Back to the land of wrinkled shirts.

…and leather pants.   Although I don’t own any leather pants,  but they’d probably be wrinkled too.

I can’t say I’m really recovered enough to think clearly, and considering what I had to work with before the jet lag, that’s not saying much.

I’m not sure what it is about sitting in a metal tube hurtling through the air at 1000 kph that makes a person feel like they’ve been hollowed out inside with a dull hoe,  but thankfully it will go away in a day or two.  Well, hopefully.

I actually started writing this yesterday,  and then just suddenly lost interest.  There was so little synaptic activity in my brain,  that I was operating in some sort of “default” mode, with barely any extra functioning ability for much else.  Kind of like when your computer is trying to run too many programs.  Everything just slows right down.  Well,  maybe I should only refer to “my” computer.

 

I did manage to jump in the car and run to a gas station for some fresh milk for the morning’s coffee without incident,  unless of course you count trying to pay for it with two Loonies that got slipped in with my Euro change.  They kind of look like Euro fifty cent pieces, but even that’s not much of an excuse.  I suppose I could have taken the time to fuel up the car and get it washed,  but the force was lacking in this one.

 

The car I ordered to take us to the airport New Year’s Eve showed up.  That was good.  He was a bit early actually,  so that was even better.

 

There comes a point in time when the luggage is by the door and I’m “ready”,  that I just want to get it over with,  so we were out of there by about 3:15 p.m. or so. 

We had no issues either on the way or at the airport, even though there was a huge throng of people waiting to check in.   It looks a bit overwhelming, but we weren’t worried.

If I show you the next couple pictures,  you’ll quickly figure out why that huge crowd wasn’t a problem for us.

 

Yes,  those are my feet, and below are the controls to my seat.  Did you figure it out?

Remember a while back I said how there were a couple different ways to get into First Class?   You can pay the big bucks up front to guarantee your spots,  or hope to get an upgrade at some point after you’ve booked if there are spots available,  or there’s also the chance that First Class is so under booked that there might be some sort of incentive.  Well OK,  I suppose there is a fourth way,  and that is when you get “bumped” to First Class, but we won’t talk about that.  It’s still a bit of a sore spot with T.C.   Old story.  Never mind.

 

When Travelling Companion emerged from having printed off our Boarding Passes,  she relayed the news that KLM had had a “deal” and we were now going back in First Class!  

“Awesome.”  That’s all I said.

 

It was something like under €300 a piece.  Trust me,  that’s a deal.

It also meant we got to hang out in the First Class lounge after we got to Pearson, (Toronto International Airport)  which was a good thing,  as I was by then getting a tad peckish.   The second leg from Amsterdam to Vienna wasn’t First Class,  but on the smaller aircraft,  that only means that the wait staff flight attendants hand you a newspaper and close off a curtain behind you after you’re in the air.  There’s very little extra space involved.  It’s an hour and a half flight.  We were all the way back in row five.  Big deal.

I took a picture of the aptly named “City Hopper” that we took to Vienna.  It was a balmy 9°C in Amsterdam, but raining like crazy.

If you desperately need to know, it’s an Embraer J-190, which is now rebadged as the E-190.  Whatever.

 

As much as it’s an enjoyable experience to fly First Class with KLM, (we were “upstairs” in a 747-400) I still have to give kudos to Air Austria in the food department.  It’s better and there’s more of it.  Yes yes,  I’ll admit it,  we’ve flown First Class with Air Austria too.  Now you know all our secrets.

 

Below, some sort of salmon pâté and salad.

The appetizers got a passing grade (even though you can get free beer back in steerage) but the main course that I selected was pretty dismal.

 

Some sort of “pan fried” chicken.  They called it “chicken breast”,  but it looked more like something I’d use for soup stock. 

Meh,  I was getting pretty full by then anyway.  

 

Just the same,  I thought I’d have a taste of desert.  Well, it was only a taste.

 

I chose the tiramisu, and it was good,  but I was hard pressed to divvy it up into more than one mouthful.  Again, with Air Austria,  they bring a whole freakin’ cart load of deserts by and you can chose as much as you’d like.  Not that I’d over indulge or anything.  Who me?

 

Anyhoodle,  we’re back.  There were some second thoughts about our choice of transportation to get back into the city though,  since I had prebooked “Airport Driver.at”   It was all fine and dandy when the old terminal was being used,  but they keep their cars in their old location,  so there was a considerable amount of walking involved to get there.   You have to leave terminal three and go back through terminal two.   No moving sidewalks either.

I thought we were just going to walk all the way back to Vienna.

There was no way I was going to keep up with our goofy driver,  since T.C. couldn’t go that fast.  I just let him go on ahead.  We could have taken the train and the subway and the amount of walking would have been about the same,  AND I wouldn’t have had to give detailed instructions as to how to get us to our door.  Multiple times.  I think he was “fresh off the boat” or something.   Actually,  over here I suppose it would be “fresh off the bus”,  since most of the cab drivers seem to come from parts East.  He was pleasant,  but a bit of a dummy.

 

Pretty soon we’ll be starting yet another count down.  It’ll be time to spill some beans I’m thinking.

 

Meanwhile,  keep it between the ditches and thanks for stopping by.

 

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