Saturday, April 02, 2005

Adventures in Flying

My motto needs to be “Take it slow. Speed seldom works in air travel!” When we got off the plane in Copenhagen we decided to find the business class lounge. Well one wrong turn took us to passport control, through some doors, and we were greeted to “Welcome to Denmark.” After a long wait through security to leave the airport, we found out how to reenter the airport, via you guessed it another long security check, and we made it to the lounge with a little time for Gayle to try and shake her air-sickness.

When we arrived in Paris Charles de Gaulle we did it again. We were following another business traveler and whooshed through some doors and we were outside the formal airport. Opps, we can’t get our bags, they were back via the whooshing one way doors. A few smiles and superb French by Gayle to a customs agent got us back in.

At last, safe and secure in the Shuttle Bee van with door-to-door service. Unfortunately our driver a recent immigrant from outer Mongolia or at least a no Paris resident didn’t know where 2 of the 3 couples hotel locations were. Didn’t he know that we are part of the Amazing Race to win a million bucks?

Today was our first adventure day. Short walks brought us to a famous falafel stand in the Marais (Jewish Quarters), a wonderful jazz concert, jugglers, hand organist, and refreshing breaks near the Seine and around the Notre Dame cathedral. We even ran into a Carnival of Venice, with grand ladies and men, walking about through the crowds. See my picture files below with a few samples.

Everyone was very helpful and the bread store satisfied out T-buds with excellent croissants, crusty baguettes, and later a fine $11 Bordeaux wine. Gayle even gave me dressing lessons on how to hang my coat from the hook over my shoulder. This appears to be how it’s done. By the way, men and women in jeans, especially the 30 and under set is the norm. We have included links to some collage of pictures of our first day. Enjoy, we sure did!

Picture Set1
Picture Set2

posted by Bob and Gayle @ 7:32 PM 5 comments

Spending Time In the Lounge

He Said: Is the grass always greener on the other side of the hill? Well concerning the SAS lounge that might be a real possibility. Good wine and cheese and quit but otherwise an Ikea type of place. The chairs are a bit weird as they look like airplane chairs ala Ikea.

I admit sometimes it’s a bit disconcerting to sit next to someone mumbling in broken French, or what sounds of broken French to a non speaker. Why did I get Gayle that MP3 player? Scratch that, more irritating is having that same person looking over your shoulder and making disparaging remarks and then back to nonsense mumbling. On the positive side, she did feed me cheese bits while she pointed out my typos.

She said: He’ll be tres, tres heurer (very, very happy) that he gave me that MP3 player when he needs to get some information at the train station or, when he’s about to order a “menu” that includes fruits de mer (sea food)! As you can see, we’re off to a compatible start! [Future Note: Gayle's language training has already paid off in Paris!]

posted by Bob and Gayle @ 8:48 AM 0 comments

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Anchors Away!!!

Believe it or not, we have officially begun our journey! We're on the Bainbridge Ferry enroute to Seattle after a delicious lunch with our "adopted" parents, Arnold & Shirley. They were sweet enough to drive us to the ferry so we could finally depart! If we could record the sounds here it's alot like Kids Express! It seems that half of the elementary kids on Bainbridge are on this Ferry. Time to logoff and mosey on!

posted by Bob and Gayle @ 11:24 PM 0 comments


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