and surf the net while you wait. What a cool way to avoid human interaction!

Twas the end of Passover and the airport was swarming with lots of Jewish families returning home...a sea of fur felt, wide brim hats and ladies in stylish wigs...and LOTS of kids.

My seven hour layover included a lot of people watching, the movie "Beginners," (rent it. Chris Plummer and Ewan McGregor are great), and a really good dirty martini...or three. Ask for Doug at the Bacardi Rum Bar!





A night in Newark, New Jersey

United's flights to Denver and then on to Newark were great. I got a free upgrade to Economy Plus (more leg room and a free drink) in exchange for trading seats with a large family.

I booked a cheap hotel in Newark and got exactly what I asked for...will not be placing any luggage on an upholstered surface tonight! The strip club next door served a good burger. Tomorrow is a long day as I hop around on Air Canada making my way to Istanbul.