Europe 2016 Trip Notes # 1

Europe 2016 Trip Notes # 1

Our first "24 hours" was a little stressful and tiring.

We left home a little earlier than normal since we were not sure how long the TSA process wait would take.

Bradley Terminal: There is no "TSA Pre-Approved" area until the very end of the line where business and first class passengers were allowed to go ahead of the other ticket holders! This added at least another 30-45 minutes.

Something new and interesting: TSA dogs at Bradley (LAX) were sniffing for contraband while passengers were going through security. Also, airport police were visible with machine guns.  Same thing in Paris too.  What a world we live in today!!!

On the way to the Air Tahiti Nui lounge we took a look at the new Etihad Airlines lounge. When passengers wanted to eat something, there were tables formally set up with white table clothes, fancy china and silverware as well as small ornate gold plates used for bread and butter. This lounge is a real "Wow!"

Air Tahiti Nui: Time To Relax!

Fancy Starter

Too Many Calories!

Our plane to Paris was delayed for only an hour which normally would not be a big deal except that we had a tight schedule for a connecting flight to Porto, Portugal and, we had to transfer from Charles De Gaul to Orly.

Had our Paris arrival been on tine, transferring from CDG  to Orly could have been relatively easy and at no cost to us. Transfer buses go back and forth between the airports. In this case, we had to take a taxi that cost $60.

With little time to make our Orly flight, we rushed with our luggage to the Vueling Airline counter and stood in long check-in lines concerned that we would miss our flight. The French airport security lines took a lot of time.

Putting aside the long lines, a French security agent was annoying. Jerry's back pack was emptied out and thoroughly inspected. It seemed that a half-used tube of hair gel caused the issue. Even though there was less than the allowable maximum, into the trash it went

Fortunately, the Porto flight was delayed. Still, there was another hour of waiting!

I realized at the airport, that I forgot to my lipstick when transferring things from my purse.  That is a first.  Luckily  I had some in my packed make up bag. 

By the way, Jerry likes to talk to strangers. He noticed that one of the Air Tahiti Nui passengers was getting special recognition. Jerry struck up a conversation with the passenger - asking him if he was some sort of "government official." It turns out that the passenger was an Ex-President of Tahiti. The current president was sitting next to him. Jerry and the ex-president had fun discussing "American politics," various global social issues as well as sharing some interesting antidotes about Tahiti.

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Porto Arrival

Renting cars in Europe is a lengthy process. Rather than using a computerized system, most of the information is manual inputted. Many forms have to be filled out. It may (only) take "minutes" at home. In Europe, it can take 20-30 minutes.

The rental car at the Porto airport that could handle our luggage was very expensive. We ended up with a new, (small) mid-size BMW.

When we were (finally) ready to head off to the town of Porto, we had issues with two GPS devices that were brought from home. They did not recognize where we needed to go. Subsequently, we learned that certain parts of the addresses need to be left out of the destination.

Once on the road, there were more issues as one of the devises would not immediately start and when it did, the directions were contradicted by the other device. For instances, one device said to turn "left," the other told us to "turn right." Very frustrating.  Then, when they were both giving us the same directions, there was not enough time to navigate "right" or "left" on a street. Ultimately, we got relatively close to our "Old Town" hotel which was located in a great pedestrian zone with lots of ambiance.

We unloaded all our luggage with the plan for Arlene to sit in a plaza near the Porto river while Jerry searched for a nearby parking lot. A young man working for another hotel came up to us and offered to take the luggage to our hotel. At first we declined until he told us that we were his "Porto guests" and he wanted to help.

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It took Jerry about an hour to return from the parking structure. He had a few issues!

Putting aside that it was difficult to find parking in a underground facility, he dropped the parking ticket between the car seat and console. It took some special manipulation of his fingers to reach down and to retrieve the ticket. Worst of all, he "lost" the electronic remote car key. Passerby's were asked to help. Nada! Finally, he found the key. With all of the confusion of taking out the luggage and disconnecting the GPS charging cable, the key ended up under the passenger seat. Whew!

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The boutique Porto hotel opened about a year ago. With only 15 rooms, it is perfectly located with it being near the river, a pedestrian area, restaurants and very close to many ornate churches and historical buildings . It is a great place for walking at night. 

        Bridge Behind Us Designed By Gustave Eiffel (As In Eiffel Tower

Our first dinner was actually in a restaurant next door from our hotel. 
The restaurant started about 40 years ago. The building (originally used to store wine) is about 400 years old. The food was simple, typical and quite good. The beer was delicious. The local house wine was good. Service was excellent. Best of all was the price. Two entrees, appetizers, drinks and desert (with tip) was about $40! Even in a tourist area, the inexpensive price was totally unexpected.

Open Kitchen: Staff Are All Women, Servers All Men

Close to 30 hours after we woke up at home, we "crashed" into bed at our Porto hotel!

Almost crashing!

My wife and I were sitting in Malaysian Airlines A340 jump seats. Jump seats are located behind the pilot and co-pilot. We were flying from "KL" (Kuala Lumpur) to New Delhi. The pilot's and co-pilot's backgrounds were quite interesting. The pilot was originally a flight attendant and the co-pilot was an airline mechanic. Both pilots realized that they needed to be pilots in order to make more money, have a better life style, etc.

We were about 20 minutes from "Delhi," chatting about what everyone was going to do after the landing when all hell broke out. Red lights started lighting up on the console. An electronic voice began to shout out warning messages. One of the engines shut down. A computer stopped operating. More red lights - another engine failed!

It was fascinating to see the pilots in action. They went from happy, joking individuals to (very) serious, almost robotic technicians as they went through their 3-ring binders, reading out loud what needed to be done - each one checking each other to be assured that there were no mistakes in trying to keep the plane from crashing.

The pilots called into the control tower asking for an emergency clearance to land. We had earphones on so it was easy to hear the communication going back and forth between the plane and tower. The control tower indicated that there were two runways available - one long and wide for our type of wide-body plane and a short, narrow runway for the smaller planes. The runway best suited for our type of aircraft was being repaired for another 30 minutes. We were told to fly around the airport until the runway was fixed. The pilots indicated the serious problem and chose to use the shorter runway to land the aircraft.

Rather than take the usual approach which is somewhat of a moderate angle, the pilot chose to bring the plane down as quickly as possible using a steep angle so that when the plane was at its final approach, it was flying just above the ground. As soon as the wheels were over the runway, the pilot brought the plane down onto the concrete and applied the brakes as much as possible. We skidded down the runway and came to a stop with the nose of the plane hanging over the end of the runway. Somehow, the pilot was able to turn the plane around and headed back up the runway when we saw another plane making its final approach on the same runway.

The pilot shouted out (which had to be Malaysian #&%*&#!)  and  gunned the two still working engines so that the plane was now moving forward toward the oncoming plane. At the last moment (before the planes crashed into each other), our pilot found a turn-off and we were safe from a sure disaster. The two remaining engines died the next moment.

We were towed safely to the gate. The passengers had no idea how close they were to dying.