Sunday, June 25, 3:15AM
The journey begins.
Kelsey and Brandon “drove” us down to JFK and saw us off on Friday evening. Actually, I drove, and Brandon drove back, but it was a heck of a lot better than doing the “Train to the Plane”, hiring a limo, or using the long-term parking.
We were able to get a light dinner before boarding our flight to Paris, which promptly left the terminal at 9:35PM (or so). We taxied out on the tarmack and then, after a short while, the Captain came on. He said the control board showed an indicator light. There was a cabin pressure fault and we would not be able to take-off until it was gone.
They did a quick reset but that didn’t work. Technicians next did an engine restart and that did the trick. Finally we were able to leave, about an hour late.
Most of the flight was a blur, as Pat and I attempted to sleep as much as we could, this being an overnight flight. Somewhere in the middle of the flight, Pat woke me up. She had gotten sick and could not locate the “magic bag” quickly enough. I helped her clean up and then we both went back to sleep. We awoke somewhere over Europe.
In Paris, our delay caused us to miss our connection, but Air France kindly rebooked us on a later flight. This was a godsend as it turned out 2 hour max stopover into a 3 hour stay, allowing us to have a light meal, and rest before our final leg. Our flight from Paris to Bologna was beautiful, going over the Swiss Alps.
In Bologna, we grabbed their Aerobus (E5.00) to Bologna Centre. From there we looked for our hotel. Okay, here’s where my little mistake comes in. I had booked the place through emails, and the place was one of the Golden Group hotel chain. This is sort of like Thistle Hotels in London; lots of older places that have recently been refurbished.
The email address had the word “university” in it so I thought we were booked into the Hotel University. We weren’t. We were booked into the Hotel Holiday, which fortunately was just around the corner.
Our room is small, and air-conditioned, but has a spacious bathroom; go figure. By 8:30PM we were both exhausted and decided to go to sleep.
Kelsey and Brandon “drove” us down to JFK and saw us off on Friday evening. Actually, I drove, and Brandon drove back, but it was a heck of a lot better than doing the “Train to the Plane”, hiring a limo, or using the long-term parking.
We were able to get a light dinner before boarding our flight to Paris, which promptly left the terminal at 9:35PM (or so). We taxied out on the tarmack and then, after a short while, the Captain came on. He said the control board showed an indicator light. There was a cabin pressure fault and we would not be able to take-off until it was gone.
They did a quick reset but that didn’t work. Technicians next did an engine restart and that did the trick. Finally we were able to leave, about an hour late.
Most of the flight was a blur, as Pat and I attempted to sleep as much as we could, this being an overnight flight. Somewhere in the middle of the flight, Pat woke me up. She had gotten sick and could not locate the “magic bag” quickly enough. I helped her clean up and then we both went back to sleep. We awoke somewhere over Europe.
In Paris, our delay caused us to miss our connection, but Air France kindly rebooked us on a later flight. This was a godsend as it turned out 2 hour max stopover into a 3 hour stay, allowing us to have a light meal, and rest before our final leg. Our flight from Paris to Bologna was beautiful, going over the Swiss Alps.
In Bologna, we grabbed their Aerobus (E5.00) to Bologna Centre. From there we looked for our hotel. Okay, here’s where my little mistake comes in. I had booked the place through emails, and the place was one of the Golden Group hotel chain. This is sort of like Thistle Hotels in London; lots of older places that have recently been refurbished.
The email address had the word “university” in it so I thought we were booked into the Hotel University. We weren’t. We were booked into the Hotel Holiday, which fortunately was just around the corner.
Our room is small, and air-conditioned, but has a spacious bathroom; go figure. By 8:30PM we were both exhausted and decided to go to sleep.
posted by William Joel | 2:32 AM
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